XL Malaysia Eco Adventure Family Camp, December 2007

What a MAGICAL 2007 it was!

Thank you, dear XL Life Members, for being a part of the magic!

Our XL Family Eco Adventure Camp wrapped up the long line of many XL Malaysia 2007 events organized by our country managers Jackie, Steven, LiLian, with a refreshing overnighter weekend at the Commonwealth Forest Park Reserve!

The lovely park was filled with 30 Life Members' families, children, and friends, contributing to the laughter & fun i.e. nature walk to waterfall, campfire, marshmallow roasting, 5 yummy meals a day, playing by the stream, and more fun with family and friends!

Indoor and outdoor team bonding games were led by our New Zealand Life Member who travelled the furthest especially for this camp, Denny MacArthur.

A big thank you also to Di Riddell, our Australian Life Member who flew in all the way to join us and delivered a meaningful talk on building strong family relationships.

Our Life Member and Treehugger, Matthias Gelber, gave his eye-opening reminder to love and take care of our planet and environment. This was topped off with everyone being involved hands on planting 30 trees in the park itself – our contribution to Mother Earth!

LM and Action Coach Ian Homer gave more meaning to the year 2008 by leading us in a super visual way of what we want for this new year by creating our vision boards.

LM Melinda Lim and her team gave an insightful hour of what her educational company can do in preparing our schoolchildren especially in math skills.

LM Myriam Oliveres conducted a superb meditation session early in the morning, while her son Gael and his friend entertained us with songs at the night campfire!

LM Hock spread the fun of a very unique and educational board game involving words, counting, spelling and writing with us through his eXtraDICTION game.

Thank you all who made the camp a success! :)

With the beautiful memories and connections, we certainly look forward to another MAGICAL 2008!

Charity Drive to buy School Bags and School Shoes for Poor Primary Schoolchildren

Charity Drive to buy School Bags and School Shoes for Poor Primary Schoolchildren

11 November 2007,
Kerteh, Terengganu

What came from a simple desire to help poor schoolchildren has grown into full bloom as XL Life Member Ir. Rashid Sidek took action and proposed the idea to his company's upper management as a possible Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project.

Very quickly, the idea developed into a working plan to gather funds for purchasing school bags and school shoes to be distributed to poor schoolchildren in the Kerteh area of Terengganu, the centre of Malaysia's petro-chemical industry.

In true entreprenuer style of leveraging on the power of collaboration with like-minded people, Ir. Rashid's company, Toyo Engineering & Construction Sdn Bhd (Toyo-M) http://www.toyo-m.com.my teamed up with the Institution of Engineers (IEM) http://www.iem.org.my Kerteh Chapter to gather the funds from their companies, staff, vendors, subcontractors and supportive families and friends.

The total sum collected quickly grew into a grand total of RM 27,444 by the time the presentation ceremony occured at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Kerteh (Kerteh Primary School).

The beaming beneficiaries of the fruits of this labour were the poor deserving primary school children, a total of 280 children from 9 primary schools in the surrounding Kerteh and Kemaman area. These children were carefully chosen by the Kemaman Education Office based on children
who come from families with a total income of less than RM400 per month. The gifts helped lessen the financial burden of the poor families.

The occasion was graced by the presence of the Member of Parliament of Kemaman Dato’ Ahmad Shabery Cheek who is also the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dato’ Hj Abu Bakar the State Assemblyman from Kemasek, Ir Tiong HC the chairman of IEM Kerteh, Mr Imai the Managing Director of Toyo Malaysia, Ir. Nazari from IEM, and other invited guests from Kerteh and Kuala Lumpur.


It was very touching to see the schoolchildren receive their gifts with joy and appreciation, and the hope is that more will be done to grow this initiative to regularly assist other poor schoolchildren statewide in Terengganu, and then countrywide.

Global Happiness Day 07/07/07 Malaysia

Global Happiness Day 07/07/07 Malaysia

What were you doing on the 7th of July, 2007?

Some children were having so much fun on that weekend at 3 children's wards: University Malaya Medical Centre, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, and Pantai Medical Centre.

Life Members Jackie, Steven and Purdy had organized a Happiness Event together with XL Malaysia to celebrate Global Happiness Day (07/07/07) in Kuala Lumpur, and bring some joy and cheer to sick children who had to stay back over the weekend in the wards.

The concept of Global Happiness Day came from Shelley Sykes, the Happiness Guru http://www.shelleysykes.com/, an Australian XL Life Member, who chose this day to be celebrated worldwide as a day of happiness. Shelley then shared her idea of Global Happiness Day with others, allowing individuals and companies worldwide to organize a local event with full creativity and passion.

Jackie, Steven and Purdy then proceeded to develop and execute the idea of raising sponsorship to support various charities and non government organizations in Malaysia such as

• Salam Wanita - weavers of Eco Friendly Baskets made from magazines http://www.justmarketing.info/
  
• TLC - The Truly Loving Company, makers of household and personal care products whose profits go towards supporting 5 local charities. http://www.thetrulylovingcompany.com/

Through the support of XL Life Members, friends and family, these happy gift baskets and contents were sponsored and presented as a loving gift to the hospitalized child's family.

XL Malaysia also ran a 3 hour fun and games, children and family oriented program at each hospital, where various members stepped up and gave back, such as Zabrina who shone as a storyteller, Hock played his eXtraDICTION educational game. Other volunteers provided the magic shows, decorations of balloons, games, storytelling, sing along by youth choir Navasuara, and all the helpful hands, equipment and logistics which contributed to a successful, meaningful day of happiness!