Rotarians and Rotaractors at Crossroads, September 24, 2005

September 24, 2005 dawned with heavy clouds, strong winds, and occasional bursts of heavy rain ¾ and with the threat of typhoon number 3 being hoisted at any minute. Rotarian Pauline was worried while heading towards Tsuen Wan just before 9 am. She was unable to contact Rotarian Colman that morning ¾ Rotarian Colman was supposed to have returned from a business trip to Beijing the night before (now, is that service above self or what!?), and before he left, he had made arrangements to meet Rotarian Pauline at Tsuen Wan at 9.30 am on the 24 th. However, all went well, and 9.15 am saw Rotarians Pauline and Colman plus lovely wife (Cecilia) heading for the Gold Coast. Typhoon No. 3 had been hoisted.

At Crossroads, the two Rotarians and Cecilia met Debbie of Crossroads and was shown the newly set up ‘market’, displaying items from different countries to which Crossroads had sent stuff, to help the craftsmen of these countries to sell their handiwork. Cecilia could not resist and purchased two small ‘vases’ which turned out to be candle holders, and a wood carving of the Holy Family. The Rotarians also met three Rotaractors (Brian, Edwina and Stephanie) as they wandered around the ‘market’.

Time was passing and Debbie was getting worried; but she did not have to as Rotarians never let people down now, do we? Very soon, Rotarian Raju walked into the meeting room with his delightful daughter and three of her friends. Next, Rotarian David Wright with his lovelier-than-ever wife and daughter, and last but not least, Rotarian David Lindsay and his two delightful daughters. All were eager and looking forward to tackle the work at hand, after being impressed by the generosity of HK people – we were told that Crossroads received about 25 trucks of good stuff every week (the rest of the statistics were lost on me… as I was still trying to figure how much stuff there was in 25 trucks!!).

The macho men, being gentleman, of course volunteered to do the heavy-duty stuff like moving and packing electrical goods and books. The younger generation was assigned painting and decorating. The ladies were of course given the delicate job of sorting out clothes.

Below you can see Rotarians Raju, David and David more than happy to show off their strength ¾ the million-dollar smiles on their faces is surely an indication of how much they were enjoying themselves. Of course, they needed to clear all the boxes in the background, or else……. (no lunch?!).

And below, you can see Rotarian Raju sorting out books (to be packed into boxes) with a volunteer who came with him.

It is not just the macho man who did all the heavy work. Below you can see Rotarian Raju’s delightful daughter (in blue) cleaning tiles with her friends and with Brian (in grey) (President of Rotaract).

Apart from the Rotaractors, to our delightful surprise, there were also other students from PolyU who are regular volunteers. In the following photo, you can see Lily (camera shy?) directing Rotarian Colman to the boxes that were required to be sorted.

And here you can see Rotarian Pauline and Cecilia (in black) with Edwina (in purple) and Stephanie (in black, long hair). Lily was in the background, and we seem to have lost Sonnie! Hmm!! Must have a word with the camera man later. By the way, no one brought a camera so these pictures were improvised using Cecilia’s mobile phone. Technology is amazing nowadays.

Sonnie and Lily were also from PolyU, students of the Department of Logistics. Both girls worked at Crossroads every day during their summer holiday and, now that semester has begun, they still return and work at Crossroads every Saturday. Now is that not the spirit of Rotary Club? So, of course, they were strongly encouraged to join the Rotaract (they have never heard of it!). Brian (the President of Rotaract) was asked (made to actually, but not unwillingly) to give the girls his email address so that they can contact him later about joining.

It was indeed an eye-opener to see these PolyU students working hard at Crossroads ¾ not just when it suits them, but regularly.

President Howard has apparently managed to convince another group of students (AESEC?), also of PolyU, of this worthy activity, and three of their members also came to help. Well done President Howard. You are forgiven for not showing up at this event, and junketing in Xi’an.

Rotarian Gilbert “ pitched up after lunch – late as usual and stood around/lifting a few boxes and being generally decorative ”, to quote Rotarian David W. However, a s the saying goes, better late than never…….. at least he showed up, in spite of the weather.

The activity ended at about 5pm and uneventfully, apart from the fact that the Rotaractors and Rotarian Colman found that their umbrellas had apparently grown wings and flown away while they were hard at work. There was a minute of panic, but it turned out that they were put away in safe keeping by Debbie. The umbrellas were retrieved, and not a second too soon as, no sooner than they stepped out of the reception room, it started to pour. What a day!! Rotarians/Rotaractors then retired home for a well-earned rest.