Monday, June 20, 2011

Xtramile Run & Charity, a success! Rotaractors were part of the success!

Looking back at how my weekend went last week, I am proud of myself. As a rotaractor from RAC Subang, we should be proud. We manage to co-organize Xtramile Run & Charity with StART Society and together, we made it! Watching Alex Au Yong's speech after he reaches StART Society, I am touched. He just put all the critics and doubters to silence.




 Alex, the pacesetters and the volunteers are all the Xtramilers. With Alex's determination comes the reward. Kudos to StART Society as they manage to achieve the goal to raise more than RM100,000 for the Music and Dance programme. 




























Things didn't went as planned at our first leg, Putrajaya. We were late to our destination. We only had 45 minutes to prepare. First thing to solve, I was informed by Sanjeev that our PA system wasn't working. We need immediate backup plan (we got plenty of it). Solved. Next comes the crowds issue. Visualize this, 5pm at Putrajaya, it was supposed to have lots of crowds walking here and there waiting to go back home. But no, that is not how it looks like. Not many crowds to pull over to our event. 




Worst still, the VVIP from StART Society, Datuk Vincent was there at 5.30pm when we were still preparing for that leg. Not knowing that Datuk Vincent was sitting alone at the shaded bench, I approached this young man and intended to explain to him about our activity with our pamphlets. He look at me and gave me the sign to stop. (talk to my hand kind of sign) Oh ya he looks fierce that time. Only a few seconds after that, I realized that young looking man is Datuk Vincent @ Chairman for StART society!




 I don't blame him for being furious looking at us setting up the Putrajaya leg. It was our mistake for not arriving early. I can put the blame on the traffic, lack of crowds or even lack of manpower. The fact is we screw up the first leg because we didn't plan it good enough. We made mistake. Move on and learn from it. There was no games and quiz session here due time shortage. After 10 minutes of interview, Alex started his Extramile journey with his pace setters from Putrajaya at 6.15 pm. After done with cleaning the area, we were off to the next pit stop- Sunway Pyramid.




Sunway Pyramid was kind enough to allow us to do a pit stop on their ground @ Orange Entrance. Mistake no more at here! We reached at 7.30pm and did all the preparation, etc: drink, pamphlets. donation, t-shirts and banners. Volunteers were assigned to their specific task. Those who were assigned for pamphlets can be seen a bit shy and reluctant to approach the people there ;p It need some courage to approach public sometimes. Not many can go and say hello and explain all the details to the people there. Even I can't do that! But we try our best.






Before I proceed with the next statement, I need to clarify that this is not a racist statement. I found it is always easier to approach the Malays and Indians rather than the Chinese. They seem to be a bit cautious when we go near them. Before we open our mouth, they already say NO, without even listening to us. At least some still say no and reply with a smile. 






























One of the pulling factors for the crowds was we gave out free Gatorade drink. Some Eurasians took the free drink and pledged to Xtramile Run. They just don't want to have the drink free of charge. Damn generous huh. We did a mass dance practise to gain the attention of the crowds. I had fun demonstrating to the volunteers and crowds on the dance. Gary gave me the idea of this dance from the Taiwan show "Guess Guess Guess". This dance can be funny to dance because of the movement involved. 




Goodies bag were given to the participants who show some courage and dance along with me. Not many dare to do so. Quizzes were asked and the answer to it is just so simple. 15 minutes before Alex arrives, we light up all the candles to light up a path for him to welcome this hero! Everyone cheer, roar and clap when Alex arrives. He was still very energetic when he reached Sunway and gave a short speech before he proceed to his next leg- Dream Village, Glenmarie.






























The rest of the leg is almost the same for me. I need to make sure everything are prepared as planned and on time. The pit stops at Dream Village and Caroyln's School of Rhythmic Gymnastics went smoothly without any problem! 
  



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