With the end of each school year comes another highly-anticipated Run-A-Way ‘Journey of Growth’ (JOG). This year, the event was held during on June 9, during the Dragon Boat Festival Holiday. You may be wondering why the sixth ‘Journey of Growth’ would follow the recent fifth anniversary celebration. That’s because the first ‘JOG’ was held two months after the founding of RAW!
Mother Nature was clearly on RAW’s side, with weather and air quality conditions improving just before departure.
On the morning on June 9, all 112 participants congregated at the Primary Division football pitch. Pao School Deputy Executive Principal Crick Chen also arrived to give a boost of encouragement and lead the group of cyclists on their journey!
Ms Chen leads the way!
That day, we saw tremendous determination and perseverance in our students, especially in our younger children, as well as our parents! Cycling 42 kilometres in the city was no easy task! We are especially glad to see no student complained of exhaustion or pain, required assistance from the rescue vehicle or had to forfeit. All students were resilient and persevered to the end!
We also want to note that each family was very punctual. This might sound like a simple requirement, but for every single participant to be so prompt is truly commendable.
At rest stops, all cyclists parked their bikes neatly and placed any trash into the garbage bins. Any trash on the ground was also picked up immediately.
All cyclists respected the rules of the road, yielding to pedestrians as well as other vehicles. They were also careful not to affect the normal traffic flow. Before the end of the event, everyone discussed how to safely transport their bicycles home.
Step-by-step and starting small are the best ways to set proper examples for our children. Our parents also play an important role in being good role models. This is consistent with RAW’s principles: ‘Every person, every parent has a responsibility to spread positivity and set a good example for their children, and this begins with themselves.’
Headmaster Wu presents students with the ‘RAW Event Diary.’
Today is also a special day for RAW. After much discussion, drafting, revisions, more drafting and more revisions, the ‘Run-A-Way Event Diary’ was finally unveiled on June 9. This first issue is the limited edition created especially for RAW’s fifth anniversary, with only 250 copies available. 177 of these were distributed at the JOG.
Volunteers were crucial to the successful run of this event. Student volunteers played an especially important role, handling most of the responsibilities in leading the four cycling groups and wrapping up the event and ensuring the safety of all participants. Most of them were also RAW members, each having accumulated at least 2000 kilometres of cycling, and all of them capable of cycling at speeds of 28-33 kilometers per hour! All of our volunteers showed true professionalism from start to finish!
In anticipation of the event, the working committee brought student volunteers to explore and make detailed notes regarding the planned route. On the day of the event, cyclists were divided into four groups, with five rescue vehicles on hand to provide guidance and rescue services as needed. Radio communication was also used. All volunteers worked hard throughout the journey to ensure the safety of all cyclists. Their assistance, along with the support from all participants and working committee, were crucial to the success of JOG!
All cyclists rode in single-line fashion throughout the journey!
RAW is currently planning more challenging activities that not only require participants to improve their physical fitness, but will also stimulate their potential! We hope you will join us!
Thank you to all participants for their tremendous support!
