Rotary Club of City Northwest Hong Kong

A Time Capsule

November 18, 2005

 

 

[This archive was prepared in response to District 3450’s call for time capsule info in October 2005:

 

As we have celebrated the centennial year for Rotary International, our district is celebrating our 75th anniversary since we established our first club in Hong Kong.  In order to capture this milestone of the Rotary movement, the district has been planning to install a ‘Time Capsule’ in the Hong Kong Park for quite some time.
 
Since all the clubs and the district had experienced years of service together with the centennial projects, it is time to put the highlights of all the exciting materials and club history into a time capsule and preserve it for 50 years.

 

Do we all have a chance to see it when the time capsule gets opened in 2050?… Fergus, Ronald, be sure to be there. This is specially designed for you, we’re sure…. ]

 

 

CLUB HISTORY

 

The Rotary Club of City Northwest Hong Kong (http://www.rotary3450.org/cnwhk) was chartered in April 26, 1988 with 25 Rotarians. On November 18, 2005, we have 22 Rotarians.  We have our weekly lunch meetings on Wednesdays at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, Wanchai, Hong Kong. Our members come from the following classifications: Civil Engineer, Structural Engineer, Geotechnical Engineer, Quantity Surveyor, Estate Surveyor, Lawyer, CPA, Dentist, Banker, Event and Marketing Services, Property Services, Disc Manufacturer, Watch Importer, Office Equipment Importer, Clothing Designer, Insurance Broker, IT Consultancy, Education Services. We are a Cantonese-speaking club and we conduct all our proceedings in Cantonese. We have no female Rotarians but we do have a female paid Executive Secretary. We have two sister clubs - one in Taiwan and one in Korea, and sponsor an Interact club at a local secondary school in Hong Kong.

 

For the past 17 years, we have undertaken the following activities and projects among others:

Club Services - We organized Christmas parties for handicapped children and the elderly. We held a fundraising ball every year. We also organized ladies nights, golf days, and family outings for our members in order to enhance fellowship and understanding.

Community Services - We visited elderly homes and donated small packets to the elderly. We sponsored building a primary school in Hunan, China, and donated a scholarship for the school children in Hunan. We still maintain close ties with this school. We partnered with some schools in Hong Kong to provide performances such as ballet and concerts for Hong Kong citizens.

Vocational Services - We organized visits to a bakery, a noodle manufacturer, a concrete manufacturer, etc. We also organized seminars and workshops with the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption for various industries (accountants and the manufacturing industry) in order to enhance their staff with knowledge about anti-corruption and help them achieve a high ethical standard.

International Services - We visit our sister clubs Rotary Club of Taipei Chungshan, RI District 3520, and New-Geumgang Rotary Club, RI District 3680, every year. One of our past presidents was a member of the PolioPlus Program team in Rotary District 3450 to raise funds for the program.

 

(Club history contributed by Charter Member Kai Ping Lei.)

 

 

Club Luncheon – Our first club luncheon meeting in April 1988.

 

 

Club Service - Our award-winning club website plays a vital role in linking club members by informing on new activities and reporting on past ones.

 

 

Vocational Service – Club members and families visiting KCRC West Rail in September 2005.

 

 

Community Service – Club members completing a major Rotary Centennial Community Project in 2005 with timely reflections from PP Simon Yung.

 

 

International Service – Club members with visiting sister club New-Geumgang Rotary Club from Korea at our annual ball in October 2005.

 

 

THREE SIGNATURE PROJECTS

 

1. Rotary Centennial Project 2003-2005

 

For the Rotary Centennial in 2005, our club had registered with Rotary International a Rotary Centennial Project. We partnered with 4 Rotary Clubs within our family in Area 5 and WWF Hong Kong. With resources contributed by all 5 Rotary Clubs of Area 5, the project involved the renovation of a building for field studies and other facilities at the Mai Po Nature Reserve, a Ramsar wetland site. On completion of the renovation, we established the Rotary Centennial Institute for Wetland Conservation (District 3450 Area 5) at Mai Po to carry out wetland conservation education programs. This project was completed in January 2005, in time for the centennial celebration of Rotary International in February 2005.

 

Rotary Centennial Project – Club members with structural engineering and surveying expertise discuss project planning with WWF Hong Kong officials.

 


Rotary Centennial Project – Our sister Rotary Club of Taipei Chungshan enjoying bird watching at a tour of the Mai Po Nature Reserve.

 

2. District 3450 PolioPlus Fundraising 2002-2003

In 2002-2003, PP Anthony Chan was the District 3450 Chair of the PolioPlus Subcommittee and helped raised over US$1 million for the Polio Eradication Fundraising Campaign for the year. The goal was to contribute as much as possible towards the worldwide Rotary campaign to raise the necessary funds for polio vaccination in order to eradicate polio globally by 2005, Rotary's centennial year.

Since 1985, when the PolioPlus Program was launched, Rotary has been joined by partner organizations including the World Health Organization, the UN Children's Fund, the US Center for Disease Control, government agencies worldwide, and most recently the World Bank, the UN Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in achieving a 99% reduction of the number of polio cases worldwide.


PolioPlus Fundraising – PP Anthony Chan, shown here at the Rotary International Convention 2001 in San Antonio, Texas (3rd left), getting inspiration from the motto “Rotarians Make a Difference” for his fundraising efforts a year later.


PolioPlus Fundraising - Rotarian Perry Yu making his pilgrimage to One Rotary Center and meeting RI President Frank Devlyn to learn directly the importance of the PolioPlus program at the RI Open House in July 2000.

 

3. Hunan Guandu Primary School 1997-2003

 

Led by PP Alex Ho and PP James Lau, Rotary Club of City Northwest Hong Kong embarked on an education project in China in 1997. This involved an initial fundraising of HK$300,000 for the construction of a 900 square meter new school building for the Hunan Shimen Guandu Primary School in rural Hunan, China. The first phase of this project was completed by 2003. This project has entered a new phase in 2003, the 15th anniversary year of our Rotary Club, with more fundraising and facilities improvement as objectives.

 


Hunan Guandu Primary School – A 2003 photo of the new main building of the school constructed from funds raised by our club.


Hunan Guandu Primary School – School students in front of the new school building.