This past August Fr. Deignan and Mr. George Siu-Ping Tam, Principal of Wah Yan College HK, had a whirl wind tour of the US and Canada. In one week they crisscrossed the US/Canada border three times. The main purpose of their trip was to attend the 6th Wah Yan International Conference in Calgary. They then visited Wahyanites in Edmonton and Toronto. From there they came to New York City. Vancouver was originally their final stop before returning to HK. At the last minute they managed to squeeze in a day trip from Vancouver to San Francisco.
I was in Toronto for the dinner party in honor of Fr. Deignan and Mr. Tam. We flew down to NYC in the morning of August 6th. There were several other guests making the trip with us. They were Mr. Raymond Yu, the former assistant principal of WYCHK, and his lady friend, Mr. Philip Ching, a dear friend of our chapter, and Mr. Yip Wah-Ying from HK representing the Past Student Association of Wah Yan Kowloon. Michael Ma and James Wong met us at the airport. In addition Alfred Kwok who flew in from Chicago especially to attend the reception for Fr. Deignan and Mr. Tam was also there waiting for us. All the guests checked in to the Holiday Inn Downtown where the Executive Committee of our Chapter hosted a welcome lunch for the visiting party. We invited Fr. Deignan’s sister Mrs. Claire McGoldrick and his nephew Mr. David Deignan to join us.
Willy Wu and his mother-in-law who knew Mr. Yu and Mr. Ching dropped by to say hello.
After lunch Fr. Deignan resigned to his room for a rest. Mr. Yu, his lady friend, and Mr. Ching left with Willy’s mother-in-law for a harbor cruise. I took Mr. Tam, Mr. Yip, and Alfred on a tour of Wall Street. We even rode the subway and the Staten Island ferry. At 6 p.m. the party left Holiday Inn for the banquet at the Golden Unicorn restaurant.
Barry Koh arranged a private function room for the dinner. At the entrance to the dinning room was a welcome sign designed by Simon Lo. Posted on one wall of the room were pictures from our past activities. Thanks to the hard work of Peter Lau and others, the guests all enjoyed the exhibition. Mr. David Deignan’s wife Deirdre also attended the dinner party. About thirty Wahyanites attended the event with their families and friends. The announcement of the party in the local Chinese newspapers attracted quite a few Wahyanites to come to our gathering for the first time. Some of them just started working in the area after college while others has been living in the New York metropolitan area for many years but did not know the existence of our alumni chapter. Richard Chen, who moved to North Carolina about a year ago, returned to New York especially for the gathering. Our guests of honor, Fr. Deignan, Mr. Tam, Mr. Yu, and Mr. Ching each gave a speech during the dinner. Fr. Deignan highlighted his expectations of graduates of Wah Yan. Mr. Tam talked about the present state of the school. Mr. Yu told us how gratified he was when a former student came up to him earlier in the evening and expressed his gratitude. The student thanked Mr. Yu to let him enroll in Wah Yan for a year and to the student it was a wonderful year. Mr. Ching encouraged Wahyanites to strengthen their ties with the school. One of the ways is to become a mentor to the students of Wah Yan. Souvenirs brought back from Calgary were given to winners of a Wah Yan trivia contest.
The dinner party was a huge success. It was an evening of fellowship, laughter, and reminiscence. The party ended at 10 p.m. and many Wahyanites lingered on to have pictures taken with the guests of honor.
