Staff at Morgan Stanley have raised an impressive HK$2.45 million for Operation Santa Claus, setting a new record for the largest single donation to the holiday fund-raising campaign, now in its 24th year.
'This is a record year. We are very proud with the amount our employees have raised this year,' Bill Strong, co-CEO of Morgan Stanley Asia-Pacific, said. 'This is our biggest employee-driven event in Hong Kong and a tradition at Morgan Stanley.'
Motivated by the chance to put their bosses on stage to sing Christmas carols in public, the bank's staff raised the amount in just a week.
The joint effort saw some 70 senior executives form the Morgan Stanley Directors Choir to sing classic Christmas songs, including Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, at the atrium of the Elements shopping mall in West Kowloon. They were joined for their performance by some of their children and 30 youngsters from the Society for the Protection of Children.
The performance attracted not only family and friends of the singers but also Christmas shoppers.
Strong, the choir leader, said this once-a-year performance by senior executives for Operation Santa Claus had taken on a life of its own as it entered its ninth year.