On November 21, President Mark led a team consisting of President Elect Sam, three friends and family members and two Interactors from King’s College to pack and deliver hot meals to the elderly in the Cheung Sha Wan/Lai Chi Kok area. In addition, several Interactors personally delivered 6 hot meals to elderly living in nearby public housing estates. Our next outing is on December 5. Past President WT will be the leader.
On October 8, our Club met for lunch at our usual meeting venue, Regal Hong Kong Hotel. To ensure proper social distancing, Regal has given us a large room, with 4-person tables separated by ample spaces. The meeting began with President Mark giving some updates about our Club and our District. Past President WT also summarized two consecutive weeks of delivering hot meals to the elderly and to sanitation workers. Before the speaker program, our members also celebrated the happy news that our Honorary Member Vivien Lau was awarded Silver Bauhinia Star by the Chief Executive on October 1. A cake was prepared by Regal for the occasion and shared by all at the end of the meeting. Our speaker of the day was Mr. Jackson Lam, an automotive consultant who has worked in marketing and corporate strategy for some of the largest auto manufacturers and their distributors in the world. Jackson shared with us the latest and greatest advances in autonomous transport, the prerequisite of which is a stable electric-based system and sensor technologies. Jackson noted that China is at or near the forefront of autonomous driving, mainly because provincial and local governments have been very accommodative towards the…
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 September 26, President Mark led a team consisting of Past President Grace, President Elect Sam, Past President WT and past Interactor Michael Yan of King’s College to deliver hot meals to 200+ elderly living in Cheung Sha Wan and Lai Chi Kok areas. Additional supplies, donated by other anonymous donors, were distributed. President Elect Sam, Past President WT and Michael also managed to visit some grassroots families in housing estates nearby, as well as sanitation workers at a refuse collection point.
Our Club continued to meet on Zoom due to pandemic conditions and gathering restrictions in Hong Kong. Past President Douglas Hsia, our Club’s Y2K President (RY1999-2000), joined from California. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by his presence and most happy to welcome Douglas back! The meeting began with the usual report by Club President, but not before Past President WT led a virtual chorus to celebrate Past President Angela’s birthday, in a few days. Thereafter, Douglas was invited to update us about his life in sunny northern California. Now belonging to the Rotary Club of Walnut Grove, Douglas told us that, like us in Hong Kong, the current global pandemic also made physical meeting difficult in California. He also mentioned that he was his Club’s lone representative at the RI Convention in Atlanta – our Club also had one representative that year – but did not remember meeting any Rotarians from Hong Kong. Personally, he found living in Walnut Grove, a designated U.S. Historical District, fascinating. A Chinese-American history buff himself, Douglas explained that Walnut Grove was steeped in Chinese-American history and traditions. Douglas ended his sharing by hoping to visit us in the future, whether physically or via Zoom. Next…
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 July 4, President Mark led a team including Past President WT and Kelly, Past President Grace, President Elect Sam and Rotarian Jason to distribute hot meals to over 200 elderly in the Cheung Sha Wan area. SS also joined, as did Mark’s friend Newton and 8 of his young friends from church.
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 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.