One of my favorite things about being a part of the Rotary family is the international community of which you’re automatically a part. From being an Interactor in high school, I’ve been able to visit Rotary Clubs and Rotaracts in Ann Arbor, Tokyo, Shanghai, Philly, and now, Beijing. My friends in Rotaract have had similar experiences in Italy, Germany, England, etc. All you have to do is go to the Rotary website and call the club up–and you can volunteer, make friends, and network. How awesome is that?
In Tokyo, I was able to go to a Rotary Club party during the summer of 2009 and went to a District Rotaract potluck this past summer. I also met up again with a Rotarian with whom I’d connected during that 2009 summer and we exchanged ideas for fundraising and gathering members.
In Shanghai, I was especially grateful for Rotaract because I lived there alone without many contacts. I started going to their meetings during the summer of 2010 and went again every Monday the next winter. Because I was there for a longer period of time, I was able to participate in their events and volunteer. A highlight of the winter was definitely our Rotaract Shanghai Photo Exhibition at the Italian Consulate. We put together this amateur exhibition as a fundraiser for wheelchairs for the Anhui province in conjunction with the Huaqiao Foundation. It was a silent auction and we had wine and cheese as well as a booth selling postcards with the photos. They just had a Boat party last month and met their goal of 35000 RMB for the wheelchairs! Huaqiao will double this and they will be distributing the 140 wheelchairs soon.
It was no surprise that when I came to Beijing, I also joined Rotaract here. Unfortunately, their meetings are quite far from my place, so I’m not able to go to their meetings every week. But I was able to participate in one of their events last week: Halloween at the Guang Ai Orphanage!
In Tokyo, I was able to go to a Rotary Club party during the summer of 2009 and went to a District Rotaract potluck this past summer. I also met up again with a Rotarian with whom I’d connected during that 2009 summer and we exchanged ideas for fundraising and gathering members.
In Shanghai, I was especially grateful for Rotaract because I lived there alone without many contacts. I started going to their meetings during the summer of 2010 and went again every Monday the next winter. Because I was there for a longer period of time, I was able to participate in their events and volunteer. A highlight of the winter was definitely our Rotaract Shanghai Photo Exhibition at the Italian Consulate. We put together this amateur exhibition as a fundraiser for wheelchairs for the Anhui province in conjunction with the Huaqiao Foundation. It was a silent auction and we had wine and cheese as well as a booth selling postcards with the photos. They just had a Boat party last month and met their goal of 35000 RMB for the wheelchairs! Huaqiao will double this and they will be distributing the 140 wheelchairs soon.
It was no surprise that when I came to Beijing, I also joined Rotaract here. Unfortunately, their meetings are quite far from my place, so I’m not able to go to their meetings every week. But I was able to participate in one of their events last week: Halloween at the Guang Ai Orphanage!
It was an adventure trying to find the place. Having gone to interview at a career fair that morning, I was already in a cram to get there on time. My friend DH from CIEE volunteered to come along. We took the subway (3 transfers) for about 2 hours. From there, we met up with Clare (Penn) and two other volunteers she had met at the station. They had gone to buy 100 apples for the event. Ben, one of the volunteers, joked around with the local Chinese passerby, trying to sell the apples (haggling, of course) as we waited for the bus. When the bus finally came, we hopped on. But when the conductor (I don’t know what you call them for buses…she actually gives you tickets…) asked us where we were going, we realized we had no idea. So Ben tried to say “Guang Ai Orphanage” in as many different combinations of Chinese tones as we could think of (we didn’t have the Chinese characters, only the phonetic spelling). The conductor still didn’t know, so we called the coordinator and asked her where to get off.
When we got off the bus, the orphanage was nowhere to be seen. We were in the middle of a polluted myriad of construction work. We walked to a nearby building and asked the guard how we might be able to get to the orphanage. No one had any idea what we were talking about. Finally, there was a lady who told us we needed to take a cab. We walked to an intersection and tried to hail one, but the lady came running after us five minutes later. She had a 黑车, or illegal cab, get us to the orphanage.
When we got there, it was so much fun. All of the kids were in a small room passing around balloons, cutting out masks, and drawing jack-o-lanterns on the balloons. There must have been about 30 volunteers (and 30 kids!). We played games: mummy wrapping, apple bobbing, and “pass-the pumpkin”–one of those teamwork games where you have to pass a balloon down a line as quickly as you can with certain restrictions.
The kids (and we!) had a great time. They were all smiles at the end. The boys were especially into the mummy-wrapping and apple-bobbing; the girls had more fun planning strategies for the “pass-the-pumpkin” game. Some kids had more fun popping the balloons than blowing them up.
Halloween as a kid was always dressing up, putting a coat over my costume (the woes of Michigan Octobers), and going trick-or-treating. I loved the neighbors who went all out in decorating their house with spooky contraptions, ghouls, and witches. There was always that one house where the parents would go all out and scare you as you came in through the door before giving you candy. I loved it.
This Halloween wasn’t so bad, either.
