twestival local - Tweet.Meet.Give. - March 24, 2011

On 24th March 2011, 300 people came to Origin Cafe and Green Olives at Karamunsing Capital and supported our cause to help the Sabah Society for the Blind. 6 weeks of dedicated planning and execution later, I’m happy to reiterate that we raised more than RM22,500 (USD$7,446) that night. Hurray!

It surely was a fun night and we owe our success to @HoneyBee_Mei, a dedicated team of volunteers, the generosity of sponsors, and everyone who showed up to support us!

THANKS TO SPONSORS
The first people I want to thank are the sponsors, who have so generously donated items, services, and resources in kind to make this event a successful one. In no order of importance, here’s my longish list of thanks...

On behalf of the whole team, @HoneyBee_Mei and I would like to thank ALL our sponsors namely Origin Café, Boutique Cupcakes, Tropical Holidays Paradise, Imperial Hotel, Sailors Café, Riverbug, CORE Fitness, Genesis MD, Think Workshop, Body Shop, Cathay Cineplexes, Hito, Green Olives, Wine Mystic, ACF Hampers, GG Rent-a-Motorbike, New World Sports, Hitz FM, KAYU Design, Caneelia Bags, Chin Electrical Services, Cracko Art Group, Valentine Chong, Michelle Koh, IEC, AVS (Patrick Tiew), MSJ Media, Mediatropica, DJ Chris, The W group, Hakod Oasis, Lava Restaurant & Bar, Vuitingsen Capital, Best Vintage and La Fetta.

Your contributions had definitely been instrumental in helping Twestival KK achieve its objectives and made the event a memorable and exciting one. We thank you for your generosity as we wouldn't have been able to do this without your support.

Special thanks go to the Cracko Art Group, who put 11 artists over 7 hours to create this mural of beauty!

THE SPONSOR WE LEFT OUT


The one sponsor that we didn’t get to thank fairly was VTS Capital. Before you bite your lips, note that the reason for this was because the Executive Director was none other than our Lead Organiser Mei Wong herself. Needless to say, under her leadership she would not be directing us to thank her!

So on behalf of KK Twestival, I’d like to thank Mei for going beyond her call of duty. In addition to running around like a mad woman for 6 weeks, she generously donated a substantial amount in cash to the pool via her investment company.

SPECIAL THANKS TO REPEAT SPONSORS

I also want to especially thank Patrick Tiew from AVS Sound and Lighting for sponsoring Twestival for the second year straight! It’s because of his generosity and fabulous team that we had a professional sound set up around the venue, as well as the beautiful lighting that made our pictures so beautiful. Patrick never wants any publicity, but I feel his kindness should be highlighted! :) (Note: He's not photographed)

Other repeat sponsors are MSJ Photography, The Body Shop, Core Fitness, IEC, Breeze Magazine and Imperial International Hotel. You guys didn’t just support us last year but this year as well. That just shows how much heart you guys have and we're so blessed to have you as continuing sponsors!

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS
Just as important, I’d like to thank all the volunteers, from the committee to the auction bachelors/bachelorettes, performers to all other volunteers who have given their time to making the event great! You know who you are!!! We'll need a totally new post to thank all of you! :) Thanks to the Jade sisters, Joanna Quintin, and the Blind Society Band for the music!

Thanks to @miameara, who worked till she literally conked out in coordinating all the volunteers for this year's massive effort. It was @fridaycat13's quick wit that made the auction so amazing both years, and we are so lucky to have her. So thank you Melissa! :)

THANK YOU TO OUR ATTENDEES
Extensive thanks should also go to the people who showed up to support our cause. I didn't get to meet all of you but your presence was felt! Within 1 hour, all the cakes and bread were all gone and there was no corner without people. You guys brought your kids, parents, even grandparents along to buy coupons and used them to buy as much as you could! That really touched our hearts...

Every bit of your support is greatly appreciated by the blind people. On another note, check out how much fun this little guy is having with the blindfolded dart-toss! :)

THANK YOU TO SABAH SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND

Heartfelt thanks to the President Rosalind Chew and Alice Jekop for having worked so closely with us to develop the programme, as well as attending Twestival. In spite of the president's busy schedule, she made it a point to come and support what we are doing. We'd also like to thank all the visually-impaired people who came to our event! While it might have probably been insanely exhausting to take all of the noise in, you still stayed on for hours on end. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to showcase your amazing spirit, which many would concur that you inspire the sighted to be and do much more!

According to Alice Jekop (representative for the SSB), the blind people are very thankful for all that we have done and are doing for them, and that Twestival has given them a sense of self-worth and value. This is something we never planned for, and could only be felt by the blind people themselves...

From a grassroots movement that started in 2010, Twestival Kota Kinabalu has grown into something beyond my wildest imagination, and I hope that next year’s Twestival (if there is going to be one) will be just as amazing, though many believe it would be hard to top the fantastic event we had!

While I’m FLOORED by what Mei Wong has done with Twestival Local KK 2011, I believe there is no limit to how far kindness can go. I heard that one of the cities this year had a stadium-full of people who turned up for Twestival!!! The sky is the limit so think BIGGER! :)

THANK YOU AMMADO

Thank you Cliodnagh Conlon and Ammado for waiving all the fees for the Sabah Society for the Blind. If you're a charity in Malaysia reading this, they have a fabulous tool that allows anyone from anywhere in the world to donate online! :) Fantastic stuff!

THANK YOU TO TWESTIVAL

Last but not least, I’d like to thank the founder of Twestival, Amanda Rose for giving KK this opportunity to use Twestival Local as a vehicle to make a difference in our own backyard. We hope you will visit us some day soon for some R&R.

Moreover, the mural isn't really complete without her visit. It serves as a statement of the impact Twestival has had on people miles and miles away from London (where it all began for her). I just hope she'll come and take a picture with it!

I'd also like to thank the global team for choosing us to win the USD$250 Blog Challenge as well as the USD$1,000 Photo Challenge for our charity. This means a lot to all the volunteers involved, the blind people in Sabah, as well as KK City as a whole. You have reminded us that even though we are far away from the world's action, through social media big things can happen in a small town, so thank you very much from KK! :)

If I had left out anyone, do drop me a note to let me know. This year I was so busy in the background that I missed meeting people. You can get me via kktwestival@gmail.com or tweet me @fooz. :)

WELL DONE KK!

In the coming weeks, we'll be updating you with more news about SSB and where our funds will go, so stay tuned!

Sincere regards and many thanks,

Jackie Miao (@fooz)
Founder, KK Twestival

 

Here's the most recent post-event coverage from the Borneo Post dated 29th March 2011. Featured on Page A9, it is an almost full-length, half page spread.

From the archive, here's some coverage about voting for our logo on the New Sabah Times dated 9th March 2011.

If you know of or have seen news about KK Twestival that we have not shared on this blog, please do share it with us at kktwestival@gmail.com! Thanks muchly!

@fooz for @kktwestival

Here's sharing with you the coverage from the Daily Express about Twestival Local 2011 today! (27th March 2011)

Here's also from the Daily Express. This article came out on the 26th March 2011!

Thank you Kota Kinabalu for your kind support! We love you! Over the next two weeks, we will be sharing post-event details with you. A few of us will head up to the Wallace Workshop in Tuaran to visit their facilities and also meet the blind people there!

Missed Twestival? Make sure you don't miss it the next time it happens again! :)

@fooz for @kktwestival

 ... RM22532.50!!!

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who came out last night! We ate, we drank, we played games, we auctioned each other off as dates... and it was so much fun! 

Most importantly, we raised *WAY* over RM20K for the Sabah Society for the Blind. For those of you following along from outside Malaysia, that's over USD7446! 

If you're curious, you can check out the funds raised at Twestival events by country on the Twestival 2011 Scoreboard. It should be fully updated within the next 24 hours!

Thank you again to everyone who attended, and to our wonderful sponsors for making this such a successful event! Here are some photos for those of you who are already nostalgic - thank you Gerry of MSJ Photography! 

Eager faces during the date auction:

The KK Twestival team, crew, and friends!

@elena_butler for @kktwestival 

This is the place to be! We are having an awesome time eating, playing games, and laughing! Here are some photos from the charity date auction and the noodle eating competition! Congrats to Jonathan L. for being our noodle champion, and to Loompa for being our super sipper! Also, check out our awesome graffiti art and Mei presenting the Sabah Society for the Blind with a token of our appreciation for their good work in Sabah!

@elena_butler for @kktwestival