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 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 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.
On May 9, President Mark, Past President Grace, Past President CK, Rotarian SS and Liliana distributed hot meals to over 200 elderly in the Cheung Sha Wan area. The day was hot, but light drizzles just before the start of the distribution cooled the air slightly. Rotarians improvised and added an extra distribution counter (thanks to the abundance of volunteering hands!), and accelerated the distribution to make sure that, even if drizzles turned into downpour, the distribution would be successful, as it was.
Our Club conducted our first-ever online meeting on Zoom on April 9. This is in part a response to government’s social distancing guidelines and recommendations on avoiding large group meetings, and in part a response to Rotary International’s recommendation on moving all physical meetings to online platforms. It turns out that many of our members are already quite familiar with the platform, and most had no issues logging on and joining the meeting. After the meeting room opened at noon, members started trickling in. Some arrived early to make sure that audio and video issues were addressed before the official start of the meeting at 1pm. Others just joined early to chat, just like our fellowship time before our physical lunch meetings. The Zoom meeting followed our usual agenda items, with members taking turns to report items of which they are in charge and/or managing. President Mark reported on the statuses of various District and Club events. Past President Grace explained and reported on the treatment of Annual Dinner Gathering Fund already received from members. Past President Webster explained the mechanics of Amity’s Walk for Living Water 2020, and reported that he already started to engage our youth to participate.…
Amity Foundation, our service partner for many years, approached our Club as they started to plan their annual fundraising walkathon. In past years, their walkathon “活水行” was a well-attended event with hundreds of competitive participants and many more spending a day at the fun fair set up at the finish line. Due to government-mandated social distancing guidelines, however, the event has to be cancelled without a rescheduled date. The cancellation significantly impacts Amity’s operations as they plan projects based on how much they raise each year, and the walkathon is usually their largest fundraising event of the year. Undeterred, Amity proposes a “virtual competition” whereby participants do “walks” at their time of convenience, log the walk via smart devices, and submit their walk record to Amity. There is no restriction on where to walk, when to walk and with whom (though large group walks are not recommended). The competition is judged by how many steps one can do on any particular day during the competition. Our Club has agreed to be a supporting organization of the event, help to recruit participants, and help to contribute to their fundraising campaign. Our Club shall also recruit Interactors and Rotaractors to join the…
Club Assembly was held today to update members the status of our various service projects, global grant applications etc. Before the meeting, Rotariannes gathered to repack masks from boxes into smaller bags. A simple instruction on how to properly wear a mask was inserted into the bags. These bags were then picked up by Rotarians, spouses and guests and brought back to their own neighborhood communities for distribution to those they deem in need. The masks were donated by President Mark, while the repacking and distribution were the collective effort of Rotarians and spouses. The project benefited approximately 40 individuals.