DECEMBER 30 — This is the season for heartwarming stories. But nothing beats It’s a Wonderful Life with James Stewart and Donna Read, a 1946 fantasy drama that has played over American television a hundred times.
It tells of suicidal George Bailey on Christmas Eve and how his guardian angel, Clarence, saves him to earn his “wings.” Clarence showed George through a series of flashbacks how different life in his community would be had he not been born. George had made an impact.
Last Tuesday, REDs buddy Robert Cheong excitedly alerted me about a shelter home refurbishment project and wondered if the activity was newsworthy. On Saturday, I had a date with Ernest Ong, 35, Colin Soh, 37, and Bruce Wong, 35, co-owners of Tom, Dick & Harry’s (TDH).
Here’s my contribution of a heartwarming story.
Some TDH community adventures
The Shelter Home for Children (Shelter), in existence since 1981, is a welfare organisation to help abused, abandoned, neglected or at-risk children.
Shelter 1 looks after four to 12-year-olds, and those from 13 to 18 are housed in Shelter 2 for girls, and Shelter 3 for boys.
Fourty-eight children from Shelter were in Puteri Resort Ayer Keroh (event sponsor) for five days of fun and frolic from Dec 18 to 22.
It started with breakfast at Ali, Muthu and Ah Hock (Kopitiam styled), leaving in a “safe” chartered bus (as enunciated by Colin), then archery/paintball/blowpipe/treasure hunt, trip to Port Dickson, lunch on a boat and finally tea at TDH before returning to Shelter.
The trip was so that the three Shelter homes were free for the complete makeover. Total cost? About RM350,000.
Just for the community
Mou Man Tai (“no problem” in Cantonese) fun runs started with 16 participants in 2010, and this year, it had over 2,000 participants. A free flow of beer is their normal quencher. They have raised funds for The Malaysian Aids Foundation and Shelter, among other charities. Tens of thousands of ringgit were routinely raised each time.
Chinese New Year 2014 — an open house at their TDH TTDI premises, featuring the world-champion Kun Seng Keng Lion Dance troupe. Guests described the “finger food” selection offered as comparable to those organised by the Tourism Ministry. They budgeted for 1,500 guests and the turnout demands an upward revision next year.
A pint for a pint — a blood donation drive where a pint of any drink is offered for each pint donated. The National Blood Bank van, which only goes out for a minimum 120 pints, was in attendance.
Soup kitchen day — every fourth Wednesday, they make available dozens of meals. Volunteers pack and distribute. They work together with Reach Out Malaysia.
Mount Kinabalu excursions, Tuesday night running clubs (often with running clinics thrown in), fishing, diving and hiking are some of the activities these guys organise for their customers as calendar events.
Flood relief missions
Early this year, they made two trips to the East Coast. The first round, they hauled a container full of rice, milk powder, condensed milk, cooking oil, biscuits and canned food. Mineral water was sponsored by 7-Eleven.
The second trip to Temerloh, one week later was with two containers, and in addition to the earlier foodstuff, there were mattresses, and the “Box of Hope”, which contained a kettle, stove, tooth brushes and paste, washing liquids, a wok, kitchen utensils and forks and spoons.
Total of RM200,000 was raised from various activities, including live performances by entertainer friends. Eighty volunteers in a convoy of 20 made the trip.
The TDH modus operandi
Their business visions are so simple it is unbelievable. They want to be part of the community where they operate, to engage their customers like friends, and to give back through good social responsibility programmes.
They must have an astute business sense, first-rate operations management skills and carried through their visions with utmost sincerity. How else could they, from one TDH pub in TTDI in 2009, have expanded to three TDHs, two Ali, Muthu & Ah Hock, The Royal Flush (Chinese seafood), Hoofed (specialised non-halal) and Crazy Crabs? A second Crazy Crabs is due next month.
In their community adventures, their golden rules are evident – the causes must have strong social impacts, must involve as many Malaysians as possible (in their customer engagements, they found that many wish to help but just do not know how), should not be just cash handouts (keep temptation away), goods to be dispensed directly to the beneficiaries (to avoid the “lost in transit” phenomenon), no deduction of costs involved (often the sums raised are less than the costs to raise).
Typically, once they decide on the project, they will work on the exact needs of the beneficiaries, the total costs involved, and work on the fund raising. If let’s say the projected cost is RM300,000, TDH will foot any shortfall. And if RM330,000 was raised, they purchase more. The Box of Hope is a good example of “exact needs” that is needed to prepare a meal for a family.
All volunteers are customers and they are told to expect to be the proverbial “unsung heroes.” TDH/Mou Man Tai team has never sought nor has been awarded any honours for their work, although their business outlets have won a few.
Postscript
Tax incentives? Look at their projects — how do they even begin to present their cases? Ernest, the leader says organising their adventures is harder work and more time consuming than managing their business. If a good filmmaker decides to make a movie of these fine human species, he will have to keep the creative licence at bay, or risk making the TDH adventures a work of fiction.
Ernest, Colin and Bruce — you guys have made a real impact and, gave us hope. A wonderful 2016 to all!
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
