On May 28, our Club met at Regal Hongkong Hotel for the first time after two months of meetings on Zoom. Thanks to Regal, special arrangements were made whereby all attendees were required to get their temperature checked and their hands alcohol-wiped before entering the venue. The large venue enabled tables to be placed far away from each other – all tables were placed well over 2 meters apart, and our Club enforced that no more than 8 members were to sit together. During the meeting, our members reported to the rest of the Club the various activities that occurred in the past few weeks: Past President Grace spoke at length about her experience distributing hot meals at Holy Cafe; Past President Samuel gave a summary of Rotarian Kelvin’s virtual fireside chat on the topic of Covid-19; and President Mark gave an update of Amity Foundation Walk for Living Water, for which our Club helped to raise more than 140,000 HKD as of May 28. Past President Peter announced that he would donate 5,000 HKD, already budgeted for PP Peter Show, back to our Club. Past President Dora also spent time to thank our good friends at our sister clubs…
On May 23, President Mark led a team including Past President Grace, Past President Theresa and her son, and Past President Webster and his sons to distribute hot meals to over 200 elderly in the Cheung Sha Wan area. The young volunteers may be young, but they were enthusiastic and tireless. Through the process, they learned not only the needs in our community but also the work of Rotary and its service partners.
Our Club experimented with a virtual fireside sharing on May 18, with Rotarian Kelvin Yeung as sharer. Kelvin is Professor in orthopaedic biomaterial research at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. Over a glass (or two!) of wine, Kelvin shared with us one of his research topics: a light-driven nano-structured system to assist the elimination of SARS-CoV-2. He also shed some light on the current development of the pandemic. The only thing possibly better than this fireside sharing is if Rotarians sat physically together while enjoying a tipple or two, but for the time being, this virtual experience would do, until better days arrive.
On May 14, Ms. Lai and Ms. Lo from Yuk Chi Resource Centre joined our Club meeting on Zoom. Ms. Lai shared with us how the Centre coped at the outset of the pandemic, and how their programs have since been redesigned so that the Centre can be reopened to serve the community while adhering to SWD, CHP and EDB guidelines. In particular, the Centre has switched to smaller class sizes, with more focus on one-to-one training and individual attention. Curriculum is also condensed without reducing quality or scope. Ms. Lo reported that parents welcomed the reopening of the Centre as it bridges a critical loophole in the early development of their children with early learning challenges. Going forward, Ms. Lai says she will explore potentially live-streaming a class to members of our Rotary Club so that Rotarians can observe classroom changes in response to the pandemic, without having to physically be in the classroom and risking unnecessary cross infection.
On May 9, President Mark, Past President Grace, Past President CK, Rotarian SS and Liliana distributed hot meals to over 200 elderly in the Cheung Sha Wan area. The day was hot, but light drizzles just before the start of the distribution cooled the air slightly. Rotarians improvised and added an extra distribution counter (thanks to the abundance of volunteering hands!), and accelerated the distribution to make sure that, even if drizzles turned into downpour, the distribution would be successful, as it was.
On May 2, Past President WT led a team consisting of Past Presidents Grace Yen, Dora Liu, Samuel Chung, Rotarian Sammy and spouses to distribute hot meal and health supplies to the needy.
On May 1, Immediate Past President Lily, Rotarian SS and Liliana braved the scorching summer afternoon heat and helped to distribute 3000 masks to elderly on the streets of Ngau Tau Kok. 2000 of those masks were donated by our Club to Holy Cafe, which helped to coordinate the weekend project.