Singapore: Camden Medical Centre, #06-05, One Orchard Boulevard | T: +(65) 6835 9571/9647
Malaysia: Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Suite B241, 8 Jalan Bukit Pantai, Kuala Lumpur | T: +(60) 12 345 3168
Matthew first started motor crossing at the very early age of just five. His mum said
that on his fifth birthday she took him to the dirt park and as soon as he sat on the bike he knew that’s what he wanted to do and has ridden motorbikes ever since.
The 13-year old has won 80 trophies and at least 50 medals from his motocross racing which brought him to compete in Malaysia, Canada and Dubai. He is the youngest competitor in Singapore to qualify for the expert field. Matthew has many motocross achievements including coming 1st in the 50, 65, and85cc group races.
In fact, the young racer is off to Canada for the summer break and will be there five weeks to train for motocross. He also has a new bike there waiting for him once he gets there.
Matthew currently has four motorbikes and his sponsors include Oakley, Rex and
KTM.
We wish Matthew the best in his ultimate goal to become a professional rider!
Celina Gratton
What is generosity? Generosity is giving without coercion. It can also be defined as the liberality of giving and the willingness to give. When you get to know 14 years old Celina Gratton, you will think of generosity as well. How is that analogy justified?
Ever since Celina was young, she has always been concerned about the environment and helping others. Her passion further blossomed over an episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show she was watching with her sister one day. During the show, Hilary Swank, a well-known Hollywood actress (starred in the Next Karate Kid and The Reaping) donated about ten inches of her hair to a cancer association. Celina, who has always had waist length hair which her parents loved, wanted to do the same. Her parents were horrified when they first learnt about her intention of cutting her hair short. After realising it was for charity, they immediately had a complete reverse of opinion and became very supportive of her intention.
Later that month, Celina found a website of an organisation called Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a public non profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in United States and Canada under 18 with long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. With these information and the requirement for hair donation on hand, Celina, together with her mother, made a trip to the hairdresser to have her hair cut.
At the salon, Celina told the hairdresser to measure about 10 inches of her hair, tie it up into a pony tail and cut just one inch above the rubber band. In a blink of the eye, Celina’s waist-length hair was reduced to shoulder-length
but she was very glad about her hair cut as she knew her freshly washed ponytail
will be on its way to Locks of Love soon. She was also complimented by
many for a great summer haircut!
And she didn’t stop there. After the summer holidays, she joined a
Global Concern in their school called Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA)
which was formed by a group of grade 12 students. CPAA fund raises for cancer
patients in India and members of the association meet up every Friday to brain
storm on fund-raising ideas. Last September, they made many bracelets and
sold them to students in their campus.
Celina also ran the 10km 'Nike Human Race' and 'Run For Hope' which
are both for charity. Despite being a slow runner due to asthma, she still plans
on doing the 10km marathon organised by Standard Chartered in December
2008 which helps seven different charities in Singapore.
Perhaps all of us can take on the challenge to do the same as Celina.
Let us all practice the virtue of generosity; for as it was said by Albert Einstein,
“It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of
what he takes out of it.”
