President Sam, Charter President Patrick, Past President Webster (Youth), Past President Kay, Past Pressident WT and President Elect Eliza attended the Installation Ceremony this year. President Rain Lau, School Principal Mr. Tang, Ms. Kwok, Ms. Leung, and the Club Committees welcomed our Rotarians. Principal Mr. Tang expressed his optimism that Interactors will be able to serve the community in the “new normal” and emphasized that Rotary/Interact is a valuable institution for young students. President Sam spoke about the Rotary International Theme, “Serve to Change Lives.” Charter President Patrick encouraged Interactors to adopt Rotarian values and principles in all things they do, in school and outside school. Past President Webster talked about the concept, “一齊服務 ,一齊健康”, loosely translated to be “serve together, and be healthy together”. Next, President Rain reported on activities completed in 2020-21 and his plan for the “new normal” in 2021-22. Finally, our Rotarians presented Interact pins to all the officers and committees of the Interact Club of King’s College.
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 September 30, District Governor visited our Club (at President Sam’s office). President Sam, Charter President Patrick, Vice President Kelvin, Past Presidents Kay, Grace and Webster, President Elect Eliza and Rotarian Jason represented our Club and our Board. District Governor Keith Chow led a full team from the District including: Assistant Governor Sunny Chen, Chief District Secretary Ron Chan, Deputy Assistant Governors Stella Law and Stacy Ho, and District Secretaries Brian Ho and Louis Ma. It was also agreed that District Governor Keith will be our speaker at our January 13 lunch meeting.
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!
Members attended District Learning and Development Academy over the weekend, and learned about Youth Policies of Rotary International and Digitization of RMB. Our own Charter President Patrick founded DLDA to promote learning of Rotary knowledge and, through expert speeches, learn about critical issues outside Rotary.
Vocational Service is one of Rotary’s five avenues of service. We were happy to speak, via Zoom, to multi-cultural students and parents about careers in accounting and law. We thank Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Outreaching Team for Multi-Cultural Community for inviting us to do this program with their service beneficiaries. Our speakers included: Past President Webster and his colleagues Emily and Amandeep (on careers in accountancy and auditing), Past President Charles and Catherine (on careers in law). Rotarian Jason worked behind the scenes to manage logistics and technical details.
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…
Due to the ongoing pandemic and our District Governor’s call to continue to meet virtually as much as we can, our Club conducted our regular meeting on December 17 on Zoom. Professor Tim Tong, our Honorary Member, joined our meeting. Amy and Catherine also joined. Rotarian Eliza joined from her quarantine hotel with makeshift Christmas gear. The “regular” meeting was anything but regular: in addition to the regular reporting of Club and District activities, it functioned as our Club’s second assembly of the Rotary year, our annual general meeting, and our annual Christmas party. It would also be our Club’s first ever online AGM, first ever online Christmas party, and, amazingly, despite having weathered near a year of pandemic, our first ever online assembly. At the beginning of our meeting, Past President Dora announced the passing of Past President Feeling (Rotary Club of Taoyuan Southeast). Those who knew Past President Feeling personally would most certainly agree that Past President Feeling was a most generous and warm person, a loving mother, a dear wife and a committed Rotarian. Past President Dora gave a long and heart-felt tribute to our beloved sister, who has been a bedrock of warmth and love to…
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.