Paying It forward through adventure

Homecoming, Raleigh Singapore's 10th anniversary event, was held at Scape. Raleigh Singapore members gathered to reminisce old memories and renew friendships since our last expeditions. Many brought their families and kids and we had family-friendly arrangements – a Little Tikes mini playground and a ‘mobile playground’, Sebastian, who carried the kids around the room like Superman.

Tiong Hock and Pauline shared their experiences during the 10th Anniversary Project to Ooty, India to construct barrier-free toilets for the disabled community. Everyone had an emotional time looking through the old photographs of all our past expeditions and activities in the last 20 years, at our very own "Down the Memory Lane" corner, featuring Victor's photographs curated by Weilin.

Over the last decade, Raleigh societies in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have actively pursued various adventure learning initiatives with the ultimate aim of contributing to the community and youth development.

Raleigh Singapore invited our counterparts in Malaysia and Hong Kong to come to Singapore for a forum session to share and exchange ideas and developments. The forum was held on 2 to 3 April 2005 at YMCA Singapore.

As part of our continuous effort to serve the youth community in Singapore and develop the learning capacity of our volunteers, the Raleigh Singapore embarked on Rakan Raleigh, a mentoring project with the Jamiyah Children’s Home between April and October 2005. Led by Bernice Lee, Lee Eer Ling and Tay Chiew-Boon, Rakan Raleigh connected 30 teenage youths from Jamiyah with 15 young working adults, who volunteered as mentors to the teenage youths. The project brought the mentors and the teenage youths together through a series of adventure-based activities such as dragon boating, treasure hunt, rock climbing, obstacle courses, and an outdoor camp.

During this six-month outreach, the volunteer mentors developed friendships with the teenage youths based on support and trust, as they went go through a series of adventure-based learning activities, aimed at improving self-confidence and self-esteem through the development of leadership and social skills, fostering a sense of belonging and teamwork while promoting a sense of achievement. The passion and desire to make a difference in someone else’s life was the cornerstone of this project, formed by the mentors. With adequate training, we hope our volunteers can become lifelong mentors to touch more lives. As for the youth beneficiaries, they may one day become effective mentors and role models to other disadvantaged youths, proving the real success factor of this project.

The very first Let’s Take A Walk was conceived in 1997 when a group of Raleigh Singapore volunteers were inspired by Fyona Campell’s Round the World Walk. Led by Ong Ling Lee, they banded together to organise the round-island walk, raising funds for the Spastic Children’s Association of Singapore. The aim was to raise $36,000 by walking 130 km in 36 hours around Singapore. This inaugural walk began on 30 Dec 1997 and ended on 1 Jan 1998, as a memorable and meaningful way to mark the arrival of a New Year.

The team of 20 Raleigh volunteers and 20 core walkers had no prior experience of organising such an event. They took about four months for event and route planning, fundraising, logistics preparation, in addition to physical training for the arduous challenge.

The event was flagged off by Mr Chan Soo Sen, then parliamentary secretary for the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Community Development. The core walkers who started walking first were then joined by some 80 public walkers and friends from the association who cheered them on to finish the challenging walk in pouring rain.

Raleigh Singapore collaborated with Lakeside Family Centre on a youth engagement programme through various fun and meaningful activities during drop-in sessions. These activities were carried out in the evenings of the last Friday of every month at the Youth Corner of Lakeside Family Centre. Lakeside Family Centre provides services to children, youth and families in the key areas of counselling and financial support.

We carried out the second instalment of Rakan Raleigh in 2007, following the successful pilot in 2005. A new batch of Jamiyah youth were selected to be mentored by a group of working adults, who were in turn guided and assisted by the first batch of mentors from Rakan Raleigh 2005. This time, the project was led by Bernice Lee, Lee Er Ling and Daniel Tan.

Project Climb On, led by Chua Chee Beng, was organised with the aim of giving youths (aged 17 to 18) from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) the chance to pair up with younger youths (aged 13 to 15) from the Boys’ Town, an institution which provides boarding and residential care for boys with disadvantaged and disengaged families. The intention was to give the ITE students, who are members of the school’s rock climbing team, an empowering opportunity to mentor the younger youths from Boys’ Town, helping the latter to form trusting relationships with older peers whom they might identify with.

Spanning a year, the project began with an induction camp and regular training, culminating in the organisation of a public event, Beyond Everest, where participants climbed for 24 hours on an artificial rock wall, which equalled the height of Mt Everest, raising funds for charity with the help of facilitators. The team also went on an actual climbing excursion in Krabi, Thailand.

The second Let’s Take A Walk took place on the weekend of 26-27 June 2004, seven years after the first time. Another group of volunteers, led by Dennis Chai (Chile 98H), felt “crazy” enough to attempt the feat again. After almost 6 months of intensive planning by about 10 Raleigh members, the 100km walk commenced at 7.30am on 26 June from Dover Park Hospice, one of the beneficiaries of the fundraising event. It ended at 11am on 27 June at Suntec City Fountain of Wealth.

The event brought 450 walkers, in groups of at least four, to walk from the central to the west, north, east and finally south of Singapore. Along the way, enthusiastic and cheerful volunteers and supporters were on hand to provide moral support and nutritional needs with food baskets and drinks. There were even masseuses on hand to provide comfort and relief to aching and tired muscles. The two-day event raised a total of S$37,208.61 for the two beneficiaries, Dover Park Hospice and Singapore After-Care Association (SANA).

The third instalment of Rakan Raleigh saw the start of a new mentoring project with Boys’ Town, where volunteers are given the opportunity to mentor 18 to 20 boys through adventure-based activities over a period of 9 months. Mentoring activities were held once every two to three weeks. Boys’ Town provides lodging and residential care for boys aged 11 to 18 who come from large, troubled, single parent and/or financially needy families.

After coming back from Operation Mingalaba in 1999, a group of volunteers embarked on a community project with the Institute of Mental Health from 2000, working with IMH staff (doctors, occupational therapists and social workers) to organise activities for IMH patients. Their objectives are to raise mental health awareness among volunteers and public, to destigmatise mental illnesses, as well as to create opportunities for psychiatric patients to be involved in social and recreational activities outside of hospital settings.

In 2000, a visit to the Zoo was organized for a group of 40 patients from the chronic wards. In 2001, another group of patients made a trip to Marina South to participate in telematch and kite-flying activities, followed by a steamboat dinner. The following year, in 2002, the patients had the privilege to take the MRT to Changi Airport under close guidance of the volunteers and IMH staff. This event was followed by a barbecue dinner at IMH premises. In 2003, the team had the privilege to work with the Early Psychosis Intervention Program patients and went on a city treasure hunt together. In recognition of the group effort, IMH awarded a Group Long Service award to Raleigh Singapore in October 2004.

This round-island charity cycling event, led by Boey Lai Wan, was held on 22 September 2002 to fundraise for the Handicaps Welfare Association (HWA), Ling Kwang Youth Centre (LKYC) and Raleigh International venturers. The challenge set for the bikers was to complete the 130km route within 12 hours. A total of 364 bikers (259 full island, 105 half island) from the general public took part in the event and 295 of them completed the route.

In addition, there were 22 representations from LKYC and 12 representatives from HWA. Mr Chan Soo Sen, Minister of State (Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Community Development and Sports) graced the event and cycled the last 13km of the route with the rest of the bikers. The project was supported by Central Singapore Community Development Council, Singapore Sports Council, Singapore Pools (Partner in Sports), Singapore Amateur Cycling Association and National Parks.

This instalment, led by Chan Peng and a group of 14 dedicated volunteers, took place on 20 and 21 Dec 2008. The committee worked for months to roll out road shows to publicise the event, and organised walking clinics and training walks to help participants prepare for the walk.

Let’s Take A Walk 2008 attracted the largest number of walkers since the inaugural 1997 event. Together, the 907 walkers raised $55,000 for the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) and for our upcoming expedition, Operation Vannakam 2009. They were also joined by 59 beneficiaries and volunteers from MINDS, who walked the final 3km from The Esplanade to the end point at Singapore Management University, bringing the total strength to almost 1,000 walkers.