Past Events in 2019-2020
Annual Dinner 2020
Annual Dinner was held on Friday, 14 February 2020 at Richmond Kirin Seafood Restaurant with a total of 95 members and their guests participating. Despite concerns about coronavirus outbreaks, the show up rate was 96% reflected the support and trust of the fellow members to the Alumni.
Theme of the dinner was Bonding with 007 which brought some motifs of the James Bond movie series to all guests. It started with the appealing and eye-catching venue decor. On the windows, there were two sets of giant 007 balloon and posters with Sean Connery and Daniel Craig posing James Bond as well as movie posters for Spectre and Quantum of Solace. Hanging from the ceiling, it was a nice selection of Bond’s gun images. The stage backdrop showed "2020" formed by official logos of 007 at different times. The centre piece for tables were all Bond’s most memorable gadgets including the Number One Bell-Trexton Jetpack. To resemble James Bond doing investigation in dance party, ExCo members and many lady guests wore their glamourous evening gowns, some gentlemen put on their dinner jackets and bowties; giving an illusion that several James Bonds were in action.
At the reception, guests played their roles as secret agents after receiving their Agent label, secret words, etc. They had to speak their secret words correct to enter the card game Challenge Me and got their individual chips for lucky draw. Then they tried their luck in another card game Triple Seven to win gold chocolates and limited 007 key chains. Seeing a queue for the card games, some guests chose to firstly taste the sumptuous and exquisite cocktail appetizers made by volunteer members. No matter when they tried the food, all raised their thumbs up for the excellent cook.
Every guest received an invisible pen with imprint of Paulinian Alumni as souvenirs and a sponsored heart-shaped chocolate for Valentine’s Day. Guests appreciated the dinner program with design borrowing from the significant gun barrel sequence featured in most of the James Bond films. All guests were happy as they brought home with a table prize of useful tools including USB for agent 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, popular James Bond theme songs were played. With the familiar music, guests recalled the plots of the movies.
All guests being Agents were put to test in two games : decoding game and shooting game. The decoding game challenged their intelligence; each table had to find out five James Bond filming locations by decoding the clues. Then shooting the villain tested the eyesight and coordination of finger, hand and arm of all table representatives. Every time when a villain target was shot down, all guests applauded with loud cheering. Both players and guests were excited and involved in the games. All games players and those at the winners’ tables received prizes. All prizes were sponsored by generous members.
After the games, Bill Pozzobon and Jamie Chrest from Vancouver TheatreSports delivered a 15-minutes improv performance. Based on the 007 theme, there were three scenes and participants were invited to be on stage to take part in the performance. Both Bill and Jamie were seasoned improv comedy performers who interacted with the audience wittily and humorously. Guests enjoyed the performance with non-stop laughter.
The dinner came to the end after drawing of 3 grand prizes sponsored by Geraldine Lui, Sylvia Chok and Gloria Chan respectively.
All members and their guests had an enjoyable evening Bonding with 007; they were prompted to watch some old James Bond movies again and would definitely look forward to the one "Coming Soon" in the cinema
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Carol Singing 2019
The Christmas Carol singing for seniors was held on Saturday, 14 December.
As a tradition, the Paulinian Alumni Carol team visited three senior homes in Vancouver Chinatown area: the Simon K.Y. Lee Care Home, the Villa Cathay Care Home, and the Grace Seniors’ Home.
It’s a cold and cloudy morning when 35 carol singers, all wearing smart uniforms : red T-shirts with "Paulinian Vancouver" printed on the front, black pants/skirts, black shoes, and blinking Santa hats, set off in a school bus sponsored by a bus company. The bus picked up and dropped off singers at three stops along Richmond and Vancouver; making the visits to Chinatown easier and more convenient.
The carol team stayed at each seniors’ home for about an hour. We sang seven carols, two golden oldies (one Cantonese and one Mandarin) and two members sang a 4.5-minutes song from a Chinese Opera. As this was the first time we sang Chinese Opera, seniors were both surprised and excited. Despite the song was just a small part of a popular Chinese Opera, it brought the seniors back to their sweet young days when watching Chinese Opera was a norm for youngsters. After singing, we distributed Christmas gifts, neck warmers, to all seniors who attended. Then we had a matching card game of ocean creatures and numbers. All winners received special gifts. In addition, seniors received a handmade Christmas card with an instant photo of themselves on one side and a 2020 calendar on the other. The seniors appreciated everything we brought to them especially our care and company.
When the bus left Chinatown at 4:30pm, it was dark, cold and raining. Feeling warm and love, all carol singers spent a meaningful day by not only bringing happiness and care to the residents of the seniors’ homes but also enjoying a great time with fellow Paulinians.
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One-Day Trip to Britannia Mine Museum, Squamish
The 1-day trip was organised on Saturday, September 14, 2019 with 35 participants visiting Britannia Mine Museum and exploring Squamish downtown. With a typical early Autumn weather, the chartered school bus driven by a voluntary driver started off early at 8:00am to pick up participants at Richmond, then Vancouver and Burnaby.
Considering 90% chance of rain in Porteau Cove where we originally planned for breakfast, we decided to have our coffee/tea and Chinese buns in Metrotown Food Court.
The Britannia Mine Museum is one of the representative historical sites along sea-to-sky highway where we have been driving passed by and seldom stopped to explore. Therefore, all participants were thrilled with the Mining Tunnel tour which offered an experience to face the challenge of hard-working miners in darkness and the "Boom" show which created dynamic multi-sensory and special effects attraction that brought the Mill to life. In addition to looking at the exhibits in those old buildings, some tried their luck and were excited with what could be found in the Gold Panning Fountain.
After the visit, we went to Shady Tree Pub for lunch. We were seated at its enclosed patio where we enjoyed the privacy and sang our school hymn. Along with the chit-chat among fellow Paulinians, all left the Pub with full stomach. Then we headed to Squamish Downtown and were lucky to catch the last 10 minutes of the opening of the Farmer’s Market. Some efficient participants were able to get some fresh local produce.
On our way back home, our friendly driver drove us to Porteau Cove so that we could look out from the misty windows to appreciate the beautiful scenery of the Cove even though it’s under pouring rain.
About 2/3 of the participants completed the day trip with a dinner at Richmond Kirin Restaurant, with full stomach again. All were happy to have enjoyed a 12-hours get-together with laughter.
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Annual Barbeque 2019
The annual barbeque was organised on 1 June 2019 at a newly found venue with a perfect setting for outdoor activities. We spent our day in the middle of Centennial Beach Boundary Bay Regional Park, flanked by the north shore white capped mountains from behind and embraced by the clear blue ocean from the front. We could feel the sun radiating warmth on our shoulders; we could feel the cool breeze caressing our face.
The drive to the Park was about 90 minutes; on its way picking up all participants from 3 stops. This ride gave us the opportunity to re-connect with our fellow alumni and to meet new ones.
Once we arrived at the Park, everyone helped with setting the picnic tables and we kicked off our BBQ with the singing of the school hymn and saying a prayer. Our most revered chefs prepared a gourmet BBQ of fish balls and squid balls, followed by beef ribs, pork belly, sirloin steak, and chicken wings, not to mention the accompaniments of 2 different salads, mushrooms, sweet corns and sweet potatoes.
After lunch, majority took a leisure walk along the Dyke Trail while some stayed by the picnic area to catch up on past activities or reminisce sweet memories of childhood events at the School.
The BBQ menu continued with the serving of watermelons, grapes, mango pudding and coconut pudding. It was such a tempting sweet treats to be had!
It would not have been a Paulinians BBQ gathering if there was no game. We played two games: Fill the Bucket, and Dart with Hello Kitty. It was lots of fun with cheering and laughter, and an occasion for some to demonstrate their skills and dexterity.
After taking our group pictures, we had to pack up and begin our homeward bound. Half of the participants topped off the BBQ with a dinner at Richmond Kirin Restaurant.
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Annual Dinner
Annual Dinner was held on Friday, 1 March 2019 at Richmond Kirin Seafood Restaurant with a total of 108 members and their guests participating. This was the biggest and most popular event of the Alumni.
Theme of the dinner was Korean Night during which participants were able to explore more about this fast growing and dynamic Asian country. The venue décor was colourful and eye-catching including posters of beautiful scenery, capital Seoul and Korean brands on the windows, rolls of Korean national flags across the ceiling and "2019" formed by Korean words "love" on stage backdrop. The centre piece for tables were traditional Korean 3-colors fan and all table prizes were put in a box being wrapped by a piece of red and blue cloth in Korean style. All ExCo members wore traditional Korean dresses in bright colours while most of the guests put on attires in red or blue or their combination. With the background and brilliant coloured attires, participants felt like they were in Korea.
After registration at the reception, guests were directed to visit the Korea Travel Consultation Station run by prestigious Campbell Travel. Three travel agents introduced packaged tours, hotels, air tickets, local transportation, etc to those who were interested in visiting Korea. Then guests were attracted by the Korean side dishes corner, which offered seven popular side dishes, spicy fry rice cakes and Korean green tea. All food were prepared by some great Paulinian cooks who learnt how to prepare these Korean dishes especially for the Dinner. The perfect mix of sour and chilli tastes stimulated the taste buds of all participants.
Every guest received two Korean soju wine cups with imprint of Paulinian Alumni as souvenirs, a pair of "Made in Korea" socks sponsored by Seoul Element and discount travel voucher from Campbell Travel. Guests were curious about the dinner program inspired from Korean Ddakji game; they played with unfolding and folding the program. All guests were happy as they brought home with a table prize of Korean origin 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, Korean music including popular TV drama theme songs and K-Pop songs was played. Guests were further indulged in the Korean atmosphere.
Korean mood was uplifted by the games in the evening. The first one was traditional Korean Tohu games that required players to throw "arrows" from a 6-feet distance into a canister; putting their eyesight and wrist strength to test. The second one was a bit tricky as players had to guess what ExCo members were trying to tell them in Korean language. As ExCo used comic gesture, props, etc. to give hints, the game was full of laughter and funny answers. Both players and guests enjoyed and found these two theme related games entertaining. All games players and those at the winners’ tables received prizes while the winners got two prizes as rewards. All prizes were sponsored by generous members.
After the exciting games, prestigious Korean Charm Dance Company performed two traditional Korean dances, namely Fan Dance (Buchaechum) and Waist Drum Dance (Samgo-Mu). Both dancers danced gracefully and skillfully to the traditional Korean court music of bright rhythms and elegant melodies. At the end of each dance, guests gave several rounds of applauses.
The dinner came to the end after drawing of 4 grand prizes sponsored by Seoul Element, Geraldine Lui, Sylvia Chok and Theresa Wang respectively.
All members and their guests had an enjoyable Korean Night and brought home with a handful of gifts and sweet memories!
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