After winning, she was happy to go with the flow but admits she didn’t see a point in winning the pageant. “I’m the sort of person who needs to find meaning in what I do, and there was no meaning even up till the day I went to Cyprus for the pageant. On the flight there, I met Miss India on the plane, who told me how her entire country was behind her.
“But me? I almost flunked out of school – I didn’t expect to win the pageant and had to defer my final exams. I had no sponsors, hardly knew how to do my makeup, no gowns and no money,” she recalls with mock distress.
Taking the lead
Her sojourn in Cyprus would be the turning point in her life. She came home inspired by what she saw and heard – about how the Miss Universe winner would be championing important social causes and doing humanitarian work like raising Aids awareness – and was determined to put her title to good use.
“I told my parents how a lot of countries had platforms for their winners to volunteer, but not Singapore. I was sorely disappointed that there wasn’t any direction for Miss Singapore Universe title-holders.”
She talked to her father about her desire to do more and he put her in touch with then-US ambassador to Singapore, Steven Green, who hooked her up with the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, which then matched her as a volunteer at Toa Payoh Girls’ Home. That marked the start of her many social work projects.
By 2005, when she started her first term as an NMP, Eunice was already neck-deep in community work. She also launched her entertainment career, which included acting roles in drama serials for Mediacorp’s Channel 8, and being the co-host of the local version of Wheel of Fortune.
Giving back to society
Currently co-hosting the third season of Arts Central fashion programme Front, which she films once a week, she spends the rest of her time performing at local gigs and hosting company and entertainment events.
Her time is also spent reading up on and researching local issues, brushing up on her public speaking (the late former deputy prime minister of Singapore, S. Rajaratnam, is her favourite orator), and attending engagements for her social projects.
In addition to sitting on the advisory council of the People’s Association Youth Movement T-net club, the Kebun Baru Youth Executive Committee, the Ministry of Education’s Compass initiative (Community and Parents in Support of Schools), and the committee of the Citibank-YMCA Youth for Causes programme, she is also ambassador for causes like blood donation and cervical cancer.
