Are you looking for new ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Here’s why rethinking the meaning of Valentine’s Day may give you new ideas about how to celebrate the special day.
When talking about love, our minds tend to drift towards romance. Especially with Valentine’s Day around the corner, you might be thinking “Who shall I ask to be my Valentine” or how to celebrate a special date night despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
But what about other aspects of love?
As important as romantic love is, it is part of a much larger picture. There is so much more love to be shared! After all, love involves self-sacrifice, is altruistic in nature, and is about giving without any expectation to receive.
So, as you brainstorm potential ideas on how to celebrate Valentine’s Day in 2021, why not show love in a different way? Not just with our partners or loved ones, but where it’s needed the most. Donate, volunteer, or simply do an act of kindness.
Starting this Valentine’s Day, let’s evolve our view on love and focus on how it can be about giving back together with loved ones and thinking more deeply about others within the community. With that, take the chance to make it a date and start volunteering with loved ones!
Here are some examples of how you can start volunteering, whether in a couple, with friends or with family.
Volunteer As A Couple
Resh and Weeny are an example of how couples can volunteer together. Love isn’t just about treating and doting each other, but sharing love with others. While dating, Resh and Weeny bonded over their passion for helping and serving others. Now married, together they are regular volunteers of Keeping Hope Alive and Rare Disorders Society Singapore. Their shared eagerness and devotion to give pushes them to reach out to needy communities, spreading love and care that overflows.
Let’s learn from Resh and Weeny. This Valentine’s Day, initiate the conversation with your partner. What social causes are you both passionate about? Talking to your partner about social causes that you both find important can be the first step to fostering a more other-centred mindset together. You can then explore Giving.sg to plan volunteering dates to take action and give back together.
Volunteer With Friends
Regardless of one’s relationship status, Valentine’s Day has become a day to celebrate friendships too! Are you one that celebrates “Galentine’s”? When planning what to do with your friends, why not consider volunteering together? Not only will it be a fun way to spend the day together, you’ll be able to give back at the same time.
As friends, platonic love can compel us to focus more on others and give back this Valentine’s Day. For instance, Grace Ann Chua, Tham Jun Han, and Valencia Wong are friends who started Friendzone together, a platform focused on community-building and promoting genuine connections amongst young adults.
With a shared passion for community work, Friendzone was born out of their shared concern for the need to have more meaningful conversations amongst young individuals to foster a greater sense of community and ‘kampung spirit’ in neighbourhoods.
We tend to become good friends with others because we bond over common hobbies and interests. So have a think, are there social causes which you and your friends feel strongly about?
In our circles, we can start the practice of volunteering with our friends. This allows us to deepen our existing friendships, as well as form new ones in the communities we wish to give back to.
Volunteer With Family
What about as a family? Familial love is often the first form of love that one will encounter. Family members form an important support system. As we grow older, finding things to do together can help us not only maintain, but forge deeper bonds as a family.
As a unit, families can work together and combine their efforts to give back!
Azlina, her husband and 14-year-old daughter put this idea into action. At Smiles Salam SG, they started a free pop-up grocery store in Bedok to reduce food waste and champion the kampung spirit. The pop-up grocery store made the concept of paying it forward convenient to beneficiaries and donors, cultivating a mentality that is other-centred and cares about the wellbeing of others.
Through this initiative, Azlina and family have built strong relationships not just with residents and volunteers, but community partners and market vendors. The pop-up grocery store has also allowed people of different social backgrounds to come together and create a network that helps and cares about each other. Volunteering as a family not only amplifies our efforts, but allocates time for us to bond and grow together and to spend our time meaningfully.
Through these examples, one can see that love is not only about romance, but above all, it is about caring for others.
Love comes in many forms, and whether it be as a couple, as friends or with family, we can spread love and make a difference.
This Valentine’s Day, show love in a different way. With your loved ones, donate or volunteer to a cause. Not sure where to begin? Click here for our top 5 ways to volunteer this month, explore how to give back to your community in 2021 here, or find out more on: www.giving.sg/volunteering
