When high price meets low price

UDM Owners who are the proud owners of high priced vehicles BMW dropped by Jumble Station last Saturday to share some of their ‘cool comfort’ stuff with Jumble Station and took along about 5 Single Parents and their kids for the ride of their lives.

A total of 10 BMW cars replete with Malaysian flags made up the convoy for the UDM Owners Merdeka Charity Drive and were flagged off by Subang Jaya ADUN Hannah Yeoh. The VVIP passengers comprised Rosnah and her four children, Babu and his 7 boys, Julie Tan and her three kids, Lisa and her 5 month old daughter as well as Olga a Filipino single mum as well as three of single mum Nani’s children.

The convoy took off at 9.30am and wound its way from Jumble Station to the Sunway Lagoon Resort where the BMWs were given a special right to park at the Orange Atrium entrance. From then on, the focus was on making the day special for the Single Parents and their kids.

They were treated to a movie “Meet Dave” where laughter greeted Eddie Murphy’s latest antics and fast talk after which lunch was at Michaelangelo’s Italian Kitchen and a little bit of shopping around the Sunway Pyramid 2 shopping mall before heading back to Jumble Station at 4pm. The day was topped off with each child being given a goodie bag full of tidbits and stationary items, among others.

The overall response from the kids and parents say it all.

Babu: “Ini Italian makan banyak sedap. Baik kita dapat makan sini. Tak pernah makan macam ini. Kalau saya kena bayar, lebih RM100 mana sanggup?

Rosnah: “My children have not gone to see a show for ages. We cannot afford it cos it is cheaper to buy a VCD or DVD but they love the car ride, the movie and the food!”

Lisa “My little slept all the way in the BMW, she knows what comfort is and she was so good too during the movie!

Nani: My children really enjoyed themselves, thank you so much for arranging this event.”

Julie Tan: “My kids are really happy today and even though they had to wait around, they told me the wait was really worth it! Thanks JS and UDMOnwers for this special day!

Jumble Station is 1 this month!

Imagine that! Jumble Station is 1 come August 28 this year and we've got a great Birthday present to celebrate this historic milestone - a van! That's right, for a whole year we've been desperately trying to get a van. Numerous letters were written, appeals made during presentations, hints proffered and direct requests made to politicians to no avail.

Of course some have promised to give the cash, some offered to help us get it via their connections some even said they'd find a van and buy it for us - nadda. Then last Sunday when I was on my way to church I decided to turn to the one person I had forgotten to ask - God - telling him I was fed up of trying to get one and that it was his turn to take on the task.

Miracle of miracles, after the church service I was given a letter and in it was a cheque from an anonymous donor for RM40,000 towards the purchase of a van and a pat on the back from DUMC Senior Pastor to keep the JS flag flying. So who says miracles don't happen and fast too!

So now with the RM9,999 given by The Legend Hotel last Christmas, we now have RM50,000 to buy a van to help ferry Single Parents around for events and to collect donated items from well wishers... so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUMBLE STATION - what a great and fascinating year it has been for all of us and now as we embark on year two let's wish for greater things to brighten the lives of Single Parents... cheers Antz

In the grand-daddy of flea-markets – Amcorp Mall

Amcorp Mall is reknowned in Malaysia as being the oldest, the grand-daddy so to speak of flea market locations. It is the place if you’re looking to buy second hand goods and antiques. Go there any weekend and you’ll see hordes of flea market traders and second hand buyers roaming the various floors looking for great buys.

Last Friday, Jumble Station was given the opportunity to participate in a Charity Sale organized Amcorp Mall to coincide with Deaf Art Exhibition opened by the Deputy Minister of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage, Teng Boon Soon. Our first foray there proved to be an interesting experience. For one we got to know and became friends with quite a few other fellow charity centric organizations like Bless Shop belonging to SIB, WAO for abused women, a Buddhist disabled group, Malaysian Hope and one other welfare home for orphans. Oh yeah, there was also a Left Handers table there which was a great find for an avowed lefty!

Although the design of the floor layout could have been improved to enable a better flow of the human traffic in and out of the ground floor itself, the response of the buyers and shoppers at Amcorp was gratifying. They clearly appreciated the many and varied collectible items that we had on display and bought many an item with very little bargaining, because the pricing was extremely reasonable. In terms of sharing about JS and its aspirations too, the response was extremely warm and many were delighted to know that there is now a place like Jumble Station that is willing to take all their unwanted stuff. During the dull moments, some of us enlivened the time with golden oldies, warbling away to the amusement of the others. Point is, we showed others how passionate and lively JS folks can be when serving the needy!

Overall, the experience was an exhilarating and a pleasing one, so we at JS certainly look forward to our 1st weekend of every month participation in the Amcorp Mall charity floor (top floor) do since this will enable us to reach out to more people and more people including single parents in need who can now reach us directly is they so require. What we sorely need now are more volunteers for these mall promotion events to lessen the burden on our already hard stretched workers Adrian, Sue and steadfast volunteer Joyce Leong… any other more willing souls out there????

Jumble Station's Lian See featured in Asian Beacon

Jumble Station's co-founder Lim Lian See is featured in this month's issue of Asian Beacon. For those who don't know, Asian Beacon is an interdenominational Christian magazine that has been around ages...well since 1968! Lian See is the cool, calm, genteel power behind the growth of Jumble Station and a true Godly servant with a really big heart for the poor and the marginalised. Her persuasive powers can cut through many a feeble excuse so its usually easier to just respond to her plea for help and many a downtrodden life has been blessed because she cared enough to respond and to get others to respond to a need. Get a copy of Asian Beacon "The Beyond Sickness" issue and read more about her in the article titled "A Single Minded Hairdresser."

Our first foray into the busy shopping malls

1Utama became Jumble Station's first foray into the busy shopping malls recently and boy that was an experience. The iUtama management was kind enough to allow us the use of its Community Corner designed to help raise greater awareness of the actitivities of the charitable organisations and JS was the chosen one this time around.

Our penetration of the malls coincided with the Mega Sale Carnival and we were hoping to raise greater awareness and knowledge of JS to the buying crowd. The promotional exercise began on Friday which meant JS could not get enough volunteers esp in the early morning period but loyal volunteers like Jenny from Sunway, Joyce Leong from Puchong, Samuel and his high spirited CG members dropped by to give us a hand with the handing out of the flyers.

Funnily enough, not many people were even aware of our presence, some came and treated us as an info counter (where's Nando... Parkson??? Korean restaurant were the most common!!!) and still failed to ask us about what we were doing, we still ensured they did not leave without our newly printed postcards.

A couple were pretty rude, reifused to take our postcards and never even slowed their pace of walking, after hastily running after a few, we the more easily tired out ones decided to let the youngsters do the walkin and the talkin... still I choose to believe that many more people are aware of JS existence and that while sales there over the 3day period was laughable, still it was a fun experience.. hopefully early August at the Amcorp Mall will prove to be a more exciting one.

Deloitte does its part to help JS

Deloitte at UPtown in Petaling Jaya took time out from its busy corporate activities to lend a much needed hand to Jumble Station. It recently did its bit for charity by organising a collection day specially among its staff.
A few days prior to the event emails and flyers were sent and pinned up all over the office premises to ensure staff were made well aware of the event.
A meeting room was set aside just to collect the items which were then placed neatly into individual boxes with the labels smartly identifying which box was for which.
Babu and I braved the horrendous traffic jam to reach the office location at Uptown and we were given several boxes of clothes, shoes and toys. Other items such as grocery items and pet food were donated to orphanages and PAWS. It was a pretty satisfying collection and Deloitte felt encouraged enough to want to plan another in a couple of months time. We're hoping that corporate firms out there will want to emulate the likes of Deloitte in giving a hand to the needy.

Single Parents having a great time

Despite the stormy weather which made it tough for some Single Mums to attend, Jumble Station's first Mother’s Day party for Single Parents got off to a rousing start with several of the mothers friskily ‘kicking off their heels’ to participate in an impromptu ‘Hokey Pokey’ dance designed to get them loosened up for the special event.

It was swiftly followed by a number of games aimed at testing their dexterity with chopsticks in the case of picking up beans, their toothy snap and crunch ability with the sunflower seeds, muscle power with newspaper toss in the case of the Single Fathers and wind power where it came to blowing up a balloon till it burst.

The Single Parents were given a short speech by Jumble Station single parents co-ordinator Lim Lian See who also announced the fact that JS has officially assumed full responsibility for the care of all those within the Shelter Home’s Single Mothers Network and combined with the newer ones on JS’ database, these will now come under the proposed umbrella of “Parents without Partners’. More on this later.

This was followed by a brief power point presentation on what Jumble Station was all about by JS co-founder Mary Anne. This was very quickly followed by a lively presentation of the Malay version of line dancing also known as ‘pocho pocho’ by three dancers from the Angsana Residents Committee dance troupe led by single father Aiman.

The highlight of the event was the lucky draw where every one of the Single Parents won a lucky draw prize regardless of whether the item was a small silver bracelet or a large electronic biggie item such as a DVD, an oven etc. Topping off the evening’s revelry was the fantastic food spread that was laid out for them with enough for some of the ‘poorer’ Single parents to ‘take away’ for their dinner or perhaps lunch for their kids the next day.

And to make the day even more memorable, every single Parent was given a goodie bag from courier company GDex with believe it or not, one electric item – an electric steam iron or a toaster or a hairdryer along with a photoframe and other great stuff – to take away. Even the little children were not forgotten, they too received a goodie bag from DGex which saw them all leaving with huge smiles on their faces.

To all the sponsors and volunteers out there who made this event so special, memorable and enjoyable, our sincere thanks and heartfelt appreciation for without your input, this would not have been as fabulous. So once again, a very big THANK YOU!