President's Column
By President Marvin Lai

A WCS Project

On Friday (June 6th) and Saturday (June 7th), Kingsparicans started to depart for Taipei for the WCS project that RC of Kingspark Hong Kong has done with the two other sister clubs (RC of Taipei Chung Yuan and RC of Sathorn Bangkok) and for the celebration of 8th Anniversary of Taipei Chung Yuan. The Kingparicans who attended this function in Taipei were PP Dominic, IPP Patrick, PP Edward and Rotarianne Alice, PE Joyce, Dir. Michael Au & family, Rtn Calvin and Rotarianne Virginia, Rtn Fiona, Rtn Herbert and Rotarianne Lamda, and P. Marvin; a total of 14 Kingsparicans and family members.

11 Kingsparicans and family members that left on Friday afternoon were only delayed by the bad weather by about half -and-hour. PE Dannie, PP Leaward, and Rtn Antonio of Taipei Chung Yuan met the Kingsparicans at the airport and escorted all Kingsparicans to Westin Hotel. As Rtn Pearl (Taipei Chung Yuan)'s coral museum and shop is only one block from the hotel, she invited all Kingsparicans to visit her shop before the Welcome Dinner on Friday night. At the Welcome Dinner, all Kingsparicans were joined by eight Rotarians from Sathorn (Bangkok), led by President Kanneegar, who had arrived early that morning and had already been sightseeing the whole day. All had a great time due partly to the free flowing red wine supplied by President Vivian of Taipei Chung Yuan and partly to the karaoke signing and dancing led by the very energetic fellowship director Cece of Taipei Chung Yuan.

The Kingsparicans who left on Saturday morning experienced the most dreadful rain fall in Hong Kong in the most recent years; the entire Central area was flooded by 8:00am in that morning when IPP Patrick and P. Marvin were sharing the taxi ride to the airport express; the airport was closed for three hours that resulted four-hour delay for them to arrive in Taipei; despite the four-hour delay, P. Vivian and PP Freezer of Taipei Chung Yuan waited all this time for them in the Taipei airport!

After checking in the hotel around 4:00pm in the afternoon, CP Andy of Taipei Chung Yuan came to the hotel to receive IPP Patrick, PP Dominic, and P. Marvin for the Anniversary Dinner that took place at the Grand Ball Room of Sun-World Hotel. The main theme of the Anniversary Dinner was "African Night" and the entire ball room was decorated with the synthetic "leopard skin", very eye catching. All men were required to dress in suit and were given a "synthetic leopard skinned" handkerchief as a souvenir. Ladies had more freedom to choose their own outfits; some dressed in traditional ethnic African outfits, but some dressed like elegant "leopards". The entire ball room lit up with all these glamorous outfits; truly an eye opener! Group photos were taken and three Presidents of the sister clubs - P. Vivian of Taipei Chung Yuan; P. Kanneegar of Sathorn Bangkok, and P. Marvin of Kingspark Hong Kong - made their separate appreciation speeches and the sumptuous dinner was served. The night concluded with each club presenting a performance on stage; Kingsparicans presented a song called "commitment" in honor of the victims of Sichuan earthquake.

At 7:00am, the "morning call" sounded and more than 81 people from six clubs (all partners in service - Taipei Chung Yuan, Sathorn Bangkok, Kingspark Hong Kong, Taipei Chung Sun, Hulien JiAn, and City Northwest Hong Kong) got ready for the journey to Hualien where the WCS water-pipe project is. The train ride from Taipei to Hualien took approximately 2.5 hours. Before reaching the destination, all had the pleasure to sightseeing Taroko National Park, which is famous for its spectacular mountains and marble canyons. All then checked in at the Leader Hotel, which is located in the aboriginal area of Hualien and not far away from SiBao Elementary School where the opening ceremony of the WCS project would take place the next morning. That night all enjoyed the fine cuisine, followed by the camp-fire party and dancing by the aboriginal friends (i.e. the Tairoko tribe).

The following morning all departed the hotel at 8:00am for a brief bus ride to SiBao Elementary School for the opening ceremony. Actually in late December when P. Vivian of Taipei Chung Yuan wrote to P. Marvin of Kingspark Hong Kong about doing a joint water (WCS) project in Hualien to provide water to an elementary school, P. Marvin was somewhat perplexed in that why would an affluent place like Taiwan need assistance in providing water to any elementary school, but not until P. Marvin was there that he realized that the problem is not providing the water, but "delivering" it. You see Hualien situates in a very high altitude and also in the rim of the tallest mountain in Taiwan - Monte Jade, so the water tends to gashing downwards after any rain fall; it is this massive downward force that often bursts the water pipes and resulted in lack of water supply to the villagers; hence, the need is to provide more sturdy water pipes to withstand the pressure and to build intermediate water reservoirs to absorb the water pressure before the water can be safely transported to the villagers and the school.

Due to the high altitude of the site and quite a treacherous journey to reach some of the water reservoirs, only a few Rotarians are allowed to visit the WCS site; P. Marvin, PE Joyce and International Service Director Michael Au had the privilege to represent all Kingsparicans to witness completion of the site. A total of US$27,316 was invested into the project, of which District 3520, District 3350 and Rotary International matched US$4,000, US$3,000, and US$11,000, respectively. All then witnessed the opening ceremony of the water reservoir, followed by lunch at the school and the group photo session with the principal before departing for Taipei airport.

Overall, it is very grateful to have the privilege to participate in such a meaningful project, and P. Marvin is certain most Kingsparicans who joined the trip would agree that the trip has not only brought the three sister clubs closer, but also it is quite gratifying just to think at least some children in Hualien, because of this joint effort, is now able to enjoy clean drinking water from a stable water supply.