History
ROTARY CLUB OF HONG KONG ISLAND
EAST
(District 3450)
Chartered 6th April, 1954
P.O. Box 47064 Morrison Hill Post Office Hong Kong
Club No. 4350
Club History
Inauguration
The Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island East held its
inauguration meeting at 1 pm on March 11th 1954 at Winner House,
North Point, Hong Kong.
On April 6th ,1954, together with the Rotary Club
of Hong Kong Island West, the club formally received its charter
from Rotary International.
A joint Charter Night was held at the Ritz Nightclub
on May 28th, 1954 when past R.I. Administrative Advisor, Charlie
T.F. Wei officially presented the charters to the new club.
The officers elected from the 25 charter members were
John Yuen as the Founder President, K.C. Goh - Vice-President, Patrick
Cha - Hon. Secretary, Dragon Nie - Hon. Treasurer, Rotarian S.K.
Chen, K.S. Chang, Joseph Fung, S.M. Ma, William Nichol and Alan
Yin as directors.
When 1954/55 Rotary Year started on July 1st, 1954,
all officers who had then served for only two months during the
Rotary Year 1953/54 were automatically re-elected to carry on through
the Rotary Year ending June 30th, 1955. By a happy coincidence this
was the Golden Anniversary Year of Rotary International.
Territory and Daughter Clubs
The Club's territory originally extended eastwards
from Arsenal Street through Wanchai and Shaukiwan to Stanley. Over
the years, the club has ceded part of its territory to two new clubs,
The Rotary Club of Hong Kong South and the Rotary Club of Hong Kong
North. The club's territory now extends eastward from Arsenal Street
through Wanchai to Fortress Street in North Point. However, the
club reserves the right to draw new members from the ceded territory.
Community and Vocational Service
The Club has remained constantly active in Community
Service. Its greatest achievement to date has been the building
of the Victoria Park School for the Deaf. This project cost over
a quarter of a million dollars.
This was followed by other valuable projects:
1. The Youth Club at Mansion Street, North Point.
2. A mobile medical van to the Medical and Health Services of the
Hong Kong Government.
3. A library and study centre called the Star of the Sea Study Centre
in Chaiwan Resettlement Estate.
4. A dental clinic for the poor people in Chaiwan and St. James
Settlement, Wanchai.
5. A rest garden for the Nethersole Hospital in Bonham Road.
6. Donation to the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital.
7. The annual Fat Choy Drive.
8. The Community Welfare Fund.
Community Service projects for which the club has
more recently been responsible are donations of furniture and sports
equipment to the youth centre at Shung On Village and of sewing
machines to the Shaukiwan Kaifong Association for their sewing classes.
A donation of six television sets has also been made to the Tung
Wah Group of Hospitals and the Club has twice given much needed
vehicles to worthy causes:
1) A minivan to assist the Nethersole Hospital Home Nursing Service
to get under way.
2) A Volkswagen minibus to serve the needs of the Cheshire Home
at Chung Hom Kok
3) Members of the club have even been responsible for planting a
row of trees in Victoria Park and participating in a charity walk
in support of the Community Chest.
4) Members have not forgotten to continue to support the Victoria
Park School for the Deaf, providing them with additional hearing
aids, air conditioner and a minibus.
5) Two members continue to serve as directors on the Hong Kong Schools
for the Deaf joint board.
6) In recent years, the club has donated a new car to the Nethersole
Hospital to replace the minivan previously donated to the Home Nursing
Project.
7) The Youth Club at Mansion Street, North Point was demolished
and re-developed into a 4-storey concrete building housing a Youth
Centre and a training centre for professional and voluntary youth
workers. The Club has continued its support to the Centre by donating
some very advanced audio-visual equipment and training materials
to the training centre. The Club has also embarked upon a very ambitious
service project for the handicapped youth by running a project to
train them as computer programmers thus opening up a new vocational
opportunity to them. This project received tremendous support and
assistant from the staff of the computer department of both Universities
and of the Hong Kong Polytechnic, who volunteered their time and
effort in running the training programme.
The Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island East has sponsored four Interact
Clubs, at New Method College, Queen's College, Saint Stephen's College
and Shaukiwan Technical School, but when the Rotary Club of Hong
Kong South was formed in 1973, a readjustment of the territories
boundaries resulted and the responsibility for the Interact Club
of St. Stephen was vested in the Rotary Club of Hong Kong South.
For the same reasons the sponsorship of the Interact club of Shaukiwan
was vested in the Rotary Club of Hong Kong North.
The Club not only sponsors one boy at the Hong Kong Sea School
but acts as agent for the clubs abroad who sponsor other boys. The
club also acts as the agent in Hong Kong of the Ranfurly Library
which supplies secondhand books in English for free distribution
to suitable organisations.
Two of the Club's very outstanding members served as the district
governors of our district, District 345 R.I. Our founder president
John Yuen was the D.G. for the year 1973-74 and our past president
Peter Hall was the D.G. for the year 1981-82. Besides their outstanding
achievements during their year as the D.G., they are very highly
respected by all Rotarians in our District for their continuous
and unfailing support and contribution towards the Rotary Movement
in our District as well as internationally.
The Club is active in many ways, especially matters on district
level. Our members were appointed District Conference Chairman and
General Secretary several times, and also served as District Secretary,
District Treasurer, D.G. General Representative and other posts.
One of the main activities was the well organized 40th Anniversary
which attracted all overseas sister clubs to attend.
During the Rotary year 1993-94 our former club secretary Moses
Cheng who became the Chartered President of our baby Club the Rotary
Club of Northeast was elected District Governor of District 3450
and also our PP Y.K. Cheng was selected District Governor Nominee
for the year 1996-97.
At the present moment the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island east
meets each Wednesday lunch time 12:30 till 2 unless the day is a
public holiday or a typhoon signal higher than 8 is hoisted. The
meeting place is the Marina Room of the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway
Bay, Hong Kong although since its inauguration at the Winner House
it has moved from time to time, first to Sunning House then to the
Royal H.K. Yacht Club and later to the Victoria Restaurant (now
call Pak Lai) where Chinese food was served. Later it moved to the
Lee Garden Hotel but had to move temporarily to the Caravelle Hotel
while the Lee Garden was redeveloped. In 1980 the meeting place
was moved to the Excelsior when the the club's membership had out-grown
the size of the meeting room at the Lee Garden Hotel. As from 1st
June, 1995, we have decided to hold our regular meeting at the Regal
Hong Kong Hotel, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, due to the renovation
of the Excelsior Hotel.
OUTSTANDING MAJOR GIFT TO ROTARY FOUNDATION
writtened by PDG Peter Hall
The most magnificent event during a recent Asia Zone 4 Institute
was the presentation of a cheque in the sum of US$150,000 by our
club.
PDG Peter Hall represented us at the Institute and presented the
cheque to the trustee of Rotary Foundation - Past R.I. President
Raja Saboo, witnessed by PDG Moses Cheng and his lady, Betty. Past
R.I. President Saboo acknowledged receipt with gratitude of this
major gift and made an announcement that this is the first such
large contribution of its kind to the Rotary Foundation in Asia
Zone 4.
This major gift was made by our club in memory of our Chartered
President John Yuen, affectionately know to many Rotarians as "Uncle
John". He served as District Governor of District 345 in the year
1973/74 and also on various R.I. committees.
Uncle John passed away on the 8th of November, 1989 at the age
of 88 years. To commemorate his great love and dedication to Rotary,
the Yuen family made a donation of HK$1,000,000.00 to our club for
a project to be undertaken in memory of him.
The board of our Club had, after evaluating many proposal and project
ideas, eventually decided that nothing could be more appropriate
than setting up of an endowment fund with the Rotary Foundation.
Discussion with the Trustee of the Rotary Foundation resulted in
the sum of $150,000 being donated to the Rotary Foundation for setting
up of the PDG John Yuen Hong Kong Island East Rotary Foundation
Scholarship. For each year that earning are sufficient , the scholarship
will be awarded to an individual from District 3450, selected by
the District Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship subcommittee under
the name of
PDG JOHN YUEN HONG KONG ISLAND EAST ROTARY SCHOLARSHIP
It is hoped that the setting up of this scholarship will be able
to perpetuate the great love and dedication of PDG John Yuen to
Rotary. The intention that it would inspire more major gifts of
similar nature to the Rotary Foundation was bourne out immediately:-
PP Samual S. Lam of our own Club has made a further Major Gift
of US$25,000 to the Rotary Foundation to support its activities
through the endowment for world understanding and peace.
List
of our Club's Past Presidents
© Copyright 2003, Rotary Club of Hongkong
Island East. All Rights Reserved.
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