Keep Hope Alive Carnival 2011

I woke up at 4.30am on a Sunday morning (or should I say dawn?) to do volunteer work at a charity event today. The event, as heavily mentioned on my Facebook in the recent days, was a carnival to raise funds for National Kidney Foundation and over thirty more charitable homes in Klang. This event was actually part of a coursework for a big group of students taking Consumer Behavior course in ALC College and I joined the volunteer team upon invitation from one of the students, CX, who was my senior in high school.

At around 5.30am today, I gathered at the field of High School Klang, which I didn't know was actually the field right next to the school, in front of the cemetery. That early in the morning, there was seriously nothing much that we could do and because I was in charge of managing receipts of coupons at a food stall managed by a third party vendor, I lazed around for more than two hours and made friends with three adorably innocent sixteen-year-old girls from Kwang Hua Klang.

It was an easy day at the carnival, where I sold yoyo ice! It was pretty cool to scoop the ice cream off the chilly box and serve it to the customers. The only downside was most likely my incompetence; I was just plain clumsy and made some mess here and there the whole day. Oops. I also helped out at the sweet corn stall next to my stall and learned a skill of two from the aunty selling sweet corn. When I was not working, I was entertaining myself by watching how the crowd was embracing the theme of the day: keep hope alive. Hint: it was raining cats and dogs yesterday.

How else memorable can this event be? The field was extremely muddy and visitors were advised to wrap their feet with plastic bags and enter and own risk.

A local celebrity performing for the crowd (mostly under the canopy where I took this photo from). His live performance is as good as his recordings! He's Kah Jun 凌加峻!

They made it through this far with only bits of dirt. But right after this photo was taken, Am took the wrong step and had her slippers half buried in the mud. Oops!

The condition of the field was horrible but you still have to keep hope alive.

My new friend at her game booth! She was basically "playing" in mud the whole day...

Az showing off her hidden talent in blowing ping pong ball across the cups. For your information, she made it!

I was supposed to be in charge of the sweet corn but there was also a yoyo ice stall so my partner and I went separate ways. And we were extremely glad that our stalls were outside the muddy field.

Yoyo ice anyone? RM2 for two or three scoops, depending on the mood of the boss!

Is this a river? This was the place we washed our mud-laden legs, shoes, slippers, etc.

They had lucky draw only once throughout the day, at the end of the event. So by that time, only vendors, crew and organizers were left to bag all the lucrative prizes. Luck was not on my side today =(

All in all, the organizing team did a good job, especially in terms of preparation. They definitely deserve a big round of applause for such dedication and spirit in making the event happen. Although there were areas that they were lacking in, mainly on the execution side, these shortcomings were mostly out of their control so their achievement was still very remarkable. It was a nice experience joining the crew for the carnival.

On another note, I felt really privileged to meet Dato' Michael Tio from PKT at the event. I met him once for my assignment interview last semester and he appeared as a very commendable person then. Today, he proved to me again that he is one role model many people can look up to. He is one who puts passion into what he does and is very down-to-earth despite his status. When he saw the condition at the field, he immediately sponsored boots for purchase or rental, which in turn generated additional revenue for the cause =)