December 24, 2015 www.hi.chinanews.com
In an effort to provide students with the opportunities to experience the great outdoors, exercise their physique and build self-discipline, RAW was founded in 2009 by a group of Pao School parents, and has since received strong support of the school. The club now has over 600 members, with its main activities focused on hiking and cycling activities for both parents and students.
On December 23, 73 students and parents from YK Pao School’s Run-A-Way Club (RAW) embarked on a cycling trip from Sanya to Haikou, and after night’s rest, the group continued their excursion on the Hainan island for another seven days.
The RAW ‘tradition’ include its trips to Lake Tai, Qiandao Lake, Taiwan, Chongming Island and Hainan that are to be completed over a span of two years. This Hainan Island trek was the second in this series of trips. The cycling team was divided into two teams, with team A comprised mostly of Year 7 and 8 students while team B consisted of Year 3’s and 4’s. Team A completed a journey across Hainan Island totalling 810 kilometres.
RAW Secretary General and leader of the excursion Viola Ni, said: "We often provide students with training in cycling in an effort to help them gradually improve their skills. We also hope that this kind of education, out in the open, will continue to inspire them to be active and creative in a learning environment that isn’t limited to teaching purely for the purpose of improving exam scores."
RAW students spoke positively of their experiences – not only did they find the experience of cycling to be very enjoyable, they discovered the process of doing so together with their parents was even more rewarding.
Henry Xue, 8, enjoys the feeling of cycling downhill. He recalls the moment it began to rain on the first day of the trek and feeling very exhausted. In seeing his friends persevere, he chose to weather through the challenges and continue his journey. Joy Wang and Jenny Rao, best friends, not only supported each other during the excursion, forging an even stronger bond between them – they also formed great friendships with their teammates.
