• Third successful edition of the growing Mapletree Futsal Challenge at Mapletree Business City
• Challenge expanded from 12 to 20 teams over three days of friendly futsal matches

SINGAPORE – 14 teams represented their companies and took to the pitch at Mapletree Business City (“MBC”) for friendly futsal matches organised by Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd (“Mapletree”) – all in the name of charity. S$15,616 was raised from this annual event, “Mapletree Futsal Challenge” and the funds were donated to Beyond Social Services and Boys’ Town for their youth intervention programmes, with each beneficiary receiving $7,808. This was $4,808 more than last year’s $3,000.      

“Besides the “Mapletree Youth Resilience Programme” which is one of Mapletree’s Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives, this annual futsal challenge is a great collaborative platform for our tenants, the tertiary institutions and us to generate more funds for the youths. We hope more teams will join us for future editions of the Mapletree Futsal Challenge as we build a vibrant and caring working community at MBC,” said Mr Edmund Cheng, Mapletree’s Chairman.

The Challenge was opened to companies located at MBC and PSA Building, with each company pledging a minimum donation of S$500. Mapletree matched donations from participating companies dollar-for-dollar. In 2018, Mapletree opened the challenge to the tertiaries and a team from the Singapore Management University participated. Continuing this effort, this year saw teams from SIM Global Education and the National University of Singapore (“NUS”)’s Law School. 

Responding to overwhelming feedback from the previous editions, Mapletree expanded the Challenge and held it over two days to cater to two categories – Open and Youth. 14 teams competed in the open category, comprising Bank Julius Baer, beIN Sports, Equinix, Fitness First, Google, two teams from the Info-communications Media Development Authority (“IMDA”), Nike, OneConnect Financial Technology, Pfizer, SAP, Mapletree, and two tertiary teams (SIM Global Education and NUS Law). The preliminaries for the Open Category were held on 21 March 2019, and the quarterfinals were held on 10 April 2019. After intense competition, Google, as defending champion, successfully won the main Challenge. 

The youth challenge held on 22 March 2019 saw six teams from Beyond Social Services, Boys’ Town, Henderson CC Youth Football Club, Singapore Soccer Academy and Queenstown Secondary School. After several rounds of round robin matches, Henderson CC Youth Football Club was crowned youth champions of the Challenge.    

“It was our first time participating in the Mapletree Futsal Challenge. My colleagues and I had a lot of fun as a team in this meaningful competition. We look forward to next year’s edition,” said Ms Tan Bin Ru, CEO from OneConnect Financial Technology. The company participated in the Challenge for the first time. 

To date, Mapletree has contributed more than S$720,000 to support the education, sports and arts programmes of local voluntary welfare organisations, especially with a focus on assisting youths from challenging financial backgrounds. As part of our CSR efforts, Mapletree is committed to supporting at-risk youths in Singapore.

Photos
Available for download here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u2dkr9pbbcdxttn/AABbSgtTpzSHjfS3TV7bcSREa?dl=0
Photo credits: Mapletree Investments

Mr Kan Shik Lum, Mapletree CSR Committee Board Member (far left), posing with the winning team from Google, together with Mr Edmund Cheng, Mapletree’s Chairman (2nd from right) and Mr Wan Kwong Weng, Mapletree’s Group Chief Corporate Officer (far right)

Mr Edmund Cheng (far left), Mapletree’s Chairman, together with Ms June Koh, Cluster Director (Human Capital Cluster), IMDA, presenting the cheque to Mr Trevor Chan, Boys’ Town’s Deputy Director, Community Partnerships & Social Enterprise.