International Relationship Day 2015

The Leo Club of Wesley Methodist School had held its 12^th International Relationship Day (I.R. Day) on the 10^th of April 2015. The theme for this year’s I.R. Day is ‘Cinéma Épique’ which means ‘Epic Cinema’ when translated to English. The main purpose of this event is to strengthen the friendships between our Leo members and members from other organisations such as the Leo Clubs and Interact Clubs. The event was also aimed to promote international relationship between our club member and people from other countries.

This purpose driven event is purely inspired by movies of all sorts, from the comical Chaplin masterpieces to the heart-rending indie films of today. Through this event, we hope to open the eyes of the audience, rendering them with a feeling that there are more to movies rather than being just a simple means of entertainment. We also hope to evoke a sense of nostalgia among the audience, as we replay the galleries of the movies of yesterday that had once inspired them to be who they are now. Deepening the knowledge of the audience to the cinematic world is also one of our main aims, introducing them to films from all corners of the world, allowing them to explore the magnificence and wonders of other countries that are oblivion to them. Overall, aside from promoting a healthy relationship between our Leo members and also people from the outside world, this event is also aimed to fulfil the audience with a wonderful array of performances relating to films, and most importantly, to inspire them in a way that they have never been inspired before.

This year, more than 600 people attended our I.R. Day, including the Lions, school's board, teachers, Australian exchange students, students and Leos. At 3.00 p.m., registration was opened and our ushers who were all dressed as different movie characters were sent out to their respective locations to usher incoming guests to the school hall for the event. The doors were officially opened at 3.15 p.m., as guests swarmed into the hall to attend the event. The hall was decorated beautifully by the decoration team, with 20 different hand drawn movie posters placed at the gallery, each representing a different movie theme. Origami stars of different hues were also hung across the hall. The front part of the stage was decorated with a film roll design and outside the hall, we had placed our very own Wesley Express, a train made by us from scratch. Along the stairs, we had also put up our very own Hollywood stars with a few fun and educational movie facts.

Once the Guest of Honour and the VIPs had, the hall was dimmed and the show started at 4.00 p.m. with a video that pumped the audience with a brief introduction towards movies, and this was quickly followed by a mind-blowing yet epic painting performance by the Incandesce. Immediately after that, the emcees, Leo Jonathan Chew Jia Wei, portraying as the mad scientist from the Back to the Future trilogy, Doctor Emmett Brown; and Leo Goh Wei Chen, portraying as the villain from the Star Wars Saga, Darth Vader introduced themselves and addressed the guests accordingly. The Presiding Officer, Lion Natalie Gan was then invited up on stage to call the meeting to order, and the singing of the national anthem as well as the recitation of the Leo Pledge were carried out according to protocol.

The event continued with a pantomime performance which was aimed to pay respect to silent films which are pioneers to the films that we watch nowadays. The pantomime tells the story of a gentleman who accidentally angers a gangster, and a fight which combines both wit and humour occurs between the two of them. It was then followed by a session of roll call to acknowledge the guests present that day. Then, we had a spectacular and mind-blowing marionette performance inspired by one of the earliest source of storytelling, puppetry, which left the audiences in massive amusement. This was then followed by a speech by the organising chairperson of this event, I.R. Director of Leo Club of Wesley Methodist School, Leo Neoh Zhe Qin. After his speech, the sketch team performed their sketch which revolves around the story of an esteemed director’s fall from grace. As the sketch ended, it was time for the school principal, Madam Chia Loy Tian to come up on stage to share her words of wisdom. The audience later enjoyed a video presentation edited by Leo Neoh Zhe Qin after Madam Chia Loy Tian gave her speech. Our Guest of Honour, Lion Natalie Gan gave her speech to the guests present and this was followed by a ballet performance inspired by the movie “Swan Lake”, which tells the story of how the innocent and fragile White Swan transforms into the dark and sensual Black Swan, only with unpredictable consequences.

After this, it was the presentation of the tokens of appreciation to our VIPs by our club faculty advisor, Ms. Manusha Nair and also the presentation of souvenirs to the clubs which attended our event by our club President, Leo Kok Jia Yunn. The whole event drew to a close with our finale: a dance performance inspired by the movie Footloose. All the guests were then welcomed to the canteen to enjoy some light refreshments prepared by our own Leos, which include mouth-watering hot dogs, crispy almond puffs, scrumptious popcorn from one of our sponsors, Planet Popcorn, as well as some refreshing orange juice. After the event, we cleaned up the used areas such as the hall and the canteen. A debriefing session was carried out at the assembly ground around 7.30 p.m., and after a group photo was taken, the Leo members were dismissed, marking a joyous and satisfying end to the event which we had worked hard on for so many months, so many sleepless nights, but also, with so many fun and unforgettable moments along the way.