Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. From its humble YET groundbreaking beginnings in 2005, the Festival has grown, evolved and wowed many over the years.

In 2014, M1 continued to actively engage and support the community with corporate social responsibility projects that cover the arts, sports and youth causes.

Arts Power

Over the years, we have worked with various arts groups and supported numerous arts-related projects to help grow the quality, diversity and depth of the Singapore arts scene. As a result, M1 has earned a strong reputation as a leading corporate supporter of the arts, and a key partner in the development of local contemporary dance. For our longstanding contribution to the arts, we received the Straits Times Life!’s accolade in its Power list 2014 and were presented with the Distinguished Patron of the Arts Award 2014 by the National Arts Council (NAC) for the 14th consecutive year.

Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. From its humble yet groundbreaking beginnings in 2005, the Festival has grown, evolved and wowed many over the years. Today, it continues to feature culturally diverse, as well as socially significant, contemporary and provocative works that touch our hearts and challenge our minds. In commemoration of this milestone year and our continual efforts to make the arts more accessible to the community, ticket prices to the 12-day festival with the well chosen theme “Art and the People” featuring 15 works, 31 performances and four exhibitions by local and international artistes, were kept at an affordable S$19.

During the year, we further expanded our support for the arts with the title sponsorship of the M1 Chinese Theatre Festival, which ran for three weeks over June and July 2014. The Festival featured six acclaimed, original productions from Singapore and abroad. In partnership with The Theatre Practice, the Festival seeks to address the lack of variety in Chinese theatre performances locally, as well as to make professional performances more accessible to adults and children.

We have also deepened our collaboration with two leading homegrown dance companies, T.H.E Dance Company and Frontier Danceland, to further promote contemporary dance. In partnership with T.H.E Dance Company, the inaugural M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival 2014, held from November to December 2014, featured 17 days of exhilarating dance performances, choreographic workshops and technique classes. Included in the line-up was the M1 Open Stage – a distinctive platform for young, talented and aspiring dancers to showcase their works. With Frontier Danceland, we kick-started the M1 Dancing on the Frontier Appreciation Series to introduce contemporary dance to students from secondary schools and tertiary institutions, as well as introduced the M1-Frontier Danceland PULSE scholarship programme for aspiring and talented dancers.

The A-List, Singapore’s definitive new guide book to all things arts and culture was launched by the NAC in October 2014, and M1 is proud to be the sole corporate partner for this long awaited showcase of Singapore’s vibrant and diverse arts offerings to locals and visiting arts fans.

Spirit of Sportsmanship

M1 believes sports convey admirable values such as team spirit, fair play, perseverance over adversity, as well as healthy living.

This drives our continued support for Netball Singapore’s initiatives, which focus on promoting netball in schools and youth activities, particularly through the M1 Schools Challenge League and the M1 Talent Identification Programme.

We also partnered Netball Singapore to host the M1 Corporate Challenge – Singapore’s biggest mixed-corporate annual netball competition – for a second consecutive year last November at the Kallang Netball Centre. The one-day event saw the participation of over 40 teams across a wide spectrum of companies including Allen & Gledhill, Changi General Hospital, Deloitte SG, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, Microsoft and Singapore Airlines. The event’s highlight was a unique exhibition match featuring Singapore’s Members of Parliament (MPs) play off against M1’s senior management team. Players on the MPs’ team included Senior Minister of State Indranee Rajah, Minister of State Teo Ser Luck, MP Zaqy Mohamad, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng and South West District Mayor Low Yen Ling. In appreciation of the MPs’ participation, M1 pledged a S$50,000 donation to the underprivileged children and youth-at-risk causes of our adopted charities.

The primary focus of M1’s fund-raising efforts in 2014 remained on the underprivileged children and youths-at-risk causes.

Helping Underprivileged Children and Youths-at-Risk

The primary focus of M1’s fund-raising efforts in 2014 remained on the underprivileged children and youths-at-risk causes.

The annual M1 Charity Golf 2014 and M1 80s Flash-Back Charity Carnival were two key fundraising events successfully staged during the year and passionately supported by our staff and families, business partners and associates, as well as members of the community. More than S$300,000 was raised for the beneficiaries of our adopted charities, Beyond Social Services (BSS), Children-at-Risk Empowerment Association and Brahm Centre. In addition, the relevant funds raised were matched by the national Care and Share Movement.

To broaden our support for children causes, we initiated the M1 Students Support Fund, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, to provide supplementary financial aid to underprivileged school-going children from low income families. To be launched in the first quarter of 2015, M1 will commit S$200,000 each year towards the inaugural Fund, which financially needy students from 10 primary schools will be able to tap on for payment of school-related expenses. We hope this Fund will help our beneficiaries have a more enjoyable school life and better opportunities to develop their full potential, regardless of their families’ background.

During the year, our staff volunteers from the M1 SunCare Club continued to organise regular outings for the beneficiaries of our adopted charities, including visits to Camp Challenge and Snow City. To foster greater volunteerism within the organisation, M1 staff and their family members were also invited and encouraged to participate in these outings.

In December 2014, M1 presented the Jay Chou Opus 2 concert and invited beneficiaries from our adopted charity BSS to attend the sold-out concert, with two of the children receiving exclusive backstage passes to meet and take photos with the superstar.

Bonding with the Community

In maintaining our engagement with the community, we initiated the M1 Dance Mania 2014 event to broaden the appeal of dance in Singapore, and to bring dance closer to the masses. Held at the Sengkang Community Club Hardcourt and supported by the People’s Association Youth Movement, the community-centred event encompassed an invigorating dance competition judged by renowned international and Singapore dance masters, and featured a community mass dance activity – the Mass Bokwa+Zumba Combi Workout.

M1’s 80s Flash-Back Charity Carnival was held alongside the dance event, with enthusiastic employees volunteering their time and effort to bring cheer to the underprivileged children and youth of M1’s adopted charities, through an afternoon of fun and food at the Carnival. The whole event, with Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Communications and Information as the Guest-of-Honour and Mr Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State for Trade and Industry as Special Guest, saw more than 1,000 participants. In addition, we took the opportunity to invite 32 children from our adopted charity BSS to take part in a special dance master class, to interact and learn from US-based dance guru Mike Fallorina.

M1 was once again proud to be the principal partner sponsor of the National Day Parade (NDP) 2014 - Our People, Our Home. Held at The Float at Marina Bay against Singapore’s striking cityscape, the signature event drew more than 100,000 spectators with its spectacular displays and heart-warming performances, in celebration of Singapore’s 49th year of independence.

In partnership with the Singapore Red Cross Society, we organised two on-site blood donation drives during the year at our main office building. A total of 161 M1 staff and visitors donated and 122 units of blood were collected for the blood bank, which in turn will benefit over 360 patients.