Posted on 09-Oct-2013
Report by Lance Corporal Tan Wen Jie, Michael, of 12th Kuala Lumpur Company
ST. GABRIEL’S CHURCH, JALAN SUNGAI BESI – The event of the year is finally here! Members of the Boys’ Brigade certainly cannot forget the annual Founders’ Day (although the Form 3s may – they are taking their PMR examinations). This edition is held at St. Gabriel’s Anglican Church, home to the 4th Kuala Lumpur Company Boys’ Brigade.
It was an early morning – on the 5th of October 2013, which saw many Boys’ clad in their ceremonial uniform, the usual smart looking officers, a few instructors and teacher advisors at the church. Everyone present went to the school opposite of the church, SK Jalan Sungai Besi as the opening ceremony was about to begin.
All the members gathered in the open grounds of the school in their respective companies while all NCOs were at the football field nearby for a brief rehearsal for the Guard of Honour, commanded by Mr. Kenny Voon. After that, the opening parade officially started with the marching in procedure by the Guard of Honour before the inspection and opening speech by the Kuala Lumpur State Commissioner, Mr. Tony Chow Kok Foo. After the march out of the Guard of Honour, everyone headed back to St. Gabriel’s Church.
People filled the chapel of the church before saluting during the march in of the Kuala Lumpur State Colour. Soon, 10th Kuala Lumpur members presented their Praise and Worship in front of the excited crowd. Then, Mr. Alex Wong, chaplain of the 4th Kuala Lumpur Company led a prayer while the offering bag was passed around. Mr. Nicholas Yeap, captain of 12th Kuala Lumpur, acted as the emcee on behalf of the event.
Next, was the prize giving ceremony for the recent Writing and Founders’ Day 2013 T-shirt Design Competitions. Lance Corporal Nathan Chan of the 10th Kuala Lumpur Company was awarded the Top Reporter with 125 points, walking away with the latest iPad (with Retina Display). Corporal Joshua Ying, also from 10th Kuala Lumpur won a Windows Surface RT tablet by grabbing second place with 90 points. The T-shirt designing competition was topped by Staff Sergeant of 10th Kuala Lumpur, Benjamin Yap. The winning company with a LCD projector goes to the 10th Kuala Lumpur Company, tallying a massive 280 points. The Kuala Lumpur State Boys’ Brigade also celebrated a new addition, the 13th Kuala Lumpur Company to the grand list of companies.
The Guest of Honour, Pastor Joe Loon, Chaplain of the 6th Kuala Lumpur, was invited to give a preaching about his life in The Boys’ Brigade adventure. Since young he was impressed with the bugle in the brass band of a Boys’ Brigade company, attributing to his participation of Boys’ Brigade. He could not wait to get his hands on the huge musical instrument, only for his peers to joke and tease him as he was very short at that time. He decided to temporarily quit the Brigade. One day, his former officers and NCOs came to his house and motivated him to rejoin The Boys’ Brigade. From that day onwards, he never looked back.
After the closing prayer by Mr. Nicholas Yeap, the telematch organised by the 4th Kuala Lumpur Company began. All participants were evenly allocated to 10 colour groups a mixture from various companies. There were 5 stations altogether, consisting of games such as paper airplanes, bean separation, human wheelbarrows etcetera. These games were to imply coordination and teamwork amongst the group.
All NCOs worked together to clean up before returning to the church for lunch. It was an eventful and enjoyable celebration which marked the 130th Anniversary of the Boys’ Brigade. A spectacular dinner was held at Dewan Wawasan in PGRM Hall, Cheras in collaboration with this auspicious day later in the evening.
| My Founder's Day Experience
Written by Lance Corporal Teng Hang Yew of 12nd Kuala Lumpur Company
Founder’s Day is the day that we honour the founder of The Boys’ Brigade, Sir William Alexander Smith, who started the BB in Glasgow, Scotland on 4th October 1883 to teach discipline to the Sunday School students under his care. I wonder if Sir William Smith realize beyond his wildest dreams that the BB would expand worldwide, not only around Glasgow, but across continents.    Left: Sleepover the night before Founder's Day, playing Monopoly. Center: Sleeping at 3am.. too tired to even off the lights. Right: All geared up for the Founder's Day prarade!
On 4th October, we decided to have sleepover at Grace Methodist Church as we had to leave early to Founder’s Day service the next morning. Five members, our staff sergeant and our lieutenant also slept over. We played Monopoly and had so much fun until we didn’t realise it was already 3am when we finally went to sleep. On 5th October 2013, we woke up at 5.30 am for breakfast and prepare for our journey as I and my fellow company members went to the Founder’s Day venue at the 4th Kuala Lumpur home grounds at St Gabriel’s Church, Sungai Besi. As our captain was preparing for another BB event later that evening, we were short of cars to attend the Founder’s Day. Thus, the NCOs and some of the privates took the LRT from Sentul to Sungai Besi while myself and a few newer privates sat in Mr. Darryn’s car. The transport to the place was a bit problem because the GPS went cuckoo and we took a couple of wrong turnings, but finally managed to get everyone to the church. It was a logistics nightmare as we had to drop half the members off then make another round to the LRT station to pick up the other half. After a while, we all reached the place and we were informed that all NCOs need to join the Guard of Honor.    Left: KL State Guard of Honour. Center: All participants in the church. Right: Telematch session.
That was my first time participating in a Guard of Honor, the feeling and the experience is not bad. After that, we all went for the church service and we had a telematch after the service. The telematch was made out of different games and there were many group. The group were differentiated by coloured ribbons and we divided to different groups. Fortunately, I didn’t have to compete against my own company members. Next, we have our lunch and was able to rest for a few minutes before the closing parade. During the closing parade, the last post was sounded, marking an official end to the event. Finally, we went back home by LRT, whilst another group of members sat in Mr. Darryn’s car traveling back to the Grace Methodist Church Sentul to prepare for another BB event later that evening, while some of members went back home. |