Fandi & 'Dream Team' VS celebs in bid to save cancer girl... & other fund raising activities

Featured on The NewPaper & Lian He Wan Bao Monday, 22 June 2009

The plight of Charmaine has moved former Singapore international Rafi Ali so much that he decided to do something about it. He got his Malaysia Cup kakis back together for a charity match.

With a couple of phone calls, he rounded up former greats including the Republic's favourite footballing son Fandi Ahmad, the dazzler "V" Sundramoorthy, hearthrob Abbas Saad and the "man with six lunds", Malek Awab, for a game against the media and celebrities this Sunday at the Tampines Stadium.

The electronic TNP for this article is not out yet. Meanwhile, here are some photos from TNP and Lian He Wan Bao.

[Click to enlarge]











The TNP


When I was still in primary school, I would sit in front of the TV with my whole family to watch these matches. Fandi Ahmad... Rafi Ali... Abbas Saad... Jang Jung... Nazri Nasir... Lim Tong Hai... These are names so familiar in the past. In my opinion, the Malaysian Cup was far more interesting than any EPL match. It could also be that I'm a rather nostalgic person and so the fond memories of the past always ride over the present.

For those of you who like me, used to clap and cheer and shout "REFEREE KAYU!" while watching our Dream Team play, you may like to support their cause in helping to raise funds.

Details of the match here:


This match is happening this Sunday, 28 June. Do show your support for our dream team, celebrity team and Charmaine & feisty team.

Tickets are priced at $10 only.
[Updated: Tickets out for sale at Tampines Stadium general office at main entrance from Wed--Fri 10am--12noon and 2pm--6pm]

This event is organised by Rafi Ali, Rafi Ali Soccer School and their sponsors. All proceeds from the match would be used to pay for Charmaine's medical bills. Cynthia, Charmaine and the feisty team thank Rafi Ali, the school and their sponsors from the bottom of our hearts.

Oli Pettigrew who is playing in Team Celebrity has made a video to raise funds for Charmaine. Do take a look.



Love,
Jolene

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Edited to add:

There are also other fund raising activities happening. You can locate them on the right hand column of this blog.

We have received a lot of emails on Photoshoots.

1) SGPhotographyClub
Date : 28/06/09 ( sunday )
Time from 10am - 6pm
Location : No 34 , Arab Street #03-02 ( Mp Studio )

2) Doggie Photoshoot

And other forms of fundraising:

3) Hardwarezone Cash Donation
$1-$1 with conditions apply. Please donate via HWZ if you are a member there. We are trying to hit the 10K cap for the $1-$1 donation.
Updated! They have hit their 10k cap on 23 June at 2253!!! $0.00 left for dollar to dollar match. WHEE!!!

4) Guitar

The blogshop community has also come forth to help to raise funds for us, as well as forums that hold online auction, buy-and-sell. Mouse over the right hand column and click those which interest you.

Please support them as much as u can!!!!

Till date, we have $180K.
Thank you everyone!!!!!!

Love, Charlene

[Edited to add latest info on 24th June, 3.22am]

Look out for this Sunday's Straits Times

Well, a handful of you may have heard that a reporter from the Straits Times emailed me on Wednesday requesting for an interview with Cynthia and me on internet activism with regards to Charmaine's story.

I was really surprised by the email as I had not expected Charmaine's blog to catch the attention of someone from the Straits Times.

Let's call the reporter G.

The focus would be on how people are using the internet to further their causes. G thought it would be great to get Charmaine's story out there and hopefully get donations in. She would be featuring the article this coming Sunday.

I know that Cynthia doesn't want Charmaine's case to be brought to the national scale and subject Charmaine in the media limelight. I personally didn't want to make this matter public on local newspapers as well despite many well-intentioned people advising me to. We don't want the publicity and we need some privacy too. Hence, Cynthia and I had a mini discussion and sent a rejection email to G.

Imagine my shock when G replied the next day that her editor really likes Charmaine's story so they would still be going ahead to publish it as part of the internet activism "package". Therefore, getting our input would really make the whole picture clearer. The package also includes other examples of internet activism in Singapore.

G was nice about the whole thing and apologised for any inconvenience caused. As a reporter, it's her job to report things that she hear about.

She advised me to reconsider her interview request and provided her number.

Since Charmaine's blog is gonna be publicised anyway w/o our interview, we decided to let our voices be heard this time round. We wanted to ensure that the information reported would be accurate.

We did the phone interview late last night.

As for now, let's wait for this Sunday's Straits Times to arrive at our doorstep.