Past Events in 2017-2018
Carol Singing 2018
The Paulinian Christmas carol singing for the seniors was held on Saturday, December 15th.
The visit to seniors homes has been organised for over 20 years with an objective to share the festive joy and care of Paulinians to the residents. As usual, the carol team visited three senior homes in the Vancouver Chinatown area, namely Simon K.Y. Lee Care Home, Villa Cathy Care Home, and Grace Seniors Home.
After heavy rain for whole week, 40 carol team members felt blessed to start their meaningful day in a sunny and cool morning. We all put on tidy uniforms : red T-shirts with "Paulinian Vancouver" embroidered on the front, black pants/skirts, black shoes and blinking Santa hats, arrived three bus pick-up points punctually and enthusiastically.
All loved the bus arrangement that has been made for a few years. We were happy to have a school bus company sponsoring the bus and happier to have a voluntary driver. The school bus not only gave us convenience but also a journey full of chit-chat and laughter.
The carol team stayed at each senior home for about an hour. We sang seven carols and three oldies including two Cantonese songs and one Mandarin song. Seniors were excited to listen to those familiar oldies that brought them back to their good young days. Then we distributed Christmas gifts, which was a pair of knit mittens, to all attending seniors. Highlight of the visit was the color cards game that gave out special gifts to winners. In addition, majority of seniors received handmade Christmas cards with an instant photo of themselves on one side and a 2019 calendar on the other. The seniors appreciated everything we brought to them by giving us several round of applauses.
All the carol singers felt blessed and happy to have brought joyous hours to the residents of the senior homes as well as enjoyed a great time with fellow Paulinians.
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One-day Trip to George Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary, Delta, B.C.
Our group of 47 participants was truly blessed on 8 September (Saturday) for the one day trip this year. While weather forecast worried us with 70% chance of rain for whole day and it was raining on our way to pick up participants in 3 pick up points, heavy rain stopped when we arrived Deer Lake Park in Burnaby for breakfast. We started our day off with coffee/tea and Chinese buns beside the lake; with a beautiful view of blue sky, lake and ducks.
We then headed to our destination: George Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Delta. On arrival, the group was divided into three small groups; each led by two ExCo members for taking walks on trails of different distance in the Sanctuary. All were walking with our heads up; looking out for the hiding and chirping birds. Some brought along their mini telescope with the hope that they could find the birds easier. And it’s more efficient for those who have bought feeds for the birds as they were able to attract more birds. Still this is truly a game that requires patience. However, majority of the group enjoyed the leisure walk among the trees, shrubs and ponds.
After about 90 minutes of walking in the beautiful surrounding, we went for our buffet lunch at Uncle Buck's Fish Bowl & Grill at Tsawwassen Mills Shopping Mall. We enjoyed the privacy and coziness in a beautiful decorated room. The food was delicious and we had fish and chips, pasta, beef, green salad, fruits, cakes and cookies. For those who finished their lunch early, they took a stroll in the Mall and did some shopping. Then all boarded the bus at 3:00 pm to go to the Richmond Country Farm.
After a quick round of shopping for fresh local grown fruits and vegetables, we started our journey home. The rain started to fall gently on us when we were leaving the Country Farm. It was a perfect day for outdoor activities and everyone had a wonderful time. However, the fun didn’t end for 28 participants as they continued their chit-chat during dinner in Richmond Kirin Restaurant so as to make a completed day of fun and joy.
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Annual Barbeque 2018
We had a new venue for our annual barbeque this year on 2nd June 2018 – Peace Arch Provincial Park on the Canada/US border. It is a beautiful park with plenty of lawns and gardens as well as seating area for picnic; plus an incredible landscape and a great view of the bay. We rented the Peace Arch Heritage Hall which provides two big sheltered barbeque stoves, a kitchen, tables and chairs.
Though the weather forecasted 50% chance of rain, we were very fortunate to have one of the best weathers – perfect temperature with some sunny breaks and no rain all day. We therefore enjoyed all activities outdoor under tree shades.
Again we were thankful to our volunteer driver with a chartered school bus picking 43 participants up from Richmond, Vancouver and Burnaby. All arrived at Peace Arch Provincial Park at 10am; then our ExCo members quickly carried out scheduled tasks, such as, setting up table, distributing plates and cutlery, starting the barbeque stoves, etc.
All participants were amazed at the great menu : starting with chips, coleslaw salad, potato salads and French bread, followed by beef tenderloin, pork chop, chicken wing, wieners, beef ribs, fish balls, squid balls plus with corn and Japanese sweet potato.
After a relaxed meal with full stomach, it was time to kill some calorie! Half of the participants took a 75-minutes walk along the coastline admiring the breath-taking water view while another group walked over to the Peace Arch. They took pictures of the Historical Landmark Monument which was dedicated in 1921 to commemorate the lasting peace between Canada and USA. The sweating walk was rewarded by refreshing desserts including mini cream puffs, red and green grapes, watermelon and home-made dates filled with walnuts.
The day finished with two popular games during which laughter and exciting screams were heard. All participants enjoyed the day thoroughly; nice weather, beautiful scenery, delicious food, interesting games and smooth bus rides all added up to make a perfect day.
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Annual Dinner
Annual Dinner was held on Friday, 2 March 2018 at Richmond Kirin Seafood Restaurant with a total of 107 members and their guests participating. This was the biggest and most popular event of the Alumni.
With the theme Exercise for heath; Exercise for fun, all guests were encouraged to do more exercises for better health, and at the same time, for having more fun. The venue décor was made up of posters with sport icons and images of yoga poses on the windows, sports equipment hanging from the ceiling and "2018" formed by shuttlecocks on stage backdrop. The centre piece for tables were glass vases with balls of different ball games and images of respective balls were used as table symbols. All ExCo members wore color T-shirts and white Bermuda pants while most of the guests put on their sportswear; all looked fresh and energetic. It seemed that all were ready for doing exercise for the whole evening.
After registration at the reception, all guests had an opportunity to get advice from a professional personal trainer Wei Min Lee at the "gym" on how to do light exercise to help shaping the body. Lee also demonstrated how to use some basic exercise equipment. As usual, some great Paulinian cooks made healthy snacks for guests. All put their thumbs up after tasting as the snacks were not only healthy but also yummy.
Along with the gym and snack corner, there was a Christmas Carol fundraising counter; selling cooling scarves and mixed nuts. It aimed to raise fund for buying Christmas presents to seniors when the Paulinian Carol team visit 3 seniors homes in Chinatown every year. Guests were impressed by the enthusiasm of the fundraising team and made their purchase generously.
Every guest received a light blue cooling scarf with imprint of Paulinian Alumni on both ends as souvenir. Guests were amazed with the handmade dumbbell program and took photos with them. All guests were happy as they brought home with a table prize related to exercise and a prize from lucky draw. All prizes were sponsored by generous members.
The dinner started with singing the school hymn. Then Geraldine Lui, Chairlady of the Alumni, welcomed the guests to the dinner and introduced the ExCo members and phone coordinators. Throughout the dinner, upbeat and vibrant music was played so that guests were energized with both food and rhythms.
There were two games in the evening; one on testing the balancing ability of guests while the other one was on the skills in controlling a bouncing ping pong with the paddle. All participating guests were so good that the judging team found it difficult to decide the winners. All games participants and those at the winners’ tables received prizes while the winners got three prizes as rewards. All prizes were sponsored by generous members.
MuLan Exercise and K-Pop Fitness Dance were introduced to guests as two exercise related performances. Experienced MuLan Exercise Master Guijin Li led six ExCo members to perform three sets of MuLan exercise including quan (fist), fan and sword. Guests were surprised to see the combination of martial arts and dance in one exercise. Then Nancy Ngo and 2 dancers from Sunberry Fitness Dance Studio performed K-Pop Dance with one of the most popular Korean song "Nobody". They danced and turned quickly according to the strong rhythms; thus heating up the atmosphere. The highlight of the evening took place when Nancy taught some basic steps of fitness dance. Majority of the guests, either out to the stage or by their tables, followed Nancy’s instructions and danced together. They were totally involved and enjoyed themselves in the music and the dance. Some said that they would have a good sleep and sweet dream after this exercise!
The dinner came to the end after drawing of 3 grand prizes sponsored by Geraldine Lui, Sylvia Chok and Theresa Wang respectively.
All members and their guests had an active evening filled with sports and exercises which can bring them health and fun. Through the chit-chat and sharing, guests might find people of same interest to do sports and exercise together in future!
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Carol Singing 2017
The Paulinian Christmas carol singing for the seniors was held on Saturday, December 9th.
This event has been organised for over 20 years as a contribution to the Chinese community. As in previous years, the Paulinian carol team visited three senior homes in the Vancouver Chinatown area, namely Simon K.Y.Lee Care Home, the Villa Cathy Care Home and Grace Seniors Home.
It was a foggy morning when our team of 37 carol members, all wearing smart uniforms. (red T-shirts with “Paulinian Vancouver” embroidered on the front, black pants/skirts, black shoes and sparkling red Santa hats) got on board a bus sponsored by a school bus company. Everyone was excited to greet each other on the bus and started chit-chat; like seeing classmates in those old school days.
The carol team stayed at each senior home for about an hour. They sang seven carols and three oldies including two Cantonese songs and one Mandarin song. Most of the seniors remembered the rhythm of the oldies and sang along with the carol team. Then, the team distributed Christmas gifts to all those present. It was a knit hat this year and the seniors found it very practical and useful for daily use; some put on the hat immediately. Some seniors were even happier as they won special prizes in the game. In addition, seniors received a homemade Christmas card with an instant photo of themselves on one side and a 2018 calendar on the other. Smiles and contentment on their faces showed that the seniors were happy to see us visiting and singing for them.
All the carol team members felt blessed to have spent a meaningful and enjoyable day as they were able to bring warmth and festive joy to the residents of the senior homes as well as enjoyed a great time with fellow Paulinians.
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One-day Trip to Sea To Sky Gondola, Squamish, B.C.
This year the one-day trip was organised on Saturday, September 9, 2017; with destination to one of the newest tourist attractions Sea To Sky Gondola in Squamish. We have 50 Paulinians, families and friends joining the trip. As usual, we have chartered a school bus which set out at 8:30am to pick us all at 3 pick-up points. Pouring rain didn’t affect the participants as they boarded the bus with smiley faces and good mood. All had well prepared for the wet weather by bringing along umbrellas and raincoats.
Due to weather, we changed our breakfast area from outdoor Dundarave Park to covered Park Royal mall in West Vancouver. All enjoyed a relaxed breakfast with Chinese buns, coffee and tea.
We arrived at our destination Sea to Sky Gondola at 11:30 am then took gondola ride up the mountain to the Summit Lodge. Even though it was a wet day, most of the participants walked across the suspension bridge and had a great view of Howe Sound. We had sandwich & soup lunch at Summit Restaurant where three tables were reserved for us. All of us enjoyed both the food and chit-chat with misty hills around us. It was indeed another scenery to experience. The group left the Summit Lodge at 3:00pm and continued to our last stop, Whytecliff Park.
The rain stopped on our way to Whytecliff Park. When we reached Whytecliff Park, majority of our participants took a stroll along the beautiful beach while some climbed the rocks to enjoy a better view from the top of small hill. Everyone was happy to see the sun and had an enjoyable time at the Park. We then headed back home at around 4:30 pm and one day trip ended when the bus arrived Richmond stop at 6:10pm.
Reluctance to say goodbye, 17 participants had dinner together in a Chinese restaurant in Richmond; carrying on their chit-chat ....
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Performance at the Canada 150 celebration
The Christmas Carol team was honoured to be invited to participate in the Canada 150 Atlantic to Pacific Celebration project “An All Canadian World Record Drumming Celebration”. The event was organised by a consortium of individuals and groups in the Chinese Canadian communities in eight cities. It was a series of regional drumming events that occurred simultaneously across the country to form a dynamic national Drumming Event on Canada Day, 1 July 2017. In addition to the drumming, there were performances by different nationalities.
In Vancouver, the event was held at the Creekside Park. The Alumni singing team of 23 members arrived the Park at 10:30am. All looked energetic and enthusiastic in smart uniform - red polo T-shirts with white embroidered Alumni logo and white pants.
We performed as the finale show of the event by singing a Cantonese song “Love & Passion” which is a forever Golden Hit song in Hong Kong since 1980’s. Our performance was well liked by the audience; with endless applause and requests for encore.
All Carol singers enjoyed in the performance as well as the involvement in this commemorative event which demonstrated the multicultural society that Canada is all about. Everyone was excited and considered the participation in the celebration to be meaningful and rewarding.
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BBQ
The BBQ was held on Saturday, 27 May 2017 at the Belcarra Regional Park. The day was perfect for outdoor activities; incredibly sunny, blue sky and white cloud, with gentle breeze. It certainly marked the beginning of beautiful summer.
The day started early at 8:30am when the chartered school bus picked up participants at the first stop in Richmond, then in Vancouver and finally in Burnaby. A total of 42 participants enjoyed a smooth drive and happy chit-chat in the bus. As always, we rented a big covered shelter with 8 large picnic tables in front of an amazing view of the sea, grassland and play ground.
We arrived Belcarra Regional Park at 10:00am. While participants were taking a deep breath of the fresh air from the sea, ExCo members were busy in carrying out their tasks : setting table, distributing plates and cutlery, setting BBQ stoves, etc. We began our sumptuous barbeque by serving 3 kinds of salads - Kale, fruit and potato, together with French bread and chips. Our main course included prime rib, pork chop, beef ribs, chicken wing, fish balls, wieners, mushroom and corn. All participants loved the food and thanked the hard work of 3 volunteer chefs who were husbands of ExCo members.
With a full stomach, half of the participants took a 1.5 hours walking trip around the picturesque park while some strolled the seashore; socializing and catching up with one another.
Sweet treats were served after the good walking exercise. Participants were impressed by having 5 kinds of desserts - mango pudding, guava jello, Chinese sweet soup (Foo Chuk Tong Sui), mini cream puffs and sweet potatoes; plus water melon, red grapes and green grapes.
Highlight of the day was 2 interesting games; firstly it was a "mahjong" competition among four groups, followed by Charade game for finding Chinese idioms/popular songs. All participants had lots of fun and were reluctant to leave the Park by 3.30 pm.
During the return trip, it was relatively quiet in the bus as most of the participants were so tired that they were sleeping soundly; might be dreaming about the delicious food they just had.
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Annual Dinner
Annual Dinner was held on Friday, 24 February 2017 at Richmond Kirin Seafood Restaurant with a total of 106 guests joining; out of which 71 were Paulinians. This was the biggest and most popular event of the Alumni.
The theme of the Dinner was "An Evening of Unforgettable Games" during which all guests were brought back to their childhood by those simple and interesting games they played with classmates and/or children in neighbourhood. The venue décor were made up of posters showing Hop Scotch and Tic Tac Toe as well as colorful kites on the window; folded paper planes and balls hanging from the ceiling and "2017" formed by rubber bands rope as stage backdrop. On all tables, there were crayon coloring as centre piece, paper doll with changing clothes as dinner program and a traditional yoyo with imprint of Alumni and date of annual dinner as souvenirs. Inside each yoyo was a LED light which happened to be its modern touch-up. Adding more fun to the atmosphere, all ExCo put on white top and denim dungarees which looked smart and cute.
After registration at the reception, all guests received a quiz form asking them to list down names of all childhood games being used in the venue. Then they were directed to turn fortune wheel and got their color cards for the lucky draw. Majority of guests were attracted by the old-times popular games on the stage including pick-up sticks, 5 stones, marble chess and playing cards. For sure guests did not miss the deli corner where homemade childhood snacks, such as, brown sugar pudding with red beans, mini cakes, curry puff, etc. were served. All commended that the homemade food were better than those sold in deli shops.
The dinner started with singing the school hymn. After Chairlady's welcome speech and introduction of ExCo members and phone coordinators, Sylvia Chok representing SPCS Class of 1966 presented key chains and folders to seven senior Paulinians. All key chains were gifts from Sr. Margaret, the current Principal of SPCS while folders were from Esther Yeung from Class of 1966.
Throughout the dinner, over twenty childhood songs were played; the brisk melody and simple lyrics sounded so familiar to guests that some started to sing along. There were two games in the evening; both were very popular Cantonese games in Hong Kong during 1960s. Participating guests got totally involved and enjoyed the fun of the games while others burst into laughter. Not only winners of both games received prizes, all games participants and those at winners' tables received cake coupons and movie tickets. All prizes were sponsored by generous members.
The highlight of the evening was the performance of Yulin Li, 2014-2016 Canadian Yoyo Champion and Terrance Wang, Champion in junior division. All guests were amazed in how the performers mastered the strings of yoyo without getting it tangled as well as how they could do different tricks and spins so quickly. Their excellent skills received non-stop applause from guests.
The dinner came to the end after drawing of 3 grand prizes sponsored by Cecilia Tong, Sylvia Chok and Geraldine Lui respectively. Apart from grand prizes, every guest received a table prize and a prize from lucky draw. All prizes were sponsored by generous members.
All members and their guests had a playful evening filled with fun and laughter. Those old fashioned games not only refreshed the Paulinians' memory of their childhood but also the sweet days spent on the playground of the Alma Mater.
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