On March 16, President Sam, Past Presidents Grace and Webster, Immediate Past President Mark, and President Elect Eliza met with the incoming cabinet of Rotaract Club of HKU Lap Chee College International. Our Honorary Member MF also joined. President Sam gave an overview of Rotary and Rotaract. President Elect Eliza gave updates of upcoming Rotary and Rotaract activities. Past Presidents Grace and Webster shared valuable past experiences with Rotaractors.
Past President Anthony Ngai, chair of the District Preserve Plant Earth (PPE) Committee and member of Rotary Club of Hong Kong South, was our speaker. His topic was “Supporting the Environment”, Rotary International’s 7th Area of Focus. In our District, there are a number of initiatives, such as tree planting, beach cleaning, sustainable seafood, PPE education and newly-added PPE project advisory for clubs. When asked, Past President Anthony believes it is not too late to adopt green practices to reduce carbon and plastics. In terms of beach cleaning, Past President Eddie brought up a point that educating people about plastics and responsible waste management is even more important than physically cleaning the site. Past President Anthony also gave an example of a cutlery renting service to reduce plastics consumptions. This service will be pushed to large District events to minimize plastics use, and Past President Anthony encouraged our Club and Lap-Chee College Rotaractors to consider this service in our activities. Our meeting was visited by Rotaractors from Rotaract Club of HKU Lap-Chee College International. Rotaractors included a majority of the incoming 2022-23 team: President Thomas, International Vice President Siqi, External Vice President Subaita, Si Man (International Service), Katherine (Professional Development),…
On December 19, Rotaract Club of HKU Lap-Chee College International organized a Christmas fun day with children at Caritas Ngau Tau Kok Community Centre. President Sam, Past Presidents Grace and Lily, Immediate Past President Mark, President Elect Eliza, and prospective member Tony went to support our Rotaractors. Our Club was a supporting Club in this Rotaract project.
President Sam and Charter President Patrick joined Lap Chee College’s High Table Dinner on November 5. This was the first such dinner in a year and a half. Master of the College, our Honorary Member MF Yuen, welcomed everyone to the dinner. Professor Tsui Lap Chee, in his name-sake college, and Charter President Patrick presented gowns to several Lap Chee students. Professor Tsui gave the keynote speech. Past President of Rotaract Club of HKU Lap Chee College International, Sally Oh, is now a tutor of the college and is working on student development matters on campus. Crystal Lee, fellow of the College, was excited to share some of the plans of the Rotaract Club this year.
On September 2, President Sam, Past President Grace, Past President Webster and President Elect Eliza met with the outgoing “cabinet” of the Rotaract Club of HKU Lap-Chee College International at the Indonesian restaurant, Kaum: Potato Head, in Sai Ying Pun. Lap Chee members included Crystal (fellow), outgoing President Anushka, Bobby, Cindy, Gabin and Anuj. Cindy, from Jakarta, helped to order the food, and explained to us the dishes and how they would be served in her native country. Over the course of the dinner, we learned about our Rotaract friends’ studies and career plans, and life on-campus. The new Rotaract leadership will be recruited in the coming month and announced to our Club members!
On January 16, President Mark, Past President Webster and Rotarian Jason joined Crystal Lee and Rotaractor Charis to deliver 70 handwritten letters and supermarket coupons to elderly at Hing Tin Wendell Memorial Church Alison Lam Elderly Centre. The project was conceived by our Rotaractors at Lap Chee College, who wanted to connect with neglected groups in our community while with pandemic precautions and social distancing in mind. They originally thought about hosting virtual parties for the elderly, but due to technical difficulties and the limited scope of interaction, they turned to a more personal form of communication – letter writing. 70 letters were hand-written – a feat all the more impressive since many Rotaractors are foreign students who don’t speak or write in Chinese. They had to rely on other Rotaractors who acted as translators and ghostwriters to get the job done. Most of these letters included well-wishes, while some others included long proses, including appealing to the elderly to keep warm during the winter and reassuring the elderly to stay upbeat and positive during this pandemic. Each letter was accompanied by 200 HKD-worth of supermarket coupons, generously donated by Charter President Patrick. The Centre’s representative thanked the Rotaract representative…
On January 14, our Club conducted our regular meeting on Zoom due to the ongoing pandemic and government gathering restrictions. Crystal Lee, Tutor and Rotaract Advisor at Rotaract Club of HKU Lap Chee College International joined us as guest. President Mark began the meeting by wishing everyone a safe and healthy new year. Thereafter, he reported the status of this year’s District Conference (May 22-23 at Regal Airport Hotel; current under planning), and Rotary Ultramarathon (March 21; in virtual form). Registration is open for both events. Please contact Past President Lily for details regarding Conference, and Past President Webster regarding joining the virtual ultramarathon, at which our Club plans to sponsor one team. Rotarian Jason gave reports of deliveries of 100 care packages to ethnic minority families and the upcoming project with Lap Chee Rotaractors. Past President Dora also gave updates of Nicole Au Yung, our Rotary Scholar, who is studying for her PhD at the University of Oxford and was recently mentioned in a widely-cited article in the Washington Post. Our feature speaker required very little introduction. May Chang, a former Harbour Rotarian, joined our meeting to talk about self media (自媒體) and a project that she is involved…
On October 3, Past President Sally Oh and Rotaractor Bobby Zhang of Rotaract Club of HKU Lap Chee College International joined Rotarians and families and Rotaractors in Discovery Bay for the first beach cleanup event of this Rotary Year. The event, titled “#OneTonneLess – Beach Cleaning Programme”, aims to remove at least one tonne of ocean trash each year along the shorelines of Hong Kong. Sally and Bobby reported that they found the event meaningful and plan to join subsequent sessions if time allows.
Our Club continued to meet on Zoom due to pandemic conditions and gathering restrictions in Hong Kong. 7 Rotaractors and 2 Interactors joined our meeting in our annual “Youth Day”. Ms Crystal Lee from HKU also joined. The meeting began with Charter President Patrick, Rotarian Jason and President Elect Sam taking turns to give details of our upcoming project, Rotary Cares Food Aid 2020. Patrick gave a quick introduction of the project’s purpose and concept. Jason gave updates of the project’s strategic and operational details. Sam gave updates of the project’s fundraising activities. In all, the planning for the project is already underway. Members were invited to help. (A kickoff ceremony is scheduled to be held on September 17. Please refer to our Whatsapp communication for more details.) Rotarian Eliza, joining from New Zealand, wore her Preserve Planet Earth (“PPE”) hat and gave us some news and details about District’s Beach Cleanup Event on October 3. Eliza mentioned that this is one of those very special events where Rotarians and Rotaractors work hand in hand to keep our environment clean. Due to the pandemic, the cleanup crew will be divided into small groups, with a maximum of 20 participants. For…
Led by our Rotaractors at the Rotaract Club of HKU Lap Chee College International, care packages were prepared and delivered to Shun Lee Neighbourhood Elderly Centre (順利長者鄰舍中心) at Shun Lee Public Housing Estate on February 29. Each care package included a bottled drink, snack items, cooking condiments and other sanitation supplies. The food items were specially sourced to invoke memories of the tastes of a bygone past. In order to minimize cross infection during the current Coronavirus outbreak, the care packages were not delivered directly to the elderly, but instead dropped off at the centre for later distribution as the elderly slowly returns to the centre in the coming weeks. The centre staff thanked our Rotaract Club and told us that some elderly were already notified about the package and were elated to know that youngsters such as our Rotaractors think of them.