Amazing Race 2016 - The Lost Realm

On the 12th of March 2016, the Leo Club of Wesley Methodist School organised its annual funding project – Amazing Race. The event started from 7.30 a.m. and ended around 1.30 p.m.. A total of 132 teams consisting of 396 students of Wesley Methodist School Kuala Lumpur (International) participated in this year’s Amazing Race.

The Funding Director of Leo Club of Wesley Methodist School, Leo Lim Hui Chuang was the Organising Chairperson of this large scale funding project. He was assisted by the two Assistant Organising Chairpersons, Leo Ch'ng Siew Kheng and Leo Ng Xiu Yun, as well as his fellow dedicated committee members, Leo Goh Wei Chen, Leo Nigel Ng Zi Xuan and Leo Samuel Ng Shen Chang. As soon as the organising committee was formed, ideas were generated through several brainstorming sessions after having a base idea which was already thought of. The proposal was then prepared and approved by the Principal of Wesley Methodist School Kuala Lumpur (International), Madam Chia Loy Tian. The organising committee started preparing for the event immediately upon approval.

“The Lost Realm” was the theme for this year’s Amazing Race. The project was aimed to raise funds for the Leo Club of Wesley Methodist School in order to support the club’s future community service events and activities. Besides that, we hope to develop teamwork among the students.

The gameplay of the race was based on a simple storyline. The story was about 3 siblings who had suffered a car accident. This had then brought them to a realm between the Door of Light and Darkness. To escape the realm, the participants had to go through the Door of Light but they needed to retrieve some items in the Realm of Darkness. The participants were required to travel around the city of Kuala Lumpur to play various games to retrieve those items.

A total of six locations around the city of Kuala Lumpur were chosen to serve as stations for the race. The locations were Wesley Methodist School Kuala Lumpur (International), Sunway Putra Mall, Bandaraya, Dang Wangi and Bukit Nanas. Various official documents were sent out to the officials, including the police department as well as the compound owners of the respective locations. Countless official documents were also sent to request for sponsorships from the general public. Sponsorships played an extremely important role in the project in order to decrease the cost of the project which will be used as funds for the club’s future community service projects. We were lucky to secure quite a number of sponsors who truly contributed a lot to our event.

A pre-run was held on the 22nd of February 2016 to identify the unforeseen difficulties and problems. A few ex-Leo members and the ex-faculty advisor, Ms. Leong Peck Lan was invited to participate in the pre-run. A post mortem was held after the pre-run and we discussed the problems and difficulties faced. As a result, we made a few changes to the gameplay of the event.

After countless late night discussions and burning the midnight oil in preparation for the event, the day of the event finally arrived on a beautiful Saturday morning. On the 12th March 2016, the Leo members arrived in school at 6.30 a.m. Leo members who were in their pink T-shirts were briefed and started preparing for the event. The registration counter has already been set up prior the Leo members’ briefing. At 7.30 a.m., registration was opened for all participants while all Leo members departed to their respective stations together with their teachers-in-charge. The participants were then gathered at the assembly ground at 8.15 a.m.. A welcoming speech was given by Leo Lim Hui Chuang, followed by a sketch performance to illustrate the overall storyline to the participants, as well as a briefing of the rules and regulations of the event. At 8.30 a.m., the participants of Category A which consisted of students aged 14 and 15 were flagged off by the Deputy Principal Mrs. Pearl Moses. Meanwhile, the participants of Category B which consisted of students aged 16 and 17 were arranged to form the two letters ‘A’ and ‘R’ and a photo was taken. They were then flagged off at 8.50 a.m..

The participants were required to travel between the stations by walking and through the public transport systems, namely the RapidKL STAR LRT and RapidKL Monorail Line. During the event, Leo members were stationed around the city of Kuala Lumpur, game masters were in charge of the games to allow students to retrieve the items and find out the following stations, traffic marshals were to direct the participants to their destinations and lastly, the station masters who were assigned to manage their respective stations. The committee members were assigned to patrol from station to station, ensuring that the race would run smoothly. We also invited 6 other teachers from our school to help out in maintaining order at the stations.

The race ended at 1.30 p.m. according to the schedule devised. All the participants arrived in school safely and submitted their answers to the Leo members. The Leo members then cleaned up the school compound and took a group photo after debriefing session. After the event, the organising committee marked the booklets and the results were announced during school assembly on the 29th of March 2016 (Tuesday). Winners were awarded with prizes such as JBL speakers, power banks sponsored by Toyota, Nike Water Bottles and Tupperware Tumblers.

Among the challenges encountered while organising this project was the search for sponsors to fund our event. We failed to obtain sponsorship on the cost of the route from RapidKL but we were lucky enough that they subsidised the cost of the card itself for us. Other than that, we had problems obtaining food for the participants. However, with the determination of the our fellow Leo members, we managed to get a lot of food sponsors such as Kellogg’s cereals, Pringles Potato Chips, Mineral Water and the isotonic drink 100plus.

On the event day itself, the LRT lost power an hour before the event started. The organising committee, Board of Directors of the club and teacher advisors had to gather and discuss an alternative solution. The Leo members had to take the free shuttle bus to go to their duty points. Luckily, half an hour before the first flag off, the LRT finally started working again. Besides that, we faced a minor trouble in crowd control as we have to make sure the participants do not run as we could not afford any casualties. Another problem was to control the participants’ noise level in Sunway Putra Mall as we had a Treasure Hunt at floor 4&5. As the event ended, we definitely learned from our mistakes and were glad that these challenges had shaped us into who we are now.

Overall, the event was a success as the objectives for this project were achieved. The whole journey of planning this event was like a long and winding road filled with endless trials and tribulations, but it was a great learning experience in general. Although there were a few setbacks, the challenges faced were overcame with the perseverance and teamwork demonstrated by all the Leo members. Our biggest takeaway would be to always be aware of what lies ahead and to plan as early as possible so that there will be sufficient time to search for a remedy if something goes terribly wrong. The challenges that the organising committee faced during the planning of the project can be avoided through earlier planning, effective leadership and better teamwork. We sincerely hope that the club can improve by learning from the mistakes and difficulties faced.