From old to new – The Installation Ceremony

The Installation Ceremony sparked off by speeches given by District Governor John Wan, New Generations Coordinator Grace Yen and District Rotaract Chairman Sally Ho.

After that, the moment of handover arrived. After sharing with Rotaractors the thoughts and feelings of being an outgoing DRR, IPDRR Eddie Yau passed the title of DRR to Vincent, and the installation ceremony was completed by Vincent sharing with us his feelings, visions and goals of being our new DRR, outlining the year plan of the District Rotaract Committee, and introducing the members of the District Committee to us. (See Table 1 for the full District Rotaract Committee)

"We Care, We Smile", We made it!

This year’s Installation Ceremony was a bit different from those of previous years’, because it did not simply end by Eddie passing the post of DRR to Vincent and having all the awards presented. Instead, DDRR Victor Lai gave us a heart-warming and touching sharing of his experience in being the Person-in-Charge of the District Service Project that celebrated the Rotary Centennial year. The Project was eventually recognized internationally and won the Rotary International Outstanding Project Award. This was the first time in history for our district to have any projects winning this Award. In his sharing, many people, including Victor himself, were almost moved into tears, other than sharing with us the joy and excitement of winning the Award as well as receiving the Award in the RI Convention held in Chicago in June, Victor made known to us his philosophy of serving in Rotaract, "I truely believe Rotaract is a great platform for us ‘To Serve, To Learn, To Lead’ and to have ‘Fellowship through Service’. Dear Rotaractors, I hope you could enjoy being a part of this family and find something meaningful and beneficial to your life in Rotaract. But always remember that there is no free lunch, the more you give, the more joy and satisfaction you will get in return". He further quoted from St. Francis of Assissi, "Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." It was with this belief, the Organising Committee of "We Care, We Smile" made possible the impossible. It was indeed a great honour to our District.  

Celebrate the success of Rotaract Clubs – the Prize Presentation Ceremony

In fact, the District Installation was not only about installing newly elected District Rotaract Committee members and introducing and reflecting on outstanding District Rotaract projects. It was an important day for all the Rotaract Clubs and Rotaractors in the District as well, because it was on this very day, the hard work and success of Rotaract Clubs in the previous Rotaract year were recognized. Rotaract Clubs with outstanding projects and achievements were awarded. Individual Rotaractors who have shown utmost dedication to the Rotaract family were accordingly recognized. In particular, Rotaract Club of Kingspark Hong Kong snatched the title of Rotaract Club of the Year for Community-Based Rotaract Clubs, while Rotaract Club of the University of Hong Kong won the same award for University-Based Roratact Club. In addition, the two outstanding Rotaractors who were awarded Rotaractor of the Year were DDRR Victor Lai from the Rotaract Club of Victoria, and DDRR Rachel Leung from the Rotaract Club of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. (See Table 2 for the list of prize recipients)

Sending love through shoes – the Rotaract Club of Kingspark Hong Kong

Other than awarding outstanding Rotaract Clubs and Rotaractors in genral, outstanding projects were also recognized. This year, the Outstanding Community Service Project Award went to the extremely creative project of "小鞋子" conducted by the Rotaract Club of Kingspark Hong Kong. The essence of the project, according to IPP (or DDRR??) Virginia Seung, was that pairs of shoes, be it old or new, were collected from primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. After processing the shoes collected, they were sent to third world countries as presents to children who were too poor to buy shoes to wear, and had to walk on coarse grounds for long distances every day.

Helping members to plan for their career – the Rotaract Club of Kingspark Hong Kong
Our Rotaract Club of the Year, the Rotaract Club of Kingpark Hong Kong, received their third award for the night, namely the Outstanding Professional Development Award. The project consisted of a series of five career talks, where professionals of five different professions attended the general meetings of the Club and gave introductions to members and guests concerning the nature and characteristics of their respective professions, and provided career advice on how they could successfully enter these professions. The career talks must have inspired the attendees a great deal and provided a lot of help for them in choosing the career paths that are right for them.

Making friends through serving abroad – the Rotaract Club of Victoria
The Outstanding International Service Project Award went to the International Service Trip of the Rotaract Club of Victoria. During the Easter Holiday in 2005, Rotaractors of Victoria flied to Kaoshiung, Taiwan and paid a visit to their potential Sister Club, the Rotaract Club of Feng Shan of R.I District 3510. Besides having lots of fun and fellowship activities with the Feng Shan Rotaractors, the Rotaractors from RAC Victoria had the rare chance of taking care of brain-dead patients in a hospital. "It was definitely an extremely shocking and inspiring experience," recalled IPP Jill Chow, "we realized how fortunate we were being healthy and being able to do whatever we like and go wherever we want to. It was awfully heart-wrenching to see the patients lying in bed, whom we all knew had only little chance of seeing this beautiful world again. It was a really meaningful experience and we would like to thank the Rotaract Club of Feng Shan for this unique and awesome arrangement."

Fellowship above self – The Rotaract Club of Kwai Chung
Not surprisingly, the Rotaract Club of Kwai Chung, which is famous for being extraordinarily harmonious, friendly and united became the winner of the Outstanding Club Service Project Award. Kwai Chung’s fellowship projects that won the hearts of the adjudicators were their monthly general meetings that were friendly, cozy, harmonious and constantly filled with laughter. The general meetings conducted were of a huge variety. For instance, there were formal talks conducted by speakers, as well as active and energetic activities such as friendly sports competitions held with their Mother Club. Moreover, every month was a "Cultural Month", where a Rotaractor who had travelled or went on exchange in a foreign country would host a section of the General Meeting and give an introduction of the culture and way of life of the respective foreign countries. The "Star of the Month" of each general meeting would express their feelings and thought about being a member of RAC Kwai Chung. All this were extremely effective in maintaining a very friendly and warm relationship among Kwai Chung-ers.

The celebration continues – a more remarkable year ahead
The District Installation of the Rotary Year 2005 – 2006 ended happily at around 11pm, with everyone bringing home a content tummy filled with good food. The District Installation marked the beginning of a new Rotaract year. Although the year to "Celebrate Rotary" has ended, the celebration of the achievements and service of Rotary and Rotaract continues in the year of "Service Above Self". Congratulations to the newly installed DRR and District Rotaract Committee, and all award recipients. Let us hope for a even more fruitful and successful Rotaract Year ahead where all Rotaractors serve with all our hearts, and make further endeavours to make the impossible possible.

Table 1

District Rotaract Committee

Table 2

List of Prize Recipients