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.
Sister Clubs
R/C of Penang
R/C of Niigata
R/C of Kawasaki-South
R/C of Osaka-Jonan
R/C of Makati North
R/C of Westwood Village
R/C of Vancouver China Town
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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