On 30 January 2010, Downtown East was abuzz with excitement and frenzy where BT Frontline staff pedaled madly away on their stationary bicycles, trying to keep up with the gym instructor in the air-conditioned D’Marquee tent, complete with flashing disco lights and heart-pumping music.

The whirl of sweaty legs was for a good cause as part of this year’s CSR activity was to participate in SiTF Spinning Singapore, where BT Frontline “purchased” 100 “spinning” slots, each lasted about 50 minutes with 40 percent of the total proceeds donated to the Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD). This was a memorable event where exercise buffs – including more than 1,000 IT professionals – pedaled on stationary bicycles, clocking thousands of virtual kilometers. The driving force behind this event was to increase the understanding and awareness of people with disabilities.

Our Chairman, Steve Ting, and Managing Director, Shirley Wong (who is also the Chairman of The Spinning Organising Committee and Honorary Secretary of SiTF), were also among the sweaty participants. A few of our physically fit ones, including Steve, took up the spinning challenge, “Spin the Longest Distance”, where they compete for the longest distance cycled within a stipulated time. Not surprisingly, Steve, who is an exercise buff himself and well known for his strict exercise regime, came in 4th at 34.88km, just shy of less than 1km from the 1st place winner, James Wong from HP, at 35.55km. Kevin Lim, Sales Manager of BT Frontline, also did a good job by clocking 33.53km, scoring a place amongst the top 10 "cyclists".  The 2nd and 3rd place winners went to Ang Chek Yang from HP at 35.16km and Andrew Leong from EMC at 34.95km respectively.

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), together with Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Permanent Secretary of MICA, and RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer of IDA, were invited to grace this event as the Guest of Honour and VIPs respectively.

The 3-day event held from 29 to 31 January, helped raised a total of SGD 30,000 for SPD.