Yam Yu Fen Kayla (Ren Yuxun), 15

School: St. Margaret's School (Secondary)

Topic: An email on a VIA project to honour deceased donors

Award: High Distinction, Senior Category, 2024

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you to express our school’s interest in organising a Values-In-Action (VIA) Project to honour deceased organ donors and the legacy they have left behind. The main inspiration behind this project was because of a jar of folded stars I found at my distant aunt’s house, dedicated to her deceased mother. Her mother is a deceased organ donor, and these stars served as a unique way for students to honour her legacy. Such an act was of great significance to my aunt, truly touching her heart as it served as a great reminder of her mother’s selfless acts and the public’s appreciation for her heroic actions.

Therefore, seeing how much impact such appreciation projects have on the families of these deceased organ donors, I have discussed and decided to organise this project to appreciate and honour them. Upon further discussion with my fellow Student Council Executive Committee members, we have decided to organise an art exhibition. In this exhibition, all students will participate and create artworks like sculptures and paintings that convey their respect and appreciation to the organ donor, with works that honour their legacy.

Honouring these deceased organ donors is especially important as this would firstly, allow us to learn to appreciate and respect their heroic sacrifices. Organ donation is truly not an easy thing for both the deceased organ donors and their families. To donate part of your life to save someone else’s, is truly a challenging decision to make. Yet, these donors make this heroic decision, and it is only of due moral duty for us to show our appreciation for their courageous act.

If we are given the opportunity to proceed, we will be organising this along a span of weeks until the exhibition commences on Speech Day in July. Before we carry this out, we will share with them more about organ donation. This will help them to understand this topic better and assist them in thinking about the message and emotions they hope to convey in their artwork. Afterwards, we will start the preparations of this project. For the Lower Secondary students, we will be integrating this into their art lesson curriculum. In their own respective classes, the class will be divided into two groups, one in charge of painting, and the other would be in charge of sculpturing. One art teacher will be in charge of one group, guiding the students in planning and creating their final artworks. For the Upper Secondary Students, since they do not have Art Lessons included in their curriculum, they will be guided by the students taking Higher Art during their weekly Character and Citizenship lessons. Similarly, the classes will be divided into two groups, one in charge of painting and the other in charge of sculpturing. As this might interrupt the students’ curriculum time, we will be organising this around Week 7 of the curriculum when Weighted Assessments are coming to an end. This will help to avoid interference with studying and examinations. Additionally, the students in the Art Club will also assist the teachers-in-charge in guiding the creations of these projects for classes of their respective levels. Finally, our school will then use the Art Gallery as a holding venue for the exhibition. As we welcome parents and graduates into the school on Speech Day, they will also get the chance to visit this exhibition and view the showcasing of these artworks. We understand that it can be challenging for the teachers to facilitate this experience on their own, hence we will be appointing six student docents. They will learn and understand more about these artworks from the students personally. Afterwards, on Speech Day, they will be in groups of three during different time slots, and will be in charge of introducing these artworks and the message behind them to the visitors. This will help guide these visitors to understand these artworks and view them with the original message the creator wanted to convey in mind, instead of walking around confused and lost. Of course, we hope to also invite the family members of these deceased organ donors to visit this exhibition to view these meaningful works. We hope that through this showcase, it will serve as a way to show our respect and appreciation for that deceased family member’s heroic act and mean something significant to them. Hopefully, such an appreciation project will help them feel the same way my aunt felt with the jar of folded stars, feeling touched by such an act and being reminded of their family member’s sacrificial act.

I strongly believe such a plan will be extremely beneficial for the students as they will be able to gain appreciation and respect towards these deceased organ donors. By painting and dedicating a piece of artwork to them after learning so much about their stories and sacrifices, they will definitely grow to respect them and appreciate their actions. Additionally, through this meaningful project, they will be able to learn more about organ donation and these organ donors. Since organ donation is a topic people rarely talk about, it will serve as a great opportunity for them to learn and gain insight about this topic. Moreover, they will also be able to gain more empathy in this aspect and possibly be inspired to donate their organs to those in need in the future. Last but not least, this project definitely serves as a great way for them to feel included in using their own ways to appreciate these deceased organ donors.

Hence, I hope that this project will be considered, as it can be greatly beneficial for the students to gain insight on this topic and a great reminder to these deceased organ donor’s families of their selfless act.

Thank you!

Yours faithfully,

Kayla Yam
Executive Committee Member
Student Council
St Margaret’s School (Secondary)

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions expressed in the essays for the Live On Festival 2024 are those of the participants and are not endorsed by the National Organ Transplant Unit (Ministry of Health).

To learn more about organ donation and organ transplantation in Singapore, please visit www.liveon.gov.sg ↗ (opens in new tab)