The 1st one

It's the 5th one. Cant believe it, it's already 5 years since the 1st one was held.

It's still fresh in my mind how skeptical people were when the idea was floated. There were even comments from members of KLBC back then that we would be lucky to get 50 people there. KLBC was supportive, but they were skeptic as well.

So we worked very hard. There were only a few of us back then. The Committee was rather small. I must also say, that even amongst the Committee, some were also skeptical. I cant blame them. It was done for the first time, and history showed that many events organised by the Bar was attended by no more than 100 people, except for the Annual Dinner.

I am of course referring to the Charity Nite, back in 2005. (link to photos in 2005)

We had no band till around 2 weeks before the event when I met Mark Ho & Izral who so kindly agreed to perform at the Nite. They had a band. And I knew they were good. And also, I must confess, they were kind enough to do it at no fee, purely to support the YLC at that time. I will always be obliged to that Band. 

Then came ticket sales. By the time it was a week away from the event, more than 150 tickets were sold. YLC were stunned. We were on the verge of the biggest event ever organised by YLC. 

We had silent auctions that nite, some lawyers were singing after donations were made with express wishes that so & so had to sing etc etc. Door gifts were given out, courtesy of Ms Teh Yoke Hooi's assistance who had sourced for some shavers to be given away. 

Souled Out was chosen. Very nice of Fred, the owner of Souled Out, to donate a DVD player that nite, which was auctioned off. 

The Home adopted that year, was the Stepping Stone Home, a place for under privileged kids. Some of the kids from that Home also performed that nite, and Pastor Johnson, the guardian of the Home gave a short speech too.  

We had no webreporters then. The Malaysian Bar website was fairly new and not so popular yet. Poor Roger Tan, not only had to take photos but to draft the webreport too. Far cry to what we have now, where virtually every YLC event has an appointed webreporter amongst the Young Lawyers. 

In the end, almost 300 people turned up that night, and more than RM7,000 was collected. People went back happy and the YLC found a new found confidence and challenge. YLC then embarked on many other projects from then on. 

This year we will see the 5th YLC Charity Nite at Modesto's Capital Square on the 3rd July 2009.

See you there!!