Rotary Club - HK East Newsletter May 23rd, 2007

President Paul kicked off the meeting by inviting Director Jason to introduce our visiting Rotarians, PP Ian McGaw of the Rotary Club of Henley Bridge – England, his guest Ms Judith Yew, Chairperson of the Malaysian Association of Hong Kong and Rotarian Nancy Yee of the Rotary Club of Vancouver Chinatown.

President Paul asked members to take note of the following interesting events

Opening Ceremony on 24^th May at the Leighton Hill Community Hall. The Guest of Honour of this memorable event will be The Hon Wong Yan Lung SC, JP, Secretary for Justice, HKSAR. Please sign up if we are available.
District Award Presentation. Awards on Outstanding Service projects will be presented during the Conference on 26^th May. Please invite more members to register to share the joy.
47^th Annual Conference of District 3450 to be held at Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel on 26 May 2007. The Business Session is one of the most important plenary sessions in the District Conference programme. It gives an opportunity for clubs to make proposal on matters relating to our District as well as Rotary International. For the purpose of voting on the resolutions to be passed at the District Conference. President and PE Laurence will be the two (2) electors at the District Conference.
Rotary Club of Kowloon East has recently become the first 100% Major Donors Club in the world by making 27 of their non-Major Donor members Major Donors. This significant achievement has marked another milestone in the history of Rotary and the Rotary Foundation. Indeed, they have "Led the Way" to show how Rotary shares its love and resources to help the many needy people all over the world.

Sergeant-at-arms Rudy reported that contributions from members were a handsome total of HK$700. There were 12 members attending

Next, we came to the highlight of the meeting. Mr. Lee Kai Kwong, the principal of Choi Jun School, gave us an overview of his school and the swimming program he has developed for his students.

Choi Jun School was established in 1977 as a special school for children with mild intellectual disability. The school's motto is LOVE, ENCOURAGE, and CARE. The students at the school tend to be passive learners and the progress they make tend to be very slow. Extra efforts must be put in to motivate them.

Choi Jun school offers a variety of talent courses, such as painting, skating, Africa drum, etc to motivate the students and to develop their abilities. One form of motivation is to offer them frequent swimming exercise to challenge their body and develop their endurance.

At the moment, the school offers an elementary swimming program at the Lik Yuen swimming pool. The program consists of twelve lessons only and two coaches are on hand to give suitable teaching.

Choi Jun School has had a history of motivating students to achieve their potentials, despite of their mild intellectual disability. For example, through the swimming program, Chow Yuen Ying is now the winner of Hong Kong Junior Sports Stars Awards. Tang Suk Man is the winner of Hong Kong Potential Sports Stars Awards. Both have also been voted to be winners at the "Bank of China Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards 2006". Other examples include Lee Chun Sang and Tsang Pui Shan who have been selected to the specialized training course offered by the Hong Kong Sports Association for Mentally Handicapped Children.

The students at Choi Jun also excel in other areas. Lai Wai Ling, for example, received the Gold Medal of Table-tennis at Sydney 2000 and Silver Medal of Table-tennis at Athen 2004. The painting of Ngai Wai Shun was selected to print on the wall at the PEAK.

Unfortunately, the lack of sufficient funding continues to hamper the further development of the school's talent courses in general and the swimming program in particular. With an objective to extend the swimming program to a one-year training program, an additional funding in the amount of seventy-three thousand dollars is needed.

At the conclusion of his presentation, Mr Lee made an appeal to our club members to provide the needed funding. This sponsorship would allow the students to participate in a one-year swimming program instead of the current twelve lessons. This will definitely mean a lot to the students and to their parents, 90% of them are at the lower economic class and have problems providing the needed money themselves.

Finally, PE Laurence thanked Mr Lee for his informative talk and urged members to seriously evaluate Mr Lee's appeal for the sponsorship. It is definitely for a good cause.

President Paul then closed the meeting by proposing a toast to RI coupled with the Rotary Club of Henley Bridge-UK and Vancouver Chinatown and invited visitors and guest for a group photograph.

Past RI President Bob Barth Dies

Robert R. Barth, who served as president of Rotary International during 1993-94, died on 29^th March 2007.

A Rotarian since 1956, Barth was a member of the Rotary Club of Aarau, Switzerland. The RI theme he selected for 1993-94 was

"Believe In What You Do - Do What You Believe In."

Barth also served Rotary as district governor, information institute counselor, RI training leader, committee member and chair, Foundation trustee and chair, director and treasurer. In addition, he was a RI representative to the United Nations in Geneva. He was a recipient of the Polio-Plus Pioneer Award and The Foundation's Distinguished Service Award for his extraordinary service to PolioPlus.

PDG Moses Cheng was our district governor of district 3450 in 1993-94, when Barth served as World President of Rotary International.

A beverage industry executive, Barth was president of Robarth Holding AG, former president of CESDA (Confederation of European Soft Drink Manufacturers) and former chair of the Swiss Sport Aid Foundation. He served in the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Aarau.

Funeral services was held on 4^th April 2007 in Switzerland. Barth is survived by his wife, Gerty, his two sons, Alexander and Daniel, and daughter, Christine, and their families.

R. I. P.