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Rotary Club of Kowloon North
40th Anniversary Celebration Ball
Speeches Made by Club President Ian Petersen:
Welcome Speech
On behalf of all members of the Rotary Club of Kowloon North,
it is my great honour and pleasure to welcome all Rotarians,
families and friends to our 40th Anniversary Celebration. Thank
you all so much for coming to join us and thereby making this
such a special occasion.
While there are too many of you to welcome individually, I
would like to mention the following:
DG Alex Mak, DGE Peter Wan, DGN Tony Wong, IPDG Jones Wong,
PDG Gloria Cheng and PDG Joseph Lee, all six DGs of whom are
from our District 3450, which covers Hong Kong, Macau, Outer
Mongolia, and to an extent Mainland China, as well as PDG Andrew
Cheng from New York District.
All District 3450 Officials and Fellow District 3450 Club
Presidents of the Rotary Class of 2004-2005.
PP Kesami Goto, representing P Kenji Koto and the members
of the Rotary Club of Ama.
P Matt Hsu and the members of the Rotary Club of Taipei North.
PE Amado Santiago, representing P Albert Ang and the members
of the Rotary Club of Mandaluyong.
PP Ralph Stanley, representing P Patrick Lim and the members
of the Rotary Club of Jurong Town.
P Fatima Ferreira and the members of the Rotary Club of Macau.
Fellow Members and friends of the Rotary Club of Kowloon North.
President Sam Cheung and members of the Rotaract Club of HK
Polytechnic University
I would also like to recognize and thank –
PP Bruce Stinson for leading our preparations for this evening’s celebration
and for sponsoring our golf day;
PP Gary Harilela and his family for hosting a wonderful fellowship evening
yesterday, for arranging accommodation for our visitors and for his 40 years
of service to our Club;
PP Bill Bentor for his strong commitment to philanthropic work both in Hong
Kong and overseas, for his commitment to the Rotary ideals and for his support
for both our Club’s Centenary Project and this Ball;
PDG Joseph Lee for his service to the District, our Club and the community
at large, and who was recognized by The Rotary Foundation as a major donor
this week;
AG/PP Ramesh for his recognition by the District this week for his outstanding
service to The Rotary Foundation; and last but definitely not least,
I would like to recognize and thank RI TRF Director
RI PP Carlo Ravezza. Carlo
attended our 35th Anniversary along with the Rotary Clubs of Ama & Taipei
North five years ago, while he was RI President. This week, when he was in
Hong Kong for our District’s Rotary Foundation Dinner, Carlo met several
of our senior members and myself. He asked me to convey his regrets that he
could not join us in person owing to his hectic Rotary travel schedule. He
also asked me to send his very best wishes and congratulations to our Club
and all Fellow Rotarians who are here tonight. Thank you very much, Carlo,
for that.
Now I will hand you over to our MC for this evening, PP Bruce Stinson, who
will brief you on tonight’s programme.
Introduction of District Governor Alex Mak
It is my great pleasure to introduce our hardworking District
Governor, Alex Mak, who has kindly agreed to be our Guest of
Honour tonight.
• DG Alex has given his personal full time commitment to
our District during this Rotary year. Indeed, he took early retirement
in order to be able to dedicate himself to his Rotary work and
for that he is to be thanked, admired and respected.
• Alex’s efforts have been strongly made throughout
the year. His leadership and swift response to the tsunami disaster,
which occurred in December 2004, enabled our District to mobilize
extremely quickly to raise funds and gather resources. He then
travelled to the worst affected areas to see for himself what
the needs were and how our District’s resources could be
channelled to meet them in the most effective way to help those
in dire need.
• Alex has always been ready to lend a helping hand to me
when requested e.g. in facilitating my communications with RI
headquarters, with Rotary in Indonesia about tsunami relief and
with Rotary in India about our Club’s water resources project
there.
• In this same spirit, Alex readily accepted my invitation
to do our Club the honour of presiding over tonight’s function.
Without further ado, let me invite Alex to address you.
• Alex, the floor is yours.
Speech by Rotary Club of Kowloon North President Ian Petersen
Thank you so much, Alex, for your very kind words, your wonderful
message in our programme, and your hard work, support and personal
commitment to all clubs in our District 3480 in 2004-2005.
In his speech, DG Alex paid both our Club and myself some
excellent compliments for which I thank him very much. You
will have heard the saying that behind every good man is a
good woman. I say that behind every good President is a good
team of Club members and I would like to thank all of those
in my Club who have been in my team this year.
Friends, Rotarians and Countrymen from all over the world,
lend me your ears for just a short while.
Little did I know 18 months ago that a couple of phone calls
from Past Presidents inviting me to become President in this
historic RI and Club year would lead to this highlight tonight.
Nor indeed did I know that becoming President would lead me
to Osaka, Nagoya, Ulan Bator, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangxi, Macau,
Taipei, Singapore, Manila and, next month to Chicago and San
Francisco, all in pursuit of Rotary service and fellowship.
Neither did I know how many existing friendships would deepen
and how many new ones would be made as a result. Nor what I
would learn from all of these experiences. For the honour of
being selected to serve as president and the privilege of being
able to travel on this year’s exciting Rotary journey,
I thank both my Club and all of our friends who are here today.
I am not, you will be relieved to hear, going to take you
through our 40 years of history. I am not even going to talk
you through this year’s activities. Indeed, I don’t
need to because we’ve written this all down in our special
40th Anniversary Celebration Programme, copies of which you
have all been given.
I would just like to say that, during our history, our Club
has striven to play our part in our community, our District,
Rotary International and the world as a whole. And we have
striven to do so in an inclusive manner, welcoming men and
women from many walks of life. Last but not least, we have
made sure that we have enjoyed ourselves along the way.
While we have been active in many local community and international
projects, I only want to mention two such projects. The first
is our support through the Christina Noble Childrens Fund for
the ongoing education of forty destitute children in Ulan Bator
in Outer Mongolia, for the rehousing of eight families and
for the refurbishment and running costs of a drop-in medical
clinic to meet the needs of such children. I mention this because
it was my personal involvement in this project which really
showed me how much difference it is possible for us to make
to a child’s life. Meeting one of these children gave
me my “Rotary moment” and made me a committed Rotarian
rather than a half-hearted one.
The second project which I must mention is our Rotary Centenary
Project, which is the completion of the Science and Technology
Building in the Du An Experimental Middle School in Du An County
in Guangxi Province. This is the latest phase of a project
which started about five years ago, after PP Bruce Stinson
from our Club and PP Choi from the Rotary Club of Macau met
up and conceived it, with the rebuilding of a primary school.
It then grew first to encompass six primary schools, two of
which were co-sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Ama and Taipei
North respectively, and then to rebuilding the Du An Experimental
Middle School in phases. Three such phases have already been
completed.
This project has blossomed to include healthcare, education,
knowledge exchange and building maintenance and to involve
non-Rotarian people and institutions who can and do make significant
contributions of their time and expertise to the benefit of
the children in Du An.
We are now contemplating what should be the next steps, both
in that school and/or in the rebuilding of further primary
schools. It would be wonderful if, as it moves on to its next
stage, we could involve all four of our sister clubs as well
as Macau. This is something towards which we should all try
to work.
While doing so, I hope that we can make a habit of enjoying
good fellowship together, as we are doing over this weekend
of Celebration, of which tonight is the highlight. If we can
combine this international fellowship with the Rotary spirit
of Service above Self, we will surely have a strong future
together, embodying the concepts which Paul Harris conceived
a century ago.
Thank you very much for listening to what I have had to say
and now, please enjoy the rest of your evening with us.
(Postscript – On the day following the Ball and, following
receipt of donations from all four sister clubs, President
Ian Petersen initiated discussions with these four clubs and
the Rotary Club of Macau about all six clubs, including Kowloon
North, doing a project coordinated by Kowloon North to mark
their cooperation and friendship and Kowloon North’s
40th Anniversary. All clubs readily agreed with this proposal
and planning on its implementation commenced in the following
week. Thus this new service project was born out of the fellowship
and goodwill created by the 40th Anniversary Celebration weekend.)
Dear DG Alex and Fellow Presidents
from our sister and service clubs,
Many thanks for all of your excellent speeches, kind words
and good wishes and indeed for travelling from overseas to
be here with us today.
As a token of both our gratitude and our wish to continue
and grow our relationships, we would like you all to come up
to the stage to accept some souvenir gifts from our Club to
yours.
After this has been completed, we will take group photographs
with each of the following –
- the District officials
- the four sister clubs
- our service partner, the Rotary Club of Macau
- our own club, and
- the Rotaract Club of HK Polytechnic University
