Germaine Lim

TRUST is a thorny issue, Mrs Stefanie Yuen-Thio and the Dover Park Hospice's volunteers found out yesterday.

They had "planted" 1,000 artificial sunflowers at Raffles Place Park on Monday morning to raise awareness for palliative care patients.

By 9am yesterday, nearly 800 stalks had gone missing.

A disappointed Mrs Yuen-Thio told The New Paper: "It's not about the stolen sunflowers. People cannot assume that they can just take anything."

The 39-year-old lawyer chairs the hospice's fund-raising committee.

Ironically, Singapore just celebrated World Kindness Day last Friday.

The Singapore Kindness Movement offered free yellow gerberas to the public to give to someone as an act of kindness.

Dover Park Hospice planted the sunflowers to create awareness for its charity SUNday Walk this Sunday.

The sunflowers - the international symbol for palliative care - and carry-all bags are sold at $5 each and available at the hospice's push-cart stall at Chevron House.

The money raised will help provide subsidised care for terminally ill patients unable to pay for their hospice stay.

Mrs Yuen-Thio said she had considered the possibility of pilferage and was prepared to lose a few flowers.

On the day the volunteers planted the flowers, she saw someone helping himself to a flower from her 33rd-storey office at 6 Battery Road.

But she didn't expect to turn up to an empty park yesterday morning.

Volunteers only tend the stall during lunchtime and after work.

No signs

While each flower has a tag bearing the hospice's name, there is no sign on the lawns that warns against picking the flowers.

Mrs Yuen-Thio says she still doesn't intend to put a sign up because "it shouldn't just be about a sign that prohibits such actions".

She also considered going to the police but changed her mind.

However, some have come forward to return the flowers or paid for the flowers they took.

Mrs Yuen-Thio said: "They were very apologetic. They'd thought the flowers were free for the public to take. They saw others doing it, so they followed suit.

"It's heartening to see them owning up because I think it's courageous of them to admit their mistake."

Workers in the area also noticed the missing flowers. Ms Margaret Ho, who works at Republic Plaza's Tower Club, wondered if they had been stolen.

The 50-year-old waitress, who bought two sunflowers, said: "I saw them (the night before) from the restaurant which overlooks the park. Now they're only a few left and I found that odd."

The hospice's volunteers have since replanted about 40 sunflowers.

While some will be stored away every night, an undeterred Mrs Yuen-Thio says some will still be left in the park overnight.

"You lose some and you gain some. I don't mind some flowers being taken away if the intended message is spread."

gerlim@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The New Paper.