New Paul Harris Fellows
It took a number of years to entice William (Willie) Wong to join Drouin Rotary Club.
Eventually he relented and was sponsored into the club in 2019 by Leigh Bates and now he and his wife Christine have been afforded one of the service organisation’s most prestigious awards, Paul Harris Fellowship.
As well as serving the past eight years as the club’s property steward Mr Wong has served one term on the club’s board.
The Wongs arrived in Drouin some 27 years ago and established the Hong Kong Inn restaurant where the Drouin club has found it a welcoming environment for its weekly dinner meetings since 2014.
It is a familiar sight to walk past the restaurant on a Tuesday evening and see a sign on the footpath at the front “Take away only, closed for private function” while the club meets.
Although restricted to virtual meetings for 10 months last year due to COVID members were excited to get back together at the restaurant recently to start planning for the year ahead.
Rotary Assistant District Governor and immediate past president of the Drouin Club Tim Wills who presented Mr and Mrs Wong with their Paul Harris Fellow certificates said that as well as hosting and catering for club meetings and functions they had been strong contributors to many projects.
Most notable had been their catering at one of the club’s major fund-raisers, the Swap Meet, and at FarmWorld at Lardner Park despite the constraints of running their business six days a week.
Mr Wills said Willie and Christine and their staff had provided the club with a great place to call “home” and the service by them and their staff had “always been above-andbeyond”.