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.
Past President Webster has been elected President of the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong (“TIHK”) for the term 2020/2021. As he did with our Club back in RY2017-18, Webster will surely lead TIHK to greater heights! Congratulations Webster!
As the pandemic rages on, nearly all sectors across the economy are deeply affected. Sole bread winners of families toeing on or below the poverty line are losing their jobs or having their wages significantly reduced. The wait for help from social welfare and food banks is getting longer and longer. Savings are being depleted. Many families are increasingly struggling to put food on the table. In Kwun Tong District, which is ranked, in terms of poverty situation, in the bottom-3 amongst all Districts in Hong Kong, livelihoods for many families are already challenging before the pandemic. Pandemic makes survival much more difficult. As such, our Club is partnering with Caritas Community Centre – Ngau Tau Kok (“Caritas”) to distribute, beginning in mid-September, food coupons to around 250 grassroots families and families living in subdivided units in Kwun Tong District identified to be in most urgent need of help. The coupons are designed to bridge the gap between applying for and receiving governmental and other assistance. A small kickoff ceremony was held at Caritas on September 17. Those in attendance included: President Mark and Catherine, Charter President Patrick, Past Presidents Eddie, Grace, Angela, and Webster, President Elect Sam, and Rotarian…
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 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.
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…