15th Annual Farewell - Simba Milele

On the 22nd of July 2017, the Leo Club of Wesley Methodist School had their annual Farewell at Twenty20Two, located in Seksyen 22, Petaling Jaya. A total of 57 Leos, consisting of 28 senior members and 29 junior members attended the event.

The committee for this year's annual Farewell was led by Leo Calista Liew Weng Yan as the organizing chairperson, partnered with her assistant organizing chairperson Leo Sitara Darini Vijayavel, with invaluable support from the committee members Leo Andrea Goh, Leo Wong You Jian, and Leo Tan Yong Ze. The committee decided on the theme "Simba Milele" for this year's annual Farewell, which means "Lions Forever" in Swahili.

Junior members gathered at the venue at 9:30a.m. in the morning on the event day. They immediately got to work, setting up decorations, testing the a.v. system and practising performances, along with various other tasks and duties. After preparations were complete, a full rehearsal was executed to find and address problems, and the members were given a final briefing.

The arrival of the senior Leos began at 1:00p.m. They were all presented with door gifts, which were handmade booklets containing pictures of the respective seniors, along with a handwritten message from a junior Leo, and a few pages for signatures and messages from other Leos. Those who arrived first were shown to their seats and enjoyed a playlist prepared by the junior Leos. The event officially commenced at 1:40p.m. The sound of enthusiastic applause and cheering could be heard as a group of junior Leos made their entrance at the front of the hall and performed a dance to African tribal music. Subsequently, the emcees of the event, Leo Wong Yen Ling and Leo Chan Zi Yu, gave a welcoming speech and had everyone in fits of laughter with their pun-filled opening conversation.

Afterwards, the past president, Leo Soma Sivashankar delivered his speech, thanking all the members for their unfaltering contributions to the club and reminiscing his memorable experience with his Board of Directors throughout the fiscal year 2016/2017. Following that, a short video presentation was played, which was a collection of candid pictures of the senior Leos.

Everyone was overjoyed as lunchtime was announced, and the senior Leos followed by the junior Leos queued up to take food from the buffet-style lunch prepared. Halfway through lunch, Leo Chong Ning Xin gave a singing performance, which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. After lunch, a short, meaningful speech was given by president Leo Khor Jia Shin. The game masters of the event then announced the first game that they would be playing, which was a face painting game. Four Senior Leos were told to select a junior member each, and then a picture of African tribal makeup was displayed for a brief period of time, and the senior Leos had to replicate the makeup to the best of their ability on the junior of their choice. The face painting game was played for four consecutive rounds. The second game was a body clap game, where senior Leos were divided into four groups and then a body clap was performed by a junior Leo. The seniors were then given a few minutes to choreograph a body clap that was as close to the one shown as possible. Everyone burst into laughter as they watched the different groups' hilarious interpretations of the body clap. The teams with the best body claps were presented with hampers by teacher advisor, Mr Lee Sek Khoon.

After that, an open-microphone session was conducted by the emcees. A handful of senior and junior members were given the opportunity to share and express their feelings, memories, and pride of being Leos with the rest of the club. Everyone felt emotionally moved by the deep, genuine words shared by the Leo members.

The organizing chairperson, Leo Calista Liew Weng Yan, was invited up front to deliver her speech, in which she thanked the seniors for all their past contributions, her committee members for aiding her in planning and executing the annual Farewell, and the teacher advisors and junior Leos for their endless support.

The hall lights were dimmed as the second video presentation was played. It was a funny video in which the junior Leos went around interviewing their fellow junior members, asking them an array of different questions about the seniors. It was then time for the grand finale. A group of dancers started off by performing another dance to African tribal music, and the rest of the junior Leos arranged themselves around the entire hall, as the seniors were completely enthralled by the ongoing dance. The senior Leos were soon pleasantly surprised as all the junior Leos joined in on the dance. The juniors then pulled out the seniors sitting the closest to them and to join in on the dance. The multicoloured lights flashed as everyone had the time of their lives dancing together. After the music faded, and everyone was still enthralled from dancing, the emcees announced that a group photo was to be taken. The Leo members arranged themselves and smiled widely as the picture was taken.

The annual Farewell officially ended at about 4:30 p.m. Senior Leos began to vacate the area, while the juniors stayed back to clean up. Everyone had an amazing and meaningful time, and we will all look back on all of our personal experiences gained from the club, cherishing them forever.