On June 28, President Mark, Charter President Patrick, Past District Governor Belinda, Past Presidents Grace and Angela attended District Conference, our District’s 60th.
On June 20, Past President Dora led a team of 10 consisting of Past Presidents WT, Grace, Samuel and Angela, Rotarian Jason and spouses to deliver hot meals to the elderly at Holy Cafe. On occasion, our Club also sponsored 220 Tuen Ng Festival care packages, each of which included the following: 2 Tuen Ng Festival glutinous rice dumplings, a foldable fan, a vacuum flask, a bag of dried jujube walnuts, vermicelli noodles, and tea. The special “festival” hot meal included fish, roast duck, vegetables and white rice, each of which was carefully assembled, packed and delivered by Rotarians and spouses, in a hot but fun-filled afternoon.
On June 18, our Club held a regular meeting for the 23rd and the last time in this Rotary year 2019-2020. The meeting was held in the evening at Regal Hongkong Hotel. President Mark gave a brief rundown of events to come, while Past President Dora circulated thank-you cards to be sent to our friends in Taiwan and Malaysia. Dora also promoted our last service outing of this Rotary year: hot meal and Tuen Ng Festival care package delivery at Holy Cafe on June 20.
On June 13, our District conducted Training Assembly for incoming Club officers and directors. Various members attended, including Past District Governor Belinda, who chaired a breakout session; and Past President Angela, who was at the main stage most of the time coordinating the proceedings. Past Presidents Angela and Grace were awarded District Training Leader certificates during a plenary session.
On June 11, our Club met for lunch at Regal Hongkong Hotel. 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 or gather at any given time. During the meeting, President Mark gave updates of various District-level activities. Past President Grace briefly spoke about our hot meals distribution program at Holy Cafe. On a happy note, Charter President Patrick shared with members how he achieved a hole-in-one in Deep Water Bay in the morning. Congratulations Charter President Patrick! During the meeting, Club EGM was also held. The agenda was to vote on the nominated candidates for the incoming Board of Directors of our Club. Members who were present formed a quorum and approved the nominated candidates.
On June 6, President Mark led a team including Past President Grace, Past President Samuel, Rotarian SS and Liliana to distribute hot meals to over 200 elderly in the Cheung Sha Wan area. Ben, President Mark’s friend, also joined.
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.