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.
On May 23, our Club sent one team of Interactors to 11th Hong Kong Bowling Tournament for all x 10th Hong Kong Blind Bowling Tournament. President Mark, Past President Grace, President Elect Sam, and Grace’s sister Joyce went to cheer our team of Interactors from King’s College. Also in attendance was Dr. Kelvin Siu, our speaker from last week, and his colleague Mr. Ricky Chan (not to be confused with our most cheerful Past President Ricky). Both are innovators who are passionate about supporting the disabled through technological innovation. We also managed to catch Honorary Member Vivien, who was the event’s Guest of Honor.
Most of us would remember past Interactor Michael Yan, Charter President of Interact Club of King’s College. Since matriculating at HKU’s Faculty of Medicine, Michael has continued to involve himself in our Club activities, including Walk for Living Water 2020 (read here), in which he was one of the top runners, and hot meal distribution to the elderly at Holy Cafe (read here). He was recently awarded For Our Future Scholarship 2021 (read here and here), and was featured in an article in Hong Kong Economic Times (read here). Congratulations to Michael for his exemplary achievements! We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
On November 21, President Mark led a team consisting of President Elect Sam, three friends and family members and two Interactors from King’s College to pack and deliver hot meals to the elderly in the Cheung Sha Wan/Lai Chi Kok area. In addition, several Interactors personally delivered 6 hot meals to elderly living in nearby public housing estates. Our next outing is on December 5. Past President WT will be the leader.
On November 7, Past President Grace led a large team consisting of Past President Webster and his two sons, Rtnne. Coco and 9 Interactors from King’s College to pack and deliver hot meals to the elderly. In addition, several Interactors delivered and installed a replacement oven, and helped to fix a TV antenna issue at an elderly’s home. Our next outing is on November 21.
On September 26, President Mark led a team consisting of Past President Grace, President Elect Sam, Past President WT and past Interactor Michael Yan of King’s College to deliver hot meals to 200+ elderly living in Cheung Sha Wan and Lai Chi Kok areas. Additional supplies, donated by other anonymous donors, were distributed. President Elect Sam, Past President WT and Michael also managed to visit some grassroots families in housing estates nearby, as well as sanitation workers at a refuse collection point.
On April 23, our Club conducted our meeting online, the second time ever. This is in part a response to government’s social distancing guidelines and recommendations to avoid large group meetings, and in part a response to Rotary International’s recommendation to move all physical meetings to online platforms. Michael Yan, Charter President of our Interact Club of King’s College, joined our Zoom meeting to share with us his life as a university student affected by the current pandemic. According to Michael, many classes are moved online, with a lot of focus on pandemic and related topics. As a medical school student at HKU, he found it unfortunate that all the lab and hands-on training had to be postponed. As a Riccian, however, he found more time to spend with his fellow hallmates, and made sure he stays healthy by exercising lots. He even participated in our Amity Walk for Living Water 2020, and logged more than 20,000 steps on the last day of the Amity competition. He also managed to volunteer his time, including delivering surgical masks to homeless and elderly with Professor Lai Ching Lung and his volunteer team.
District Blind Bowling Tournament was held at South China Athletic Association on January 12. 12 Interactors from St. Clare’s and 5 Interactors from King’s joined President Mark, Past President Webster and Webster’s two sons to participate in this meaningful event, where Interactors learned to appreciate what we usually take for granted (eye-sight) and the perseverance and determination of those who have lost theirs. President Mark showed a real talent for throwing gutter balls and consistently missing standing pins; his scoring contribution for the day: 0. The event was of course not possible without the full support of Hong Kong’s most well-known bowler, our very own Honorary Member Vivien Lau, who was the guest of honor of the event.
On October 9, President Mark Tong, together with Charter President Patrick Poon and Past Presidents Grace Yen and Webster Ng, attended the Club Installation of the Interact Club of King’s College. Principal KC Tang also attended the Installation and gave an encouraging speech to the Interactors. President Mark and Charter President Patrick also gave uplifting words to the Interactors, at a time of social unrest. Outgoing President Tom Lam gave a report of his achievements in the previous year, while Incoming President Marx Wong outlined his ideas for the coming year. The new 15-strong committee was pinned by President Mark and Charter President Patrick, with over 30 Interactors and school staff as witnesses.
On August 22, our Interactors from Interact Clubs of King’s College and St. Clare’s Girls’ School attended our regular Club meeting at Regal Hongkong Hotel. Outgoing Presidents Tom and Yuki, respectively from King’s College and St. Clare’s Girls’ School, shared with Rotarians their activities in the year just passed. They brought with them their Incoming Presidents, Marx and Charlotte, who will work mainly with Youth Service Director Past President Webster Ng in RY2019-2020.