Rowing
RHKYC Moves for Hong Kong W O RD : B O NITA L EUN G / RO N K W O K / ELIZ A BE T H WAI
AS Hong Kong was navigating its way through the 5th Covid wave in late February and the ensuing social distancing restrictions that prevented us from participating in team sports and getting on the water, a few members of the dragon boat subcommittee started to brainstorm ways to keeping the team active. But as we tossed ideas around on the best ways to get more active while staying connected as a team, we somehow also couldn’t stop talking about those less fortunate who were really struggling with the impact of the strict Covid restrictions because of their economic situation or otherwise. Was there a way for us to encourage each other to stay active while raising funds for those less fortunate, who might struggle with basic food security or might not even be able to afford the purpose of rapid antigen tests?
O
ver the next few weeks, the ‘Move for Hong Kong’ initiative came to fruition. What better way to encourage the team to stay active than by getting into a bit of friendly competition with other club sections while raising funds for those less fortunate? Teams would be formed based on the sporting section and would compete against both teammates and other sections for the top distance travelled, and most funds raised, for the month from 20 March through what would hopefully be the relaxing of certain social distancing restrictions of 20 April. Meanwhile, the Club’s own Charity Foundation was quickly identified as the entity that could funnel the earmarked funds through its established partner organizations so as to quickly identify and support those with the most needs and struggling the most during the pandemic. With the support of the Rowing and Paddling management, we quickly worked to identify an online platform that could support our initiative and the Charity Foundation also gamely agreed to trial the online platform to see if this could be a more efficient and
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| JUNE 2022 AHOY!
