To be honest, all of us were very relieved once our team performance is over! We were very happy, because our families came to watch us perform (even my twin bro is here!) and I guess that we kinda impressed them... And we hope that all our hard work and practice really paid off with a good performance that was enjoyed by our family, friends, fans and supporters! :)
Once the performance is over, we shifted our focus for the remainder of the day - Cash Donations. As teams were briefed earlier on, teams will no longer earn points for coupons sold and there was no team voting mechanism in place as it was with last year's Miracle event.
Charity begins at home!
And I guess for us, we were pretty lucky because we got a HUGE BUNCH OF FRIENDS TO HELP! Osman was right on the money, by preparing several more collection boxes, we'll be able to target a larger area and hopefully, that'll pay off with more cash donations which will translate into points for each team.
Some of our RATTs supporters and friends whom helped out with the donations. Thanks guys!
Generally speaking, it was kinda tough and hard to get the public to donate via cash contributions... Some of us walked out of Miracle area to approach some of the cafe's and restaurants, but the response was somewhat discouraging. So the team with our friends had a short brainstorming session and we decided that we were going to sell coupon booklets in exchange to obtain cash contributions.
Look at all the extra booklets we have for selling!
Why coupon booklets you ask? Considering that teams do not earn points for selling booklets that day? Well, the answer is actually simple. Earlier on, before teams qualified for the finals (that is during the RUSH Challenges 1 - 9), we were all going around selling coupon booklets. And during that time, the team did receive a sizeable amount of donation from people who didn't want the booklets - they were either not coming or just wanted to contribute financially. As a result, as off the last check, we have approximately 120++ booklets (face value of over RM 6000) that have been purchased, but not collected by their respective doners.
Le Roy and Mike (our cameraman) selling coupons and collecting donations!
So the guys started walking about with the collection boxes while fanning their coupon booklets for sale. Osman and Le Roy decided to camp right in front of the Fitness First entrance - and their strategy proved to work because they are members whom have not purchased their booklets yet! We did receive a sizeable amount of cash this way (by selling our coupon booklets) and we did receive some small monetary contributions as well from the general public and gym members. Thanks guys - every ringgit collected goes to charity to help the needy!
Aunty KL donating for a good cause!
But for me, one of my two most memorable moments during the Grand Final day was when I was standing in front of the Front Desk, holding my collection box. There was these two young boys (mum was waiting nearby), perhaps not more than 3-5 years old, who approached me with RM1 bills in their hands. As I was holding the box at chest height, both boys tried to tip-toe to reach the top of my box.
I was so touched by their gesture and I just stood still... And they were still standing at their tip of their toes to reach the top of my box... Haha. Silly me. So I just bend down lower and tilted the box so that they can insert their blue notes in the box. They both really made my day - and made me realise that what we are doing here today, will help those in need.
More donations coming our way!
Soon as the day progresses, and as charity items at the booth are starting to run out, we realise that the coupon sales are not longer picking up, and instead are dropping pretty badly. The team had another brainstorming session and decided to do two things:
First, since the booklets are pretty worthless at that time (there are not much items for redemption left) and hence can only be used to attend classes, we decide to sell them off at a discounted rate. We started selling at RM 80 for two booklets, and soon the price dropped as we did have quite a lot of booklets left. We sold them off to friends who wanted to redeem products, hoping that we can turn as many booklets as we have left into hard cash to be inserted into our collection box.
KK workin' his charm with the ladies!
Soon, we realise that strategy isn't really working, and not many people want to buy more coupons then what they really require. And then Osman came up with a brilliant idea - to use our remaining coupons to buy items from the Fitness First booth and sell those instead! Selling the tee-shirts, magazines, FF bags and other merchandise would be much easier then to do then selling coupons!
We swamped the FF booth armed with dozens of booklets and purchased hot moving items that we can sell such as tee-shirts, magazines, FF bags and other merchandise... We even bought their Nescafe coffee cans and they even offered to sell us their muffins too! All in the name of charity!
Wah lau eh! Buy so much also no discount ah?!
And soon, we were really making grounds by selling those items as they were flying off our hands like hotcakes! It also didn't really help the FF booth coz we were selling them to the public at lower than the price we got them for! (Sorry ya for spoiling the market! Hehe). We purchased some of the last few remaining tee's at RM50 (original selling price was RM20) and sold them off for RM20! And to further sweeten the deal, we threw in some goodie bags filled with magazines and other items to the buyer for FREE! Now that's CHARITY people!
Tee-shirts for sale! Free goodie bag!
The guys really bought a lot of FF bags and some backdated magazines, and whenever there are people who gave monetary donations, however small the amount, we reward them with a goodie bag. They may not be anything much or anything valuable in the bag, but you know, a little deed goes a long way. And some came back to donate even more!
The FF staff celebrating coz we nearly bought all of their merchandise, we "sapu-ed" all their tee-shirts and FF bags!
So at the end of the day, we did manage quite a sizeable amount of cash for charity! How much did we managed to raise? Was it enough to win the RUSH Challenge? Well you gotta find out in the next entry - The Grand Finals (Part 2c) - Ending With A Bang!
Posted by: Colin
Text by: Colin
Pics by: Jason, Osman, Mike, Le Roy, Eugene, Natalie and others
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