spc #88: Activities of Class of 66 (written by Mr. Emerson)

The Class of 1966
There is very little doubt but that the alumni of the Class of ‘66 are among the most active and most loyal supporters of the College. They were the first class to hold a reunion dinner in the renovated Wong Ming Him Hall on 3rd November 2008. An evening of joyful reminiscence took place in this Hall which so many remembered from more than 40 years ago as students.

Earlier in the year, in April 2008, a dozen alumni and their wives gathered in Causeway Bay in the lobby of the Manulife Building, on the site of the former Lee Gardens Hotel, to view the beautiful paintings of Hong Kong flowers painted by George Tang Kwok-Wing. Now a solicitor, George made good use of his excellent artistic skills which had been shown even when he was a student, and his paintings of flowers were chosen by the Hong Kong Post Office to be used for a series of six beautiful stamps, issued in March 2008, ranging in value from $1.40 to $5.00. Following the gathering to admire the paintings, a sumptuous Chinese dinner was held in George’s honour at the Craigengower Cricket Club. Mr G C Emerson, who had taught all these former students in the 1960s, also attended the reception and the dinner.

The Class of ’66 has become very keen on hiking, such a good way to keep fit and see some of the very beautiful Hong Kong countryside. Most every weekend alumni, their spouses and friends hit the trails. Some are so keen that they have joined a number of charity walks as well. One of the biggest events for the Class of ’66 was Oxfam Trailwalker from 7-9th November 2008. This annual 100 km run of the Maclehose Trail started in 1981 with a few soldiers running to raise money for the Gurhkas’ families. Last year, 3,872 walkers in 968 teams participated and one of them was SPC66. The four team-members were Philip Cheung Kok- Kee, Dr Lawrence Ip Ka-Lam, Henry Shum Kun-Lam and Sonny Yau Tai-Nin. They began the walk on Friday morning at Pak Tam Chung and finished early Sunday morning at So Kwun Wat, Tuen Mun. No individual times are recorded, only the team time and there are 9 checkpoints and all four members of a team must arrive at the checkpoint before moving on to the next checkpoint. It is a team exercise and not a race. The whole team must finish within 48 hours. Only 55% of the teams completed in full team last year. The SPC 66 team started practising months before the event and set Oxfam record as the oldest first-timers (average 59.75) to complete the walk. The average age of the walkers is 33. At the finish line, they were greeted and presented with their certificates by a long-time Trailwalker as well an Oxfam consultant, Dr Lo Wing-Lok (Class of ’72), and Mr Emerson was also there to welcome them and say, ‘well done, extremely well done’. Other helpful supporters were their classmates Lo Chun-Kay and Simon Yim Chi-Ming, as well as ex-Trailwalker and current marathoner Alan Lo Kin-Hing, (Class of ’93). Thanks to their keen supporters who generously pledged donations, the team raised an amazing $246,750 and won 2 awards by Oxfam; one for champion of the Individual Team group and the one for an Outstanding Fundraising Team. The 2009 Trailwalker will take place the weekend of November 20th -22nd. Will SPC66 again participate? Certainly in spirit, if not in actuality. Let’s hope more St Paul’s teams will decide to take part as well.

With the visits from England of Mrs Christine Speak and Colonel Michael Stewart, son of Col E.G. Stewart, for the 2008 Speech Day on 5th December 2008, as well as the Stewart Dinner and establishment of the St Paul’s College Foundation on 6th December 2008, the Class of ’66 was very involved. Mrs Speak had taught many of them geography and her husband, Geoffrey Speak, was Principal while they were students. As of end May 2009, the Class of ’66 had donated more than $700,000 to the Foundation of the pledged amount of one million.

In addition to the two major events of the week, Mrs Speak and Col Stewart were invited by a number of Class of ’66 alumni for yum cha at the Craigengower Cricket Club on 10th December 2008.

Now in 2009, the Class of ’66 is continuing its love affair with walking and running. On 8th February, Dr Chan Yuk-Choi participated in the Standard Chartered Marathon. He started running in 2001 and has joined a number of public races including the Hospital Authority New Year Run, a half marathon and finally full marathons. Yuk Choi will be retiring next year and already is planning to do much more running then, and perhaps another Oxfam Trailwalker.

On 28th February 2009, the SPC66 four who completed the Trailwalker as mentioned above again hit the road, or rather the Hong Kong Trail, for a 50 km Green Power Hike from the Peak Tower on the Peak to Big Wave Bay. They completed this fund raising campaign for environmental protection and education walk. In addition to the original four, the Principal Dr John Kennard, Yim Chi-Ming and Winnie Kwok also joined the Hike.