It’s safe to say Alpha team of IW Dec 09 wasn’t expecting PIW to be what it turned out to be. I for one never foresaw that we would have to organize a project event in eight weeks, and fundraise for all the expenses before the project took place. If you had asked me if such a task was possible a few weeks ago, I would have scratched my head and looked to the sky for an answer. Actually, this is precisely what I did during our very first PIW meeting when the said question was posed. Other members of Alpha were slightly more optimistic- but not by much. Time was our greatest enemy because our schedules were almost never in-sync, which should be a common complaint. The product of our first meeting: we were going to save the seahorses in Johor, for the cost of RM2000 to be fundraised in one month.

We began fundraising the very next Saturday, two weeks post-IW, by collecting old newspapers- hoping to raise RM500 at the very least. Our base camp was in Evinn’s -our project leader’s- house, where we got news that due to some very unfortunate but unavoidable circumstances, the seahorses were not in the mood for saving at our convenience and we had to find another project. Some little debate occurred where we eventually settled on going to the National Zoo and volunteering for a day to help with the animals. Leaving the time and date to be set for later, we plucked up our courage and started collecting newspapers.

At first, we weren’t exactly comfortable with asking people for help, much less donations of kindness. Asking for help is awkward and takes getting used to. Fortunately, Malaysians are a kind bunch, and many people were happy to donate away all, or some, or maybe a sheet of, old newspaper to us. Of course we heard a lot of ‘no’s, but ask a few more houses and someone would be more than happy to help us out. Soon we had our first trolley-load of newspapers…… which quickly turned into our first car-load of old newspapers. We went from street to street filling our supervisor’s- CK’s- car with our booty until there was no place for any passengers. Besides newspapers, we also collected cans, bottles, magazines, cardboard, old computers, and printers. In one house we were even offered an old refrigerator, but declined due to transportation issues.

After fundraising until evening, we had another meeting to evaluate our standing. Due to the change of plans, we only needed to fundraise about RM300, much less than the initial project’s estimate. That was the good news. The bad news was there was only one date which all of us could attend the event at the same time- and that date was only 7 days away. We wanted T-shirts for all participants but hadn’t even designed the shirts; we planned for 60 participants but hadn’t invited any guests at all; we requested for a date but hadn’t gotten any written confirmation from the zoo; and to top it off none of us had much of a plan. Basically we had nothing at all and needed to organize the whole thing in less than a week. Looking back now it seems like pure foolhardiness- one mistake and the whole thing would have sunk because there would be no time to fix any problems. No sane person would look at this task without some doubts. It’s a testament to the great teamwork of Alpha that no one twitched at the decision that we would go ahead with the ‘one-week project’- though I do think CK blinked at our pace. And thus the first day of fundraising came to an end.

Sunday is a day most people take as a day of rest, but at 9am in the morning we found ourselves back out in the street collecting newspapers again. We went to some flats to do our collection work and managed to get quite a lot of old newspapers. The flats were old and rickety, with really small lifts that looked at least 50 years old that only went to alternate levels. It was quite unnerving the first time we rode in the lift and it jerked to a halt just before opening the doors, but not as unnerving as the time the lift doors didn’t open at all. We were trying to get to the third floor of the flat to solicit more newspapers and piled into the lift, only for the lift to get stuck in the lift shaft. The power was still on, but the doors refused to open. It was quite claustrophobic being trapped in the lift, and the situation didn’t improve when we found out that the emergency bell didn’t seem to alert anybody that there was an emergency. We could hear the bell ringing, but nothing else was happening. In the end we tried to force the doors, but that didn’t work either as the outer doors were jammed. Just as we were going to telephone for help, the lift suddenly came to life again and brought us to the fifth floor- and jammed again. For a second time we forced the doors, and this time to our utter relief both inner and outer doors swung open. Needless to say we rushed out of the lift at top speed!

By the end of the two days of fundraising, we had a veritable mountain of newspapers sitting in the garage of our base camp. We sold our newspapers, magazines, and other stuff for a grand total of RM510. There was so many newspapers that the old newspaper man had to make four trips just to collect all the booty.

All in all, I think team Alpha has been very lucky throughout the whole fundraising process. All our team members in Semenanjung Malaysia (one member was from Sabah) attended both days of the fundraising, and we even got some help from other groups too! The weather worked in our favor, we met lots of nice people, and also had lots of fun. Have I mentioned we have one heck of a great project leader? Well, it’s true. The rest of the fundraising team, Alpha or otherwise, deserve a mention for exemplary determination and ‘can do’ attitude. Apparently our time of three weeks to complete PIW is a new record!

It’s been good fun fundraising with Alpha team, one of the highlights of my year, actually. Zooriffic 6 itself is another matter, but that story is best told by others. If things go right, after Zooriffic 6 and the February expeditions, we hope to meet up in April and complete our initial project- to save the seahorses. If there had been one thing I would change about fundraising, it would be the duration- I would make it longer! Good luck to those who are going for expeditions- hoping you will enjoy yourselves! Hu-wa!

                                                                            -Awesome Alpha IW Dec 09


Wong Hong Liang
Team Alpha