The event of the Rotary Year was well attended by our club, including: President Sam, Charter President Patrick, Past District Governor Belinda (via Zoom), Past President Grace, Past President Eddie Leung, Past President Angela, Past President Dora, Past President WT, Past President Lily and Immediate Past President Mark. Past President Eddie Wong returned from the UK and joined the Governor’s Banquet on Day 1.
Past Presidents Webster and Lily, and President Elect Eliza joined the opening ceremony of Holy Cafe’s new shop on behalf of our Club. Past President Webster’s son, Shum Yeh, also joined. Special guest of the ceremony was Financial Secretary of Hong Kong SAR Paul Chan.
On May 27, Club members participated in the second service days in Phase 1 of our street cleaner project with Caritas. We gave out 120 care packages (福袋) to street cleaners in Ngau Tau Kok on May 20. On this day, we did the same at Tsuen Wan with 150 care packages. President Sam, Past President Eddie, President Elect Eliza and President Nominee Jason participated in this service day. Phase 2 of the project will be health days for street cleaners in Ngau Tau Kok and Tsuen Wan, providing them with a basic health assessment and follow-up by Caritas social workers. It is anticipated that Phase 2 takes place in July 2022.
In this meeting, our newest member Professor Heiwai Tang gave a thought provoking vocational talk. Rtnnes. Lina, Coco and Catherine joined as part of our spouse program. Before we went into the speaker program, we took care of some club business. First, led by Past Presidents Kay and WT, we sang Happy Birthday to Rotarian Fei whose birthday was on May 31. Next, we gave Professor Heiwai a proper “pinning”, as he was previously inducted on April 14 via Zoom. Professor Heiwai, a MIT-educated economist, returned to Hong Kong at a time when there were a lack of world-class young economists in Hong Kong. Professor Heiwai’s topic, “Hong Kong Third Economic Transformation”, traced Hong Kong’s development through history. In the 1960s and 1970s, British colonial rule favored “non-intervention” policies in the absence of market failure. However, the government had a vision for the colony and pushed compulsory education, big infrastructure projects and founded HKUST to position Hong Kong for the future. This future would transform Hong Kong’s work force into something like Singapore or Switzerland. Science and technology would figure heavily in the future of Hong Kong. However, in the years leading up to the handover in 1997, Hong Kong…
On May 21, District Public Image Seminar 2.0 was held. Speaker Ralph Szeto, Chairman of HK Association of Interactive Marketing, talked about digital transformation of businesses and lifestyle from Web 1.0, 2.0 to 3.0. Speaker Honnus Cheung, cofounder of Mojodomo, an incentive/loyalty marketing company using Fintech and Martech, talked about Digital and ESG transformation. Past President Angela moderated the Q&A session. Past President Lily assisted during the quiz session. President Sam, also our Club’s Public Image Chair, was a quiz winner. Past President Grace and Immediate Past President Mark also attended.
This was the first of two such service days in Phase 1 of the street cleaner project with Caritas. We gave out 120 care packages to street cleaners in Ngau Tau Kok. Inside the bags were disinfectant liquid, KF94 masks, pain relief ointment, rapid antigen tests, facial tissue, water resistant plasters and a bag of rice. The next service day is on May 27 in Tsuen Wan. Phase 2 of the project will be health days for street cleaners in Ngau Tau Kok and Tsuen Wan, providing them with a basic health assessment and follow up by Caritas social workers. It is anticipated that Phase 2 takes place in July 2022.
On May 12, District Governor Keith Chow, Past District Governor Ada Cheng, Immediate Past District Governor Eric Chak and District Governor Elect Norman from District leadership joined our luncheon. From Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island East, our “mother club”, President Bernard Lee, Past President William Wong, and President Elect Rico Fung joined. Other guests included District Secretary Elizabete Fong, Mr. Kevin Chuc (a former speaker) and Winnie (Past President Dora’s guest). Our Honorary Member Vivien Lau introduced our speaker, the Honorable Kenneth Fok, a member of Hong Kong Legislative Council. Kenneth’s talk on “The Role of Sports in Social Development” was an extension of his talk at the 61st District Conference in 2021. Sports is more than sports. Over the course of the last 50 years of Chinese history, sports played a role in opening China to the world. In challenging political times, it is always best to keep sports and cultural exchange open among nations. In the Q&A session we learned a bit more about Kenneth. His grandfather’s involvement in sports development in Hong Kong and China was critical to his choice of profession. Just elected to the 7th Legislative Council, Kenneth seeks to support sports, arts, culture…
Led by President Elect Eliza, participants met at Chai Wan MTR station to take a coach bus to the starting point at To Tai Wan. The walk was on the Hong Kong Trail Section 7 and ended with a tour of Tai Tam Scout Centre.
On May 2, Peer Mediation Competition (final) was held. Our President Elect Eliza chaired the competition, while Past President WT acted as advisor and competition judge and President Sam acted as steering committee member.
On April 28, in a hybrid meeting in which members joined the meeting both physically and online, we are happy to have our own Past District Governor Belinda to talk to us about “Doing Good in the World,” a “special edition” of what is going on in the world of the The Rotary Foundation. Past President Angela gave the introduction of our speaker. Past District Governor Belinda started with a quiz of basic The Rotary Foundation questions: When was it established? What are the focuses? What are the features of DDF and World Fund? Next, Past District Governor Belinda shared stories about doing good in the world, about a project in Uganda (empowering girls) and a Hong Kong project by RC of The Peak, teaching youth through STEM education. Also of note is Rotary’s Program of Scale Grant. Each year Rotary International approves one such grant, which goes towards a large scale, high impact program that uses at least US$2 million. Finally, Past District Governor Belinda congratulated our own President Sam as the first ever AKS Circle of Honor Member in our District. Past President Kay gave our club’s vote of thanks.