Earth Hour 2009 - Walk of Hope

What? Walk of Hope (Earth Hour)

Where? CapSquare, Jalan Ampang, KL.

When? 28 March 2009, 6:00pm (Saturday)

How Long? A couple of km around the blocks.

Who? Organised by CapSquare

Why? In conjunction of EARTH HOUR 2009

In supporting WWF in its global climate change initiative, Earth Hour, I have signed up for this run immediately when I got to know about it from the Net.

Earth Hour 2009 was a initiative involved individuals, businesses, governments and communities whereby they were invited to turn off their lights for one hour on Saturday March 28, 2009 at 8.30pm to show their support for action on climate change.

In KL itself there were several major landmarks that supported Earth Hour. KL Tower (below) was one of them.

I arrived at CapSquare around 3:30pm after lunch with Marianne at SPCA. The sky was gloomy. I feared that I would rain.

It did while I was in the queue to collect my Earth Hour T-Shirt and recycle bag for the Walk of Hope. (Insert scream here!)

Designer bag by Melinda Looi. It contained a pack of Tetrapack drink, some discount vouchers and slimming vouchers. Hrrrmph! As if I need slimming. LOL!

Think Recycle! Didn't win the game though.

Since I have a couple of hours to kill, I went around CapSquare, checking out the Earth Hour bazaars, design/ art exhibitions and then some....

See Charm All Stars Cheerleaders action-packed performance here.

I also caught Malaysian Idol, Jaclyn Victor and 8TV's Rina Omar practising "Here in my Home" for Earh Hour. They seemed to be having lots of fun on stage!

There was a marching band with bagpipes and drums! Check out their little dance routine in their skirts....erm, I mean kilts. :)

And I saw this clueless broadcaster! :) She thought that there was a candlelight run (larian berlilin). Didn't she saw the HUGE banner with "WALK of HOPE" on it at the start point? :P

The finalists for One in a Million made an appearance at the Earth Hour. I'm rooting for the girl with a big voice - Esther. :)

Local alternative rock band - Loudspeaker, singing "Walau" their first single. "Walau" is nice. They boys butchered my one of my favourite songs I'll Be, originally by Edward McCain later. I had to stop recording halway...:P

At around 7:30pm, the Walk for Hope participants were set off in front of CapSquare. Joining us were local TV personalities like Belinda, Prem etc.

Check out the video I made. They initially targetted 500 walkers for the event but thousands turned up. We took the roads of KL while cheering and waving to the crowd. It was AWESOME!!!

The song, Ever Wondered by Altered Frequency for the video above was lifted from a CD called Earth Hour featuring some local indie bands. Thank you to Kevin and Amelia for getting this CD for me. They were giving away this CD free at Sunway Pyramid - another mall that participated in Earth Hour Malaysia.

And finally the moment we were waiting for.......

Before the coundown, Joey G interviewed Yasmin Ahmad, a talented filmmaker and also the ambassador for Earth Hour Malaysia. She brought along her actors from her recent movie - Talentime - Mahesh Jugal Kishore and Hon KaHoe. The fearless, Sharifah Amani (Sepet, Gubra, Muallaf) also present to make a stand for the environment.

We countdown-ed to 8:30pm with Joey G. The light at Kl Tower was switched off to mak the start of Earth Hour. The absence of lights were replaced by the screams and cheers from the people at CapSquare. We were treated to an all girls Drum performance.

I almost fell flat on the floor after I tripped on the uneven pavement while walking around looking for a good spot to video the fire-eating stunts. Hmmmmm....Thank God, they switched the light off for an hour only.

I left CapSquare during the tap dancing show by Jojo Struys. Not that I didn't enjoy the show but I had to get home to rest and prepare for an outing on the next day. Sorry Jojo!

It was an unforgettable event. I was really proud to be part of the Earth Hour. Together, we can make a difference for out world.

I hope they have the "Larian Berlilin" next year.(Insert ROTFLOL here!)