One handphone, one simple website and word of mouth. Those were the tools that late founder Terence Seah used to create SilverHairsClub, a passion project that’s now grown into what is probably the biggest community-led senior social club in Singapore.
Its closed Facebook group boasts an impressive count of over 25,000 members, of which around 10,000 are actively participating today.
We’re talking everything from movie meetups, bicycle excursions and makan sessions to grand, multi-day group tours to Malaysia, Thailand and beyond – all willingly organised by community members for free.
There are no membership fees or requirements. Anyone is free to join, so long as they’re willing to accept the rules of engagement – “No politics, religion, sex, race, direct selling & MLM (multi-level marketing)” – are a Singaporean or Permanent Resident, and are, naturally, over the age of 45.
Jean Lim, a 64-year-old marketing professional and girlfriend of the late founder who’s now taken over the reins of running SilverHairsClub, tells SilverStreak more about the story behind Singapore’s largest independent senior social club.
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Building SilverHairsClub from the ground up
The year was 2005. Terence, then self-employed with his own printing business, was based in Bangkok and feeling his age at 50.
With his financial needs largely met by a successful company, Jean says that the late founder began considering starting his own social group for seniors in Singapore.
“He always had the conviction to start a club for seniors, as he felt that ageing can be a very lonely process. After you spend all your life working, all your old friends have disappeared. Your children are grown up, and it’s now an empty nest,” she says.
Back then, the club existed purely as a no-frills website, set up by Terence with help from a friend. He who ran the group solo, slowly spreading the word among his contacts in Singapore while manually screening and onboarding new members.
A frequent traveller due to the nature of his business, he also flitted back and forth between Bangkok and Singapore to personally head events in SilverHairsClub’s early days.
SilverHairsClub driven by community effort
Fast forward to today, and SilverHairsClub now boasts more than 60 subgroups catering to its members’ varied interests. There are 44 special interest groups catering to “cooking, gardening, hiking, pickleball, badminton, aquariums, ukelele and K-drama”, along with 27 groups based on residential location.
“As long as you have an interest in it, you can start your own group,” says Jean. “There’s even one group just for people who can’t sleep at night and want to find other people to talk to.”
Interestingly, the groups are all left to run for themselves, with only occasional intervention from the administrative team when someone breaks the rules.
This goes for the club’s events as well, as they are mostly organised by community members of their own volition with no money in return.
"Number two, there are people who feel good by being leaders. They’re the ones who enjoy taking charge, and the rest are more than happy to follow since they can just relax (laughs)."
Hopes to keep the fire burning for as long as she can
Following Terence’s passing from pneumonia last November at the age of 68, Jean has now taken over the reins of SilverHairsClub. She’s also roped in several of the more active members to help manage the bustling social club – including the vetting of new joiners.
"That’s why so many of us are willing to step up to become admins."
Like her, the main investment the silvers are putting in is time. The cost of keeping SilverHairsClub’s website up isn’t significant and used to be handled by the late Terence. Nowadays, it is paid for by member donations.
She hopes to keep the group running for as long as she can, before handing it over to
“some of the younger seniors with a longer runway and the willingness to go all out for seniors”.
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