Paying It forward through adventure

Trained as an electrical and electronics engineer, Johann has been with the non-profit Engineering Good in key roles from 2014 until he stepped down from the CEO role in 2022. An avid cyclist who knows no boundaries, he cycled from Turkey to New Zealand over 18 months, and he was also a member of the Singapore Everest Expedition 1998 Team. He has served as a Board member for the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) and is now a Board member of NLB Singapore. If you come across Johann in the wild please let his wife know, she’s been looking for him.

I learnt of Raleigh Singapore and its local activities from a former colleague, Bridgette (former Raleigh Singapore's Vice President). I took part in Let's Take A Walk 2015 (finishing 50km in 13 hours), got roped into being an LTAW Operations volunteer in 2017, and somehow became Co-Chair for the entire event in 2019. The most outdoor adventure-like thing I've done with Raleigh members is climbing a thickly forested hill for fun during the 2019 Raleigh Asia Regional Conference in KL – and then discovering, in the shower later, that a leech had stuck on along the way. Still, I managed to get almost $30k in Tote Board funding for LTAW 2019, on top of donations and event proceeds, for a total of $102,116.51 to the beneficiary Rare Disorders Society Singapore, so that's something. I've also helped out in volunteer events at migrant workers' dormitories for Raleigh's partnership with Project Chulia Street. Besides the fun of pulling all-nighters at checkpoints for LTAW, and the general good of helping people, the best part of volunteering with Raleigh for me is meeting with people of different backgrounds and experiences.

I still remember vividly the newspaper photo of a Singaporean trudging through waist deep water with his backpack on his head amidst the amazon jungle like environment taking part in a Raleigh Expedition. That photo left a very deep impression in me and I had this dream of joining such a Raleigh expedition ever since then. My opportunity came when my hall senior Ling Lee introduced me to the Raleigh Selection weekend and soon I was off to my 3 month adventure in Uganda in June 1996. It was an eye opening and adventurous 3 months. After I came back from the expedition, I was all fired up and took part in Operasi Raleigh Batam – Geranting Expedition, went on to organise Selection weekends, took part in the inaugural Let’s Take a Walk, was the deputy expedition leader of the Inner Mongolia Expedition Phase 1 in 1999 and part of the recce team for Tibet expedition. I was also part of the pro-tem Committee whereby we set out to bring Raleigh to be a registered Society. I took a long break from active participation subsequently due to family commitments and recently became more active again as now my kids are all bigger and have more time on hand.

I did my selection weekend in January in the UK, and had to wade across a pond at 5 degrees Celsius… my teeth chattered non-stop for half the day and night! I was absolutely surprised and thrilled to receive the letter that I was selected. Thereafter, I chose to go to a warm country for my expedition – Zimbabwe!! Even though I was one of the oldest on the expedition, it was an amazing ten weeks about which I still tell stories.

Returning to Singapore, I was brought back into the Raleigh fold several times by Ling Lee (Past President and current Exco member), and finally committed myself by being Kitchen IC on Operasi Raleigh Batam II – P. Bertam and then part of the organizing committee for Operation Tashi Deleg. I really appreciate Raleighian can-do and never-say-die attitude and the sense of community and gotong royong, which I believe are especially needed in our society today. But ultimately, it is because I have made amazing friends and have had so much fun volunteering with Raleigh that I keep self-arrowing!

I like to volunteer... really! Maybe my day job as an educator helps complement this lifestyle that I have chosen. My family and my students know that I am seldom far from Service-Learning activities and projects.

I started this journey when I was a student volunteer with the then Singapore Council of Social Services, now NCSS. Then I wanted to try something a little more "adventurous" and signed up to join Raleigh through Operasi Raleigh Batam in 1996. Sometimes when I am not careful, I still say 'we dug a reservoir' for t

Fresh out of school after 3 years of Applied Chemistry in 2001, looking for adventure and meaning, I found Operation Tashi Deleg. I am thankful for the opportunity to step out of the “Singapore Bubble” and experience the adventure in a unique way. I am even grateful for finding the”one kind” people to experience it with. A lifetime later, still looking for adventure and meaning, I find myself back where it all started to continue the journey of the adventure and paying it forward, Raleigh Singapore style.

(Tai Tng is the right-most gentlman in the photo)

My first experience with Raleigh Singapore is setting up a make shift rest stop in the middle of a long stretch of Let's Take a Walk event in the middle of the night and serving eggs and drinks to the endurance walker who are tryign their best to complete the 50km and 100km long endurance walk organised by Raleigh Singapore in support of a charity.

To me, Raleigh Singapore is the nexus of adventure and charity , an organisation of adventurers alwasy seeking to make the world a better and kinder place for the others who have less than them.

I am deeply amazed by the depth and breath of the skilllsets and resources that each memner of Raleigh Singapore member brings to a project. As adventurers, we take very close and careful look at the risk involve in our activites and work on bring about a good outcome for people who volunteer with us , that they go home after the project feeling that they have contributed well to a cause that they support.

Raleigh Singapore's membership is a myriad of people from different backgorund and i am honoured to be able to serve them as a exco member as we herald in another "Sunrise" as we step out of the Covid19 years and into a future that continues to need good people to work hard to support our community. My first experience with Raleigh Singapore is setting up a make shift rest stop in the middle of a long stretch of Let's Take a Walk event in the middle of the night and serving eggs and drinks to the endurance walker who are tryign their best to complete the 50km and 100km long endurance walk organised by Raleigh Singapore in support of a charity.

To me, Raleigh Singapore is the nexus of adventure and charity , an organisation of adventurers alwasy seeking to make the world a better and kinder place for the others who have less than them.

I am deeply amazed by the depth and breath of the skilllsets and resources that each memner of Raleigh Singapore member brings to a project. As adventurers, we take very close and careful look at the risk involve in our activites and work on bring about a good outcome for people who volunteer with us , that they go home after the project feeling that they have contributed well to a cause that they support.

Raleigh Singapore's membership is a myriad of people from different backgorund and i am honoured to be able to serve them as a exco member as we herald in another "Sunrise" as we step out of the Covid19 years and into a future that continues to need good people to work hard to support our community.

I was bored barely into a year working as a network engineer. I chanced upon an article by Dr Tan Chi Chiu about his Raleigh International expedition to Mongolia and responded to the call for selection. One muddy weekend and six months later, I was part of 93D Siberia. After I returned from Siberia, I volunteered with the locally organised Operasi Raleigh Batam in 1997. Later that year, while waiting for a doctor's appointment, the idea of doing something simple yet challenging for a good cause came to me. With a group of like-minded Raleigh folks, we started “Let's Take A Walk” (LTAW), with the aim to raise $36,000 by walking 36 hours, 100km around Singapore. While I missed some major action when I was away in the US to further my studies, I quickly caught up with Raleigh’s activities when I returned to Singapore. My love (for community and adventure) affair continued with Operation Mingalaba 1999, Operation Tashi Deleg 2001, Project Climb On 2002, and more LTAWs. Raleigh gave me a break when other adventure possibilities turned me down. Raleigh opened my eyes and heart to the many possibilities to learn and to give. Raleigh brought me to many of you, whom I am proud to have as friends and privileged to do meaningful things together. I'm inspired to do this so that we can continue our love affair together.

Curiosity and ignorance led me to sign up for Raleigh. I have distant memories of the Selection Weekend, I was the one on the stretcher to be carried through mud! I was guilt-stricken!

I chose Mongolia as I thought it was in the intersection between East and West. It was 1999. Nearly fainting at the end of Day 1 trek through Gobi Desert, I wondered how I was going to survive the three-week trek with 20 kg on my shoulders…every step was a slog. Being a construction worker mixing cement with simple tools was hard but fulfilling work, as we helped to build a school. Living in the wild for weeks subject to the fearsome natural elements was scary, not to mention how we managed without showering.

But I also saw the dazzling constellation of stars travel across the sky, the eternal sand dunes whispering mysteriously in the wind and the wrinkled smiling Mongolians mastering their wild horses and the natural elements. Being a foreigner in a foreign land, with no external script of how I should be, I got clearer about who I was. I wanted to "change the world" but I was the one who was changed.

Work and children punctuated these wild adventures for a long time. Somehow I lost connection with Raleigh through these years. I reconnected with Bridgette (who else, right?) and came back because I miss the crazy gungho, one kind of people who would just do it, seeking out adventures. It is only looking back that I realise the Raleigh expedition's profound impact on me. I hope to be able to contribute and create opportunities for our younger generation to grow with hardship, build unexpected friendship and develop community stewardship.

I got to know about Raleigh Singapore when my friends and I joined Let’s Take A Walk in 2017 as a participant. We were young, naive and relatively ‘active’, which led to us signing up for the 100km category. From there, I got to know of other Raleignians and learnt that LTAW was fully ran by volunteers only. I got to know more like-minded and ‘gung-ho’ individuals and decided to join the planning committee for LTAW in 2019 and 2022. Subsequently in 2023, I continue to volunteer for LTAW and also joined the EXCO, hoping to grow the Raleigh community and get more young adventurers involved in the activities and projects Raleigh has.