The Charlie Fundraising Adventure

Charlie-Chii-Chie! Charlie-Chii-Chie! Gooooo Charlie!

The Team Charlie (Dec IW 07) cheer was still ringing in our heads when we started the blueprints for our Post-IW Project. Still driven by the momentum of IW, us Team Charlie members quickly found our feet and wasted no time in choosing what we thought would be a challenge: the Save Our Seahorses (SOS) project located in Gelang Patah Johor. With that goal in mind, fundraising plans quickly followed suit and it was as soon as the following Saturday when we carried out the first phase of our fundraising project.

Charlie Fundraising Phase One – Odd Jobs + Newspaper Collection

Our first fundraising project was simple: we went around house-to-house in the Bandar Utama area, looking for odd jobs and collecting old newspapers to raise funds. Though most of our funds that day came from donations, we managed to get a few people to let us wash their cars. Our hard work paid off as we managed to collect a substantial amount of newspapers as well as money. This project also paved the way for Team Charlie’s next fundraising mission: a Jumble Sale.

Us washing our very first car of the day. 4D anyone?

Honest paid labour always manages to bring a smile to everyone’s faces.

It was inspiring to see how dedicated and hardworking everyone (well almost) was.

Even our Raleigh President came to help us carry old newspapers. (More on Mr. President to come)


All in all, not bad for a day’s work.

Charlie Fundraising Phase Two – Jumble Sale I

Junk Collection

Spurred by the success of our first fundraising and inspired by the willingness of people to give us their unwanted items, we at Team Charlie set sights on organizing the next fundraising project – a jumble sale. Desperate pleas were sent out to family, friends, as well as the Raleigh community, asking for unwanted items that could be sold at a jumble sale. After all, whats a Jumble Sale without the junk right?

Hey, we even managed to get an organ.

Junk Sorting

Thanks to all the kind-hearted good Samaritans out there, we managed to collect a considerable amount of junk. The next task obviously, was to sort it. Sorting out junk for a jumble sale is no mean feat, it took seven people a full day to finish sorting. The upside is the many hidden “treasures” you come across which never fail to surprise you.

This was only a small portion of the items we had to sort through.

Sometimes, you just may find that particular handbag you’ve been looking for.

Or maybe even an outrageous outfit for a Poor Taste Party.


Dig deep enough and you’ll end up with something good. Cool beachwear for instance.

Junk Selling

Finally after all those preparations, it was time for us to sell our junk. Our venue was the Mont’Kiara flea market, where we booked a stall for two weeks in a row.

At the Raleigh stall, we sold a wide variety of items.

We sold clothes.

We sold books.

We sold shoes and bags.

[Blogmaster: no they didn't really sell these items but they thank the thoughtfulness of the donors anyhow.]

We even sold items that are a bit to the “exotic” side.

All day, we tried as hard as we could to pitch to our customers.

Most of the times, our efforts paid off.

Selling from morning to late afternoon, we managed to raise quite a bit of money for our SOS project, while having a lot of fun in the process. Whoever knew that jumble sales could be so fun?

At the end of the day however, it was time to unwind and release some stress.

What better way to do so than relive your childhood memories?

No one would have thought that see-saws would make for such good photo opportunities.

Charlie Fundraising Phase Three – Jumble Sale II

With one successful jumble sale already under our belt, we were even more determined to make the second one work out as well. This time around, our focus was in getting rid of our items, not trying to make as high a profit as possible.

Raleigh stall – Take Two.

So determined were we to get rid of our junk, we even sold items that we had become attached to over the past week.

And like the sign says, Everything Must Go!

Our second jumble sale ended with us making less profit than the first one, but we managed, for the most part, to achieve our objective in getting rid of our junk. A big thanks to all the Raleigh members who dropped by at our stall to help out or have a look around. You guys helped make it a success.

Some of the Raleigh members who dropped by to give a hand. Thanks so much guys! Also, thanks to those who dropped by but are not in the photos.

At the end of it all, we managed to fundraise the amount needed to sponsor our trip down to the SOS Research Station, which we have scheduled for the 22^nd to 24^th of January 2008. We even managed to raise additional funds which we are going to donate to prospective February 08 Venturers. It took a lot of effort and was tiring at times, but in the process, we had a lot of fun and grew that much closer to one another. Plus, we learnt so much from our fundraising, now isn’t that what Raleigh is all about?

Now folks, here comes the moment many of you have been waiting for. Presenting exclusive behind-the-scenes candid shots of our beloved President, Shih Chung. Remember, you saw it first right here on RIKL’s blog. Brought to you exclusively by the members of Team Charlie.

Scandalous! Don’t you just love that oh-so-charming smile?

Well, that’s all for updates on Team Charlie. We at Team Charlie wish the other IW teams best of luck with their fundraising and also PIWPs. If you need any manpower don’t hesitate to let us know. Also, Team Charlie would like to thank all the Raleigh members who gave us help in any way during our fundraising projects, especially Team Delta who came by to help us many times. We thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts.

I hereby end this post with a word of wisdom from my PIWP leader, Jia Loon, whose hand also features in the accompanying picture.

Ubi.

Luke Lim Ming Yuan

Team Charlie