HKJC's biggest-ever Mother's Day Carnival in Tin Shui Wai brings festive fun to local residents

11 May 2008

The Hong Kong Jockey Club and Yuen Long District Council today (11 May) jointly hosted Tin Shui Wai's biggest-ever Mother's Day Carnival at Tin Shui Wai Sports Ground to celebrate this special festival for and with residents in the district.  The underlying purpose was to pay tribute to the mothers of the district and to mark the first Olympics to be held in the motherland. 

Twenty-nine non-government organisations that actively serve Tin Shui Wai gave their support to the Club and Yuen Long District Council by running games booths and staging performances at the carnival, contributing to the fun of the occasion for local residents and bringing disparate sectors of the community together.

The Club has funded projects in Tin Shui Wai since 1994, under the auspices of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.  Today's Mother's Day Carnival was supported by the Club's CARE@hkjc Volunteer Team.  Prior activities that the team have arranged include a Chinese New Year lunch gathering for 200 elderly single people from Tin Shui Wai, and visits to homes for the elderly in the district.  At the opening ceremony, Club Chairman John Chan pledged that the Club would provide more ongoing community services within Tin Shui Wai.

"Looking to the future, our CARE@hkjc Volunteer Team will collaborate with various non-government organisations to host weekend workshops for Tin Shui Wai residents. We hope the various interactive workshops and activities that we are planning will benefit young people in particular, and will help them learn more about Hong Kong and their own role in civic life," he said.

"For the women in this community, we intend to provide training courses that are designed to widen their horizons, for example programmes on information technology.  These courses will help them understand and relate to an integral aspect of their children's lives that previously might have been difficult for them.  By creating a bridge of mutual interest between the generations, we hope that family relationships will in turn be strengthened and harmony prevailed." 

"The experience gained by our CARE@hkjc Volunteer Team in Tin Shui Wai will be put to good use in other districts where we wish to extend similar community-based services to help develop and improve the quality of life."

National People's Congress Standing Committee Member and Legislative Council President Rita Fan came out to show her support for women and families in Tin Shui Wai.  She joined Club Chairman John C C Chan, Yuen Long District Council Chairman Leung Che-cheung, Vice Chairman Tang Yun-chor, Yuen Long District Officer James Chan, Club Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges and Executive Director of Corporate Development Kim Mak in officiating at the opening ceremony.

The wide range of activities at the Mother's Day Carnival included 16 fabulous stage performances.  Pride of place went to two DIY handicraft workshops where children could produce free Mother!|s Day gifts on the spot for their mothers, an especially popular activity given the spirit and theme of the day.   Parents and children could team up to show their athletic prowess by participating in some 30 specially-devised inter-generational competitions and Olympic-themed games.

In a nod to the Beijing 2008 Olympic equestrian events to be staged in Hong Kong, the Club also set up an equestrian corner at the carnival to provide information about the sport.  Models of the Olympic equestrian venues and facilities were also on show together with four adorable Shetland ponies.

The Club had earlier announced that its CARE@hkjc Volunteer Team would focus its community activities in Tin Shui Wai this year, following on from its initiative to set up a new HKJC Telebet cum Volunteers and Training Centre in the district in the first quarter of 2009.  The Club hopes that its programmes in Tin Shui Wai will encourage residents to become volunteers themselves, in their turn serving other needy people in their community and fostering an ethic of compassion and inclusiveness within their own immediate society.