Dear Rotarians
Happy New Year!
December was an exciting month – perhaps a prelude to the year ahead! We started the month with a trip to Abu Dhabi from December 2nd to 5th for Zone Institute (YAS Island Institute). Both DGE Andy Li and DGN Nigel Lo had their official training there and I also met RI President Jennifer Jones first time face to face. In addition to the training, our delegate of 20 Rotarians had much fellowship, both among ourselves and with our fellow classmates. In our leisure time we toured the city and visited Ferrari Park, Grand Mos, the Palace Museum and the beautiful city of Abu Dhabi. We ended the training with my treat to an Emarati dinner.
Some of the delegates then stayed behind for another 2 to 4 days to enjoy a relaxing trip in Dubai. We had a nice Red Dune Desert Safari Tour with exciting motor bike ride in the desert, went on a jeep for sand dashing, we took many beautiful photos during sunset. We then went on to have a nice safari dinner with traditional Arabic BBQ food and live performance. It was a tiring yet exciting experience for all of us. We also arranged a day of city tour, visited another museum in another emirate and the local market. Everyone enjoyed the bargaining and we also bought our souvenirs there. The Museum of the Future is the highlight of the day. It was really an eye-opening visit. It is a highly recommended attraction of Dubai. Most of us returned on Dec 9th. Most of the travel restrictions have been lifted. It was a fun-filled trip.
Back to Hong Kong, I continued my schedule to visit club service projects and attend club’s annual fund-raising events. I visited many meaningful service projects such as Green Cooking Competition for preparing vegetarian meals to families with young children, Chinese Chess Competition with over 100 schools participated, Area 4 Joint Club Project with District Health Committee on Dementia, Area 12 service project on mentoring secondary students in East Kowloon area. Echoing the DEI theme, I also attended Hong Kong Wheel Chair Martial Art Competition which demonstrated a true DEI service to embrace, young and elderly, physically challenged, ethnic minorities and children of low income families. I also attended the inauguration ceremony of a few newly established Interact Clubs.
On District level, we are also making progress in a number of projects. Hong Kong Outstanding Student Service Ambassador Award Program has completed the first online consultation on December 16th. For Virtual Vocational Exchange Program, we have made a promotional video and DGE Andy is ready to promote VVE at the International Assembly. Most exciting news: we have planned our Official DG Visit to Mongolia to be held from April 21st to 25th. All Rotarians are welcome to join!
As we close 2022, I wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous 2023 – and let’s use more of our imagination to create new services for our communities. Let’s Imagine 2023 – Imagine Rotary!
Norman Lee
2022 -23 District Governor
Rotary International District 3450