President Sam, Charter President Patrick, Past President Webster (Youth), Past President Kay, Past Pressident WT and President Elect Eliza attended the Installation Ceremony this year. President Rain Lau, School Principal Mr. Tang, Ms. Kwok, Ms. Leung, and the Club Committees welcomed our Rotarians. Principal Mr. Tang expressed his optimism that Interactors will be able to serve the community in the “new normal” and emphasized that Rotary/Interact is a valuable institution for young students. President Sam spoke about the Rotary International Theme, “Serve to Change Lives.” Charter President Patrick encouraged Interactors to adopt Rotarian values and principles in all things they do, in school and outside school. Past President Webster talked about the concept, “一齊服務 ,一齊健康”, loosely translated to be “serve together, and be healthy together”. Next, President Rain reported on activities completed in 2020-21 and his plan for the “new normal” in 2021-22. Finally, our Rotarians presented Interact pins to all the officers and committees of the Interact Club of King’s College.
We are happy to support the premiere of the Hong Kong Hymnos Festival, conceived and expertly run by Past President Angela and Maurice. Great effort was put into creating the two concerts and assembling the many performing artists and guests. On November 10, President Sam, Past President Grace and Jerry, and Past President WT attended the opening concert. On November 15, at the closing concert, Immediate Past President Mark performed as part of the Vox Antiqua choir. Holy Cafe’s Mrs Sung and her daughter performed as part of the festival choir.
On November 13, President Sam attended the opening ceremony of CPR/AED project. Our Club joined the project as Bronze Sponsoring Club. Altogether, twelve Rotary Clubs joined this projected hosted by Rotary Club of Hong Kong Northeast, in partnership with St. John Ambulance. TVB artist 曹永廉 and Miss Hong Kong 2014 邵珮詩 were special guests. Do you know every year around 8,000 cases of cardiac arrest require emergency ambulance service in Hong Kong? That is over 20 cases per day. CPR/AED is critical to survival in the minutes before the ambulance arrives. Past President Webster is working with our Interact Clubs to set up a training day for our Interactors in 2022. Before that, on November 28, there is a training day for District Officers, Rotarians and Rotaractors. Our Past President Lily and Rotarian Jason are registered to attend the certification course.
Every year, our district organizes the Rotary Leadership Institute course. Clubs are encouraged to nominate future leaders to attend. November 13 was Part 1 of the 3-part course, and our Past President Grace served as one of the trainers.
On November 12, President Sam, and Past Presidents Grace, Eddie and WT visited Ms. Lai and Ms. Lo at the Yuk Chi Resource Centre. The main purpose was to observe the District Grant project in action. Ms. Lai explained to the group the high demand of obtaining a comprehensive developmental assessment of age-6 or under children with suspected developmental problems. Underprivileged families may need to wait 15 to 18 months at the Department of Health. Our Club’s District Grant project will help 45 such families this year. Our Rotarians observed an assessment of a 4-year old girl for 20 minutes. Through playing with toys and engaging her in specific tasks the clinical psychologist was able to test the girl’s motor functions and assess her developmental progress. After the visit, President Sam led the group to a Singaporean restaurant (A Taste Above Shiok) in Causeway Bay for afternoon tea.
Our speaker of the day, Walter Cheung, was introduced by Rotarian Fei. Walter is well known in the public relations field, having served under five CEOs at Hang Seng Bank and is currently Managing Director of Walter Cheung Communications. Walter (水哥) is an avid marathon runner and shared with us his journey of 100 marathons. Inspired after reading Richard Branson’s autobiography, Walter wanted to do something unconventional and wanted a breakthrough. In 2002, at the age of 44, he signed up for his first full marathon. Battling leg cramps, he crossed the finish line merely 10 minutes before the time limit of five hours. At the age of 57, Walter completed his 50th full marathon. This past October, Walter completed his 100th full marathon at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Some of the highlights of Walter’s marathon journey, include: 50th marathon in Paris; 70th marathon in Rome; being the first Hong Konger to run a marathon in Bhutan; and completing the Great Wall marathon in 2008 and the Everest marathon in 2012. As a public relations professional, Walter used various media channels to document his journey and to build a personal brand. Even though he is not a professional…
Several of our members were active at this year’s End Polio Now Walk & Carnival. Past District Governor Belinda, chair of District Rotary Foundation Committee, led the District’s End Polio work this year along with support from Past President Grace and Past President Eddie from our Club and others. Rotarian Jason, on the other hand, led our Club’s effort. President Sam, Past President Grace, Past President Dora, President Elect Eliza and Rotarian Jason’s friend Ken had lunch at Tai Po Cooked Food Centre. The group was guided by food recommendations from Charter President Patrick, as well as Past Presidents Ka Hing and Lily. After lunch, Past President Grace went ahead to Science Park to help to set up the special ceremony. Rotarian Jason, President Sam, Past President Dora, President Elect Eliza and Ken went on a 5.5km walk from Tai Po to Science Park as part of the End Polio Now Walk. The Carnival was full of games, and arts and crafts booths. Our Club was recognized by District Governor Keith Chow and Past District Governor Belinda for its contribution to the PolioPlus fund. The ceremony was also live-linked with Macau and Mongolia.
President Sam and Charter President Patrick joined Lap Chee College’s High Table Dinner on November 5. This was the first such dinner in a year and a half. Master of the College, our Honorary Member MF Yuen, welcomed everyone to the dinner. Professor Tsui Lap Chee, in his name-sake college, and Charter President Patrick presented gowns to several Lap Chee students. Professor Tsui gave the keynote speech. Past President of Rotaract Club of HKU Lap Chee College International, Sally Oh, is now a tutor of the college and is working on student development matters on campus. Crystal Lee, fellow of the College, was excited to share some of the plans of the Rotaract Club this year.
On November 3, several members of our Club attended Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island East’s regular club meeting, thus resuming our annual tradition of visiting our beloved mother Club. President Sam led a large group consisting of Charter President Patrick, Past District Governor Belinda, Past President Grace, Immediate Past President Mark, and President Elect Eliza. President Bernard Lee and his members gave the visiting Rotarians a warm welcome. During the meeting, we learned much from the day’s speaker, Rotarian Benson Ng, who talked about anti-money laundering. While there, Past District Governor Belinda took the opportunity to promote various Rotary Foundation-related activities. President Sam, while accepting gifts from the host, invited members from mother club to attend our 35th anniversary dinner, to be held in March 2022. We thank President Bernard, his Immediate Past President Leo Yu and other members of Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island East for their warm hospitality and overall generosity.
Our lunch meeting on October 28 was attended by 16 members. Spouses Pat and Maurice, and Past President Theresa joined our lunch. Past President Daniel Lo of Rotary Club of Central and ex-Rotary Information Center senior staff Steve Kwok introduced to us Run To Your Home Foundation. It is a volunteer service platform that uses running and runners as a common element. The foundation has done a number of outreach services and can use your support and donations. Our speaker of the day, Mr. Clement Li, is a Project Manager at Baguio Green Group. He talked about the iRecycling app which combines the powers of marketing and recycling. Through commercial incentives (like coupon offers), users are able to send recyclable glass and plastics to. Incentives can be as much as HK$5 per bottle. As an integrated service provider, Baguio is able to provide pick up services at the user’s location. In the Q&A session, members were very curious about their buildings’ recycling programs. Clement suggests that members look at the waste management services contract to see if recycling is within the scope of work. If not inside the scope of work, it is likely that the recycled waste at your…