Kuching Heritage Race chance to appreciate, protect city’s legacy
KUCHING: The second Kuching Heritage Race will offer participants a fun opportunity to take part in protecting and preserving the city’s heritage while doing their bit for charity.
Organised by the Kuching Heritage Committee, the race themed `Our communities – from the past to the present and into the future,’ will be bigger, better and tougher.
The race aims to highlight and encourage interest and appreciation for the cultural and built heritage of Kuching and raise funds for charity.
“Essentially, heritage is something we need to look back on up to the present and future, and we want to highlight the wonderful things we have in Kuching that are taken for granted,” event organising chairman Philip Yong said.
He added that proceeds from the event will go towards three causes: Miri-based charity Ten Ringgit Club; Heart Treasures SB of Kuching; and Friends of Sarawak Museum, a self-funded non-governmental organisation (NGO) supporting the workings of the Sarawak Museum.
“We aim to raise RM50,000, mainly from sponsorship, for the three entities,” he told a press conference held at Kuching South City Council ( MBKS) here yesterday.
The race, to be held on Jan 14, is an event for teams of two to six members each.
The event will witness participants racing through a new route and a new set of challenges to discover the hidden heritage of the city, testing their knowledge and agility as they answer questions to complete the pre-assigned heritagerelated tasks covering a total of 15 stations.
The inaugural race took place along the Main Bazaar, whereas this year’s race will highlight the Padungan area.
A new piece of collective artwork which will also involve sponsors will be created to commemorate the race.
A single image that represents Sarawak heritage has been selected and divided into 80 individual parts. These parts will be priced at RM500 each and potential sponsors— corporations, individuals or others—may purchase one or more of the 80 parts.
Their task then is to paint their section of the image onto their square, without seeing the whole image.
Yong said the paint for this unique sponsorship drive has been donated by Murabond paints and sponsors will be able to head down to their store on Jalan Padungan to paint their individual contributions into one collective image that will be displayed following the race as a patchwork by Sarawak’s current communities to serve as a reminder of the event.
“We want our sponsors to be more involved in the process. While it is wonderful to donate, we want them to be an integral part of the process this year and we also wanted a permanent reminder of the race itself and also of their generosity,” he said.
He noted this is a unique opportunity for the public and corporate bodies to contribute to a good cause and to a piece of collective artwork that will hopefully form part of Kuching’s heritage to come.
Yong also said that all participants will receive a goody bag worth RM50 handcrafted by the members of the Ten Ringgit Club.
Also present at the press conference was MBKS mayor Datuk James Chan Khay Syn.
For more information, visit www.kuchingheritage.com.