This is a signature project of our Club since 2001! President Elect Jason and President Nominee David attended the Island Scout Trail Walk 2023 Award Ceremony where our Club was a co-organizer. During the post-pandemic period, the trail walk was done on both virtual + physical format and has a record number of 3,864 person run total completed 28,450.75km!
Our District hosted a physical Grant Management Seminar at Regal Kowloon Hotel. President Elect Jason attended on behalf of our Club, while Past District Governor Belinda, as District Rotary Foundation Chair, and Past President Eddie Leung, as District Rotary Foundation Committee Vice Chair – Finance, presented respective importanttopics to the over 100 Rotarians in the audience.
The Tenth Board meeting was held at the Regal Hong Kong Hotel with heaps of items discussed. The Board was suggesting a fellowship dinner in May or June before the end of the Rotary Year.
On 19 April, District Governor Norman Lee and the District Foundation Committee Chair Past District Governor Belinda Yeung co-hosted a special event to celebrate Paul Harris 155th Birthday, and to show appreciation to Major Donors, members from the Bequest Society and Paul Harris Society. The Dinner sponsored by the Regala SkyCity Hotel was held at its state-of-the-art Ballroom. Besides Past District Governor Belinda, other Rotarians from Rotary Club of Hong Kong Harbour also joined the Dinner; including Arch Klumph Society members Charter President Patrick Poon, Mrs Wendy Poon and Immediate Past President Sam Poon, and Major Donor Past President WT Wong. Others include Past President Angela Hui who was Chair of the Organizing Committee, while Past Presidents Grace Yen and Dora Liu were members of the Organizing Committee.The night was spent under lots of fun and entertainment. District Governor Norman sang “Imagine Rotary” and help raised funds for the District Foundation. Our own Charter President Patrick succeed in auctioning a limited edition painting by artist Darren Jones, who is the brother of the Rotary International President Jennifer Jones.
On April 13, our regular lunch meeting was held at Regal Hong Kong Hotel. Because President Eliza was still traveling in Taiwan, President Elect Jason wore the Presidential Sash as acting President for the day. District Governor Norman paid an unannounced, surprise visit. Six Club members attended. Due to the low attendance, our speaker program was postponed to the coming weeks, with details to be announced soon. Many Rotarians were absent as they were either out of town or bedridden due to sickness. President Eliza (Taiwan), Past President Kay (Italy), Past President Dora (Korea), Past President Mark (New York), President Nominee David (Edinburgh) and Rotarian Tony (Shenzhen) sent their apologies from abroad. All three Rotarians (Past PresidentAntonio, Past President Mark and Rotarian Tony) who were scheduled to be on duty were out of town and unable to perform their duties. Thankfully, they found three willing replacements (Past President Webster, Immediate Past President Sam, and Rotarian Fei) who calmly reported that not much duty was needed as the meeting turned into an intimate gathering where conversation flowed freely. District Governor Norman gave a summary of past and upcoming District activities. In the end, Rotarians and our District Governor wished those who…
Charter President Patrick, Immediate Past President Sam and Past President Grace attended the Lap Chee College International ‘s *Stay Connected – Yum Cha with Elders * at the College Hall, Jockey Club Student Village III. A group of 80 elders from Aberdeen was invited to the college for Dim Sum lunch and interesting student performances. LCCI Rotaractors would like to build the interaction with the elders and help forge a caring community and raise the awareness on their daily struggles. During the lunch, CP Patrick was awarded the Certificate of Appreciation for his extraordinary dedication by participating in the charity event.
We had two wonderful days of fellowship and bonding with our Sister Club – Rotary Club of Taoyuan Southeast! A total of 14 Club members including spouses and family attended the 27th anniversary dinner of our sister club. Our sister club arranged a one day tour to Pingxi where President Elect Jason took his wedding photos 10 years ago! It was also the first time for many of the Club members to release of sky lanterns at Pingxi. They then went to Jiufen for hunting of hand letters!
President Eliza went to the Global Grant inaugural ceremony which our Club supported as an international sponsor for USD1,000.00. The host of the project was Rotary Club of Taipei-Fu-Jung and International Partner was Rotary Club of Queensway. Rotary Club of Wanchai was also one of the international sponsors too. The title of the Global Grant was “Empower Women to Unlock Community Strength by training licensed long-term women caregivers in Pingtung”, in the southern part of Taiwan. The global grant project supported eight aboriginal townships women with a total of 50 and 10 for advance training whom could open their own caregiver centers in Pingtung. As each township is far from the others, the group went to two nearby township separately to understand more about the day care work by the women after the inaugural ceremony. Before the ceremony, the group went for a one day tour to Kaohsiung for fellowship. Here are two newspapers ads with full details: here and here.
As part of our Club’s mission to raise awareness of each of our personal carbon footprint, our Club challenged our members to calculate their own annual carbon footprint using Hong Kong Government’s carbon calculator. 46%, or twelve, of our members did the calculation. We then asked those who did the calculation to consider offsetting their carbon emissions by purchasing Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) through United Nations’ Carbon Offset Platform, a program under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Of those who took the time to calculate their carbon footprint, all agreed to offset their annual carbon emissions. Our Club identified a project in India that converts agriculture waste into energy, and subsequently purchased CERs specifically in support of that project. We purchased CERs as a group, the record of which can be found here. We thank all our members who took time not only to better understand global warming and carbon emissions but also to calculate their own carbon footprint — an important step in raising awareness. We look forward to future challenges, in particular to find out if, by becoming more aware of personal emissions, those members who calculated their current footprint manage to reduce their future footprint…
We had a relaxing and happy fellowship among Club members and sister club members from our three sister clubs: Rotary Club of Taipei Mingmen, Rotary Club of Taoyuan Southeast and Rotary Club of Pudu. We toured around Tai O, Ngong Ping, Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. Weather was fantastic!