Birth of the Rotaract Club of Kwai Chung

The Rotaract Club of Kwai Chung – a little child of the Rotary Club of Kwai Chung, is a miracle under the nurture of our mother club. We experienced incredible growth in these 2 years. No doubt, every one of our Rotaractors feel grateful to our mother club for such an invaluable opportunity ‘To serve, To learn, To lead' (the Rotaract motto of our district) in this big family.

Our club was born on 26 September, 2002. There were 26 charter members, who were all studying or graduating from Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi districts at that time. The inauguration ceremony was a great success, which attracted over 80 guests, including PDG Gloria Chan and PDRR Ivy Yeung, to attend and witness all of our charter members being pinned and recognized at that night.

Before all these happened, there was a story worth telling.

Our mother club, the Rotary Club of Kwai Chung, has been sponsoring the Tsuen-Kwai-Tsing Outstanding Student Award for many years. There were Rotarian interviewers in the selection panel every year. In Spring 2001, some of the awardees were seeking sponsorship for their activities. They then established contact and discussed with IPP Samson.

In a meeting with IPP Samson, PP Alex and President Ronnie, CP Diane was invited to charter a Rotaract Club with other outstanding students. After attending Rotarians' general meeting, we all felt that Rotarians were nice and helpful. We were proud of being trusted by Rotarian that we had the ability to do so. It was indeed a great and rare opportunity to serve in our district and expose ourselves in a brand new dimension.

During the several months of organizing period, the 14 organizing committee members, with the guidance of IPP Samson and New Generation Committee (NGC) Chairman Adrian, worked hard to get ourselves familiar with the Rotary Family. None of us knew about Rotaract before, let alone all other formalities.

Though everything started from zero, we enjoyed the moment of hardship. We studied the Rotaract handbook, constitution and other Rotaract Club websites as well as attended the Joint President Meeting so as to understand its objectives and culture. We recruited our members, tailored the Rotaract constitution for our club, organized the inauguration ceremony and formulated our year plan and future development. The process was intensive but fruitful. It made every one involved in the process feel the magic of teamwork and the kindness of our Rotarians. Rotarian and we shared the same norm and worked toward the goal. From day 1, we already did “Service through Fellowship” (International Rotaract motto).

Successfully, our club was chartered on 26 September 2002. Immediately after our inauguration, we already involved in the organization of several district level events, like Japan Delegation and RI Presidential Visit, under the leadership of CP Diane Tai. Our reputation in the district was built up incrementally but rapidly. We were happy to be recognized despite of the fact that we still have plenty of space for improvement.

At present, our club grows healthily under the care of our mother club. We had about 33 members in our club. Our membership base was unique in our RI District as we insist that all of our members should be studying, working, living or graduated from Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi Districts. We are truly selective in our new members. Nevertheless, this practice makes our members more united and more ready to serve. Most of our services are tailored for our community as we understand the place where we live, study or work.

In the Rotaract Club of Kwai Chung, you will find strong fellowship, which may be inherited from our mother club. Fellowship is the strongest motivation of our service. It is also the main reason why we enjoyed every moment of our gatherings and services. That is our spirit. We will continue to extend beyond excellence in our service through fellowship.