On October 3, our volunteer team returned to Cheung Sha Wan, for a second time in the past fortnight, to deliver hot meals to the elderly. On occasion, more than 200 Mid Autumn care packages, donated by various Club members, were also distributed. Care packages were being prepared the night before and hours before the start of distribution. Rotarian Jason led a team consisting of President Mark, Past Presidents Grace, WT and Samuel, and Coco.
On July 23, our Club met on Zoom due to heightened pandemic conditions and gathering restrictions in Hong Kong. The meeting was conducted in the evening. Undeterred by the time difference, Past President Angelica Rinehart (Rotary Club of Fremont, Ohio) woke up early to join from the United States. Past President Angelica last visited us in February and March 2019. Everyone was surprised to see her and was most happy to welcome her back! The meeting, in addition to the usual report by Club President, had two highlights. The first highlight was our Club’s first-ever virtual induction of a new member. The induction began with Past President WT giving a brief introduction of our newest member: Eliza Ning. No stranger to our Club and our District, Rotarian Eliza is already an active Rotarian who has served on both the District Peace and PPE Committees. Eliza also has additional connections with our Club: Past President WT was her mediation mentor when she began studying the discipline some years ago. Furthermore, through her involvement in District’s Sustainable Seafood program, Eliza has previously worked with President Mark, Past President Grace and many of our Interactors in the past. Eliza has also worked with…
On July 12, 14 members attended District Installation, held at HKCEC. To comply with gathering restrictions, members were separated into four tables, with Charter President Patrick sitting at the head table with guest of honor, Jasper Tsang, invited by Rotarian Fei and Charter President Patrick; Past District Governor Belinda sitting at the Past District Governors’ table; and the rest of the members split into two separate tables. Past Presidents Angela and Grace had OC duties throughout the day. During the Club Presidents Installation ceremony, Past President Lily stood in to pass the presidential sash one more time to President Mark. In one significant moment of the evening, Charter President Patrick received on behalf of Rotarianne Wendy the rare and prestigious Rotary International award: “Rotary International 2019-20 Excellence in Service to Humanity Award”.
On June 20, Past President Dora led a team of 10 consisting of Past Presidents WT, Grace, Samuel and Angela, Rotarian Jason and spouses to deliver hot meals to the elderly at Holy Cafe. On occasion, our Club also sponsored 220 Tuen Ng Festival care packages, each of which included the following: 2 Tuen Ng Festival glutinous rice dumplings, a foldable fan, a vacuum flask, a bag of dried jujube walnuts, vermicelli noodles, and tea. The special “festival” hot meal included fish, roast duck, vegetables and white rice, each of which was carefully assembled, packed and delivered by Rotarians and spouses, in a hot but fun-filled afternoon.
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 2, Past President WT led a team consisting of Past Presidents Grace Yen, Dora Liu, Samuel Chung, Rotarian Sammy and spouses to distribute hot meal and health supplies to the needy.
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 members and spouses delivered 2200 masks and sanitizing supplies to Yuk Chi Resource Centre and Home Care for Girls, two of our service partners. The supplies were then distributed via our service partners to their service targets, benefiting over 200 families. The masks were generously donated by donors to our District’s “Giving Masks, Rotary’s Task” program and then subsequently allotted to our two service partners. 300 bottles of alcohol sanitizers were also bought by our Club and donated to our two service partners.
On January 15, more than a dozen Hong Kong Harbour Rotarians and spouses were present at the naming ceremony of Patrick SC Poon Amity College at Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. Patrick SC Poon, of course, is our Club’s Charter President and well-known philanthropist. During Charter President Patrick’s speech, he mentioned that Rotary philosophy of service above self is one of his chief guiding principles when he does philanthropic deeds. Plenty other District dignitaries were present, including District Governor Wilson Cheng, Past Governors Moses Cheng (Chairman of the University’s Council), Anthony Hung, Jones Wong, Peter Wan, Ada Cheng, YC Ho, and District Governor Nominee Keith Chow.