Rotaract Beijing starts 2017

A new year and lots going on

Rotaract Beijing starts 2017: the two clubs are now pretty busy.
Here some updates

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)

RYLA is an intensive training program for young adults. In China we focus on 18-30 year olds. Our RYLA is a four day group retreat of 25 young leaders geared at honing their personal awareness and leadership skills in a dynamic and exciting experience of exploration and adventure
RYLAs are designed for young adults with proven leadership ability and commitment to community service. It will help you discover your potential and develop the skills you need to be a leader in your community, career, and everyday life.
Time and place: Moganshan Bamboo Forest (four night retreat, 10 km from Shanghai), 1 to 4 April 2017
More: http://www.rylachina.org/

See here some pics, our Rotaractors from Beijing were also present.

Some of our meetings

On 30 January: social in Blue Frog, Sanlitun.
On 27 February meeting in SOHO Sanlitun.
On 6 March meeting in SOHO Sanlitun.
On 22 March the Rotaract volunteers visit the migrant children’s school with MCF (Migrant Children Foundation).
On 27 March, Gilbert presents his book Toxic Capitalism in Cafe Ruhe (Pacific Century Place, Sanlitun), the new venue.

Beijing Rotary and Rotaract closing the year

Last “official” lunch of the Beijing Rotary Club

Beijing Rotary and Rotaract closing the year, first with Rotaract having the last lunch at Kempinski before everyone disappears to celebrate the holidays, in Beijing or in the home country.

Rtn Wei presented a banner he had received from RC Baden-Baden Merkur.
Visiting Rtn Bjorn exchanged a banner with PE Russell.
Visiting Rtn Thibaud presented his club of Discovery Bay, Hong Kong. New club and no banner yet.
Rtn Didier was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship by the club while he was away from China. It was to acknowledge his outstanding contribution towards club events. Rtn Gilbert has kept Didier’s certificate and finally passed it on to him to him.

Rotaract Social Night

As the Winter Ball had to be cancelled – not enough tickets sold – our Rotaractors held a “Social Night” at Legend Beer in the evening of Friday 16 December. We got a great deal at Legend Beer so that we went home, let’s say “pretty happy”.

Nice mix of Rotaractors and Rotarians, see here some of the happy participants.

2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar

Beijing City International School

On 3 December the 2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar was held again in Shuangjing. Proceeds for the Migrant Children Foundation (MCF) of our Rotarian Helen.
Great job Helen!See: http://mcfchina.org/

Rotaract and Rotary both present

This 2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar both Rotary Club of Beijing and our Rotaractors were present with a table.
Rotaract sold crafts that were handmade by the kids of MCF school. They raised over 2000 RMB.
Great job by our volunteers Julia, Peter, Vasko, Péha, Elaine, Yvonne and others.

Dementia Awareness Silent Film

The Missing Ring

Our Rotaractors had made a Dementia Awareness Silent Film, “The Missing Ring”.
See here the explanation by Zhiyu Sebastian Yin, one of our Rotaractors who made it:
“I wrote and story and directed the film, and roles were played by many other famous young Oscar winners and Tony nominees. So sit back, enjoy this almost 17 minutes long film with your loved ones.”
Title:” Dementia Awareness Silent Film The Missing Ring”
You can watch it on YouTube here (you need a VPN in China): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6OeI4dK3bM

I think the movie is just great.

Now watch it here

It took me some time to figure out how to reduce the size of the movie and post it here.
So, finally:

The background

On Sunday 22 November, Rotaract volunteers braved the snow to visit the Skilled Nursing Home (Long Zhen Senior Care)  for retired seniors, in Laiguangying. See:

November 2015: a busy month for Rotaract Beijing

For the pictures:
Rotaractors putting a smile on seniors

Rotaractors putting a smile on seniors

Rotaract program for senior homes, see:

Rotaract Club Beijing, nursing homes and Lyrics Cafe

Surprise party at Beer Mania, the movie

Surprise party at Beer Mania for Diane

Surprise party at Beer Mania for Diane: See the earlier post: https://www.beijing1980.com/2016/09/15/surprise-party-at-beer-mania-for-diane/

The movie

Rotaractors made a small clip about the event. I am finally happy to upload it here. I avoided Youtube as there might be an annoying “IPR” issue with the background music…