The Wesak celebrations always begins on the evening of the Eve. This year, as in the previous two years, the Subang Jaya Buddhist Association has again graciously granted us a booth so that we may raise the awareness of the plight and needs of the stray animals.
For the record, AnimalCare was founded during Wesak in 2009, and our “soft launch” was held during one of my talks at the SJBA.
As usual, our storyboard is the main attraction.
That’s Mandy arranging the tshirts.
Terry (long time!) was helping out too.
Curious children reading the stories on the board. The little girl bought our tshirt last year!
Mandy, me and Ming-Yi.
After Terry and Mandy left, Ming-Yi and I stayed till past midnight before packing up and loading the car for home. The Eve tshirt-by-donations was really good.
By the time I finished stock-checking, it was 2.30am.
The next morning, I was at SJBA again at 6.45am. We start very early for Wesak Day. Barely had I set up the booth when people thronged the tshirt stand!
Here’s a young lady visiting us again. She had just bought our black tshirt last night. Perfect fit, I must say…
Soon, Julie Pek, Jessie Yee and Siew Ee arrived.
There were many repeat-buyers for the tshirts. They were very excited about the new design. As of late last night, I had texted Mary to ask if she could spare me some stocks. So, Amy brought a few pieces over before she and Mary left for their centre. These were grabbed up in no time.
By 10am, we had run out of stock again for many of the popular sizes. I had to send SOS-es to Nandhini, Mary and Sze Too (who were at the Bandar Utama Buddhist Society, the Karma Kagyu Centre and the Putra Heights Buddhist Society, respectively, to ask if they could spare some stocks.)
Julie Pek on the right.
Hello Brother!
You look real nice!
Old is always GOLD. Many devotees came wearing our Gold design. I’m extremely touched to see this show of support for us. The tshirt wearers only had praises for its comfort, “durability” and classic evergreen design. I will be ordering yet another batch of this golden classic design within the next few days. I even have a special order for a size “50”!! Nothing beats simplicity.
I noticed the men prefer the Gold design. Guess the Cute is just too cute?
These children got the Cute tshirts last night.
Sister reading the stories while Julie explains things to the brother.
Lots of little children came to take my books – that’s always a most welcomed sight.
Jessie, Siew Ee, me, Julie, Ming-Yi
By noon, Nandhini’s Uncle Vijay (bless him!) had brought some stocks over to replenish ours, then some of Sze Too’s were also brought over by Lim. Nandhini and Aunty Shanthi later came with all their remaining stocks and so did Mary and Amy, and everything was centralised at the SJBA.
We finished at about 3.30pm, and it started to rain, so we all sat down to unwind after a long day. After having been on our feet for hours, we sure needed that.
For some reason, most of us did not feel tired nor hungry even though we went without lunch! Must be the “energy” of the place and the occasion that gave us the drive to just carry on… Many thanks to the Wesak helpers of SJBA for bringing us drinks on both days.
We had a great and enjoyable time at the SJBA this Wesak. The support from the devotees was overwhelming and absolutely unprecedented.
Thank you, everyone!
Here’s some photos from Sze Too, who, together with Weishya and Carol, did the donation drive for us at the Putra Heights Buddhist Society:
Everything is reddish because the tent was red!
That’s Carol and Weishya.
And these are from Mary, from the Karma Kagyu Centre at Jalan Loke Yew:
Mary at her booth. The two storyboards you see there were fully sponsored by Dennis Fong. He sponsored four sets! Thank you, Dennis.
A little girl with a book.
Amy at work.
And over at the Bandar Utama Buddhist Society…
Aunty Shanti
Nandhini
Our booth was inside the Sukhi Hotu bookshop at BUBS.
We would like to express our deepest appreciation to everyone and especially the SJBA, for the great support and encouragement for us to continue our work for the animals. Many thanks too, to the Putra Heights Buddhist Society, the Karma Kagyu Centre and the Bandar Utama Buddhist Society, for allowing us to open booths at their centres this year. This is the first time ever that we had four booths for Wesak.
My personal thanks go to everyone who had helped in every way to pave the way for AnimalCare to receive these generous donations and create more awareness so that we may help the many animals who come our way with more support from the public. In no particular order, my deepest appreciation and grateful thanks go to Mary, Dennis, Amy, Mandy, Terry, Ming-Yi, Julie, Jessie, Siew Ee, Lim, Nandhini, Surin, Aunty Shanthi and Uncle Vijay, Sze Too, Weishya, Carol, and the organising committee of the Wesak celebrations in the four Buddhist societies. Thank you, Chee Onn, Daniel and Erin, our volunteer and dedicated tshirt designers. If any other names have been unintentionally left out, I seek your apologies.
I will be putting in orders for the Cute and Black designs as well since we have some standing orders and we have run out of stock (again!), which is a good thing! If you wish to order, do please write to me with your specific orders REAL soon. All tshirts are by donation: RM22 for a white one (Gold and Cute), RM25 for a black one. Please click on the tshirt tab in this website for more details on sizes.
The beautiful lights at the SJBA.
As Light dispels Darkness,
May Wisdom dispel Ignorance.
May compassion always be in our hearts so that we will always remember to help suffering beings who need our unconditional love and care.
In the spirit of Wesak, we rejoice in the opportunity given to us to do something useful and beneficial on this auspicious occasion.
May all beings be well and happy.
Happy Wesak!