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!
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…
A relaxing and fun-filled 36th Club Anniversary party was successfully held at Regala Skycity Hotel on March 25, 2023. The party was attended by over 65 Club membersand guests. District Governor Norman Lee, District Governor Elect Andy Li, District Governor Nominee Nigel Lo, District Officers, and 20 members from our three sister clubs — Rotary Club of Taipei Mingmen, Rotary Club of Taoyuan Southeast and Rotary Club of Pudu. The highlights of event were the sister-club signing ceremony with all three sister clubs to continue our partnership to do GOOD for the community; new memberinduction for Rotarian Ka Man Wong; the pinning of new Paul Harris Fellows and multi-Paul Harris Fellows for President Eliza Ning, Past President Grace Yen, Past President Eddie Leung, Past President Webster Ng and Rotary Ann Coco. What’s more? A party of 35 Rotarians and family members joined the Lantau tour on nextday which further fostered bonding among all. Last but not least, we thank our President Elect Jason Ling for his great leadership of the dinner, and we are looking forward to our next anniversary celebration with many more Club members and friends!!
President Eliza and President Elect Jason went to the Presidents-Elect Training Seminar (PETS) II in the morning session in Alexandra Hotel before getting on a taxi to Chi Fu, Pokfulam for the Opening Ceremony of the Scout Trail Walk where Past Presidents Grace, Dora, Eddie and ex-member Past Presidents Theresa and Kennedy were there together with Yuk Chi Resources Centre’s team. Then President Elect Jason rushed back to attend the afternoon session of the PETS II. After the opening ceremony, Yuk Chi’s team together with children and parents hopped on a coach to go to the Peak. Meanwhile, President Eliza walked the steep route from Pokfulam to the Peak together with her brother and Ms. Laura Lo, one of this year’s speakers during our regular meetings and a senior scout leader. Past President Mark joined in right before the Peak walk together with President Eliza and team. District Governor Norman and his wife Isa joined the award ceremony at 4:30pm and presented Rotary Club of Hong Kong Harbour Award to the 50km walk winners. The funds raised at this walkathon would support our service projects, including to Yuk Chi Resource Centre to provide professional therapy service for children with special…
On March 9, our Club met for our third Club Assembly of the Rotary Year. The most exciting highlight of our meeting was the attendance of Past President MK and Lina. Past President MK, having escaped death by lightning strike, duly presented his Treasurer report. President Elect Jason, as Chair of the Assembly, gave details of the upcoming Scout Trail Walk and the upcoming 36th Club Anniversary Celebration Party. President Eliza did a recap of Club and District events in the past quarter, and gave updates to our ongoing District and Global Grants. Past Presidents Mark and Dora, and Rotarian Ka Man also stood up to share. Potential member Summly also joined our lunch gathering.
President Eliza and President Elect Jason attended a meeting with Hong Kong Scouts Island Region at the Hong Kong Scouts Centennial Building. This year, both physical andvirtual runs are on, with the cornerstone physical race to be held on March 19, 2023.
A team of 11 including President Eliza; Charter President Patrick, his son Charles and grandson Derek; Past President Kay and grand daughter Celeste; Past Presidents Samuel, Lily and Mark; President Elect Jason; and ex-Rotary Ann Coco helped to deliver hot meals to elderly and to register the next batch of eligible elderly at Holy Cafe Training Centre. President Elect Jason and Past President Mark home delivered hot meals toan elderly at So Uk Estate who were unable to walk to Holy Cafe. Thereafter, some of us cooled down by having a laughter-filled fellowship afternoon tea at Holy Cafe’s new venue.
Past President WT (as coach), President Eliza (as Advisor) and President Elect Jason (as Observer/Helper) attended the first online workshop of the 6th HK Secondary School Peer Mediation Competition which was jointly organized by Rotary International District 3450 and Joint Mediation Helpline Office (JMHO). This year, there were 16 schools joining for the workshop and competition and 6 schools joining the workshop only. Our Club was one of the sponsors on this meaningful event to promote peace through mediation. Topics including what is peer mediation, opening statement, the 5 step procedures (調解五部曲) in running a mediation, listening and reframing skills, non-verbal communication skills such as “SOLER” etc. The heats will be held in City University on 4 March and the semi final and final will be held in the Function Hall of Department of Justice on 25 March 2023. After a 1.5 hours presentation by the key trainer, the students performed two role plays where they were assessed by the very experience coaches. A two-hour in-school training by another coach will be given to the students before preparing for the Heats.
Our Club met to celebrate Christmas and to elect our Club Board for RY2023-24. President Elect Jason chaired the dinner meeting while President Eliza took leave of absence due to illness. There were 22 attendees, including our Honorary Member MF and his wife Ping, 13 members, and 7 spouses. President Elect Jason began by summarizing past activities and upcoming ones, including our women’s health screening project with Caritas. Thereafter, PE Jason moved onto the main focus of the evening: our Annual General Meeting. After quorum was met, PE Jason declared the General Meeting opened. He proceeded to move through the agenda, including putting up his nominations for next Rotary Year’s Club Board, for members’ consideration. In the end, all nominees put forward by President Elect Jason were elected by acclamation. After AGM was declared closed, our fellowship began. For sharing, President Elect Jason brought two prized bottles of single malts, while PP Mark brought two bottles of red wines. Sumptuous dinner was provided by Regal, followed by an exhilarating game of Bingo, hosted by Past President Webster, Past President Lily and President Elect Jason. After Past President Eddie playfully complained in our Club Whatsapp group that not everyone won something,…
We visited our Sister Club, Rotary Club of Taipei Mingmen during their regular lunch meeting via Zoom. We had President Eliza, President Elect Jason, Past President Eddie, Past President Samuel, Past President Grace, Past President Dora and Past President Lily attended the meeting. During the meeting, Past President Samuel helped to promote the Yuk Chi Global Grant and received positive feedback. A follow-up Zoom meeting with Past Presidents Kevin and Ronald of Rotary Club of Taipei Mingmen was also held on December 14.