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It has become a tradition for the DECees in Hong Kong to attend the spring dinner on the third day of the Chinese New Year. The year of the Horse was no exception.

Instead of visiting relatives, the DECees gathered for its 9th consecutive year to enjoy the old acquaintances and mingle around to send good wish to each other. The presence of our second generation - kids further strengthen the bonds of the group and boost a family atmosphere (see the pictures!).

This year is a very special occasion for two reasons:

 - Co-celebration of Valentine Day

 - For the first time we have a theme for the dinner: "DEC公益金, 互愛互助樂人生"

The two Masters of Ceremony were good representations of our constituent, Sylvia Chan from HK and Raymond Cheung from Beijing (since then Raymond now bases in Shanghai).

They first greeted the DECees with table prizes. Table prizes were donated by Alicia Chan and Harris Ng. Each participants was asked to pick up an animal character from the twelve terrestrial branches(十二生肖) on each table. And guess what - the lucky two persons got the table prizes were the "HORSE" and "MONKEY" this year.

For the valentines, two presents were auctioned one for the gent and one for the lady. The bidding has a slow start with a base price of HK$50 followed by bids of twenty and then fifty dollars increment. Then PW Pong put forward a big jump and with a "1,2,3...Bang - HK$280" the gent's present go to him, it was half a dozen of silk made male's underpants. Similarly the lady's present, a white pearl necklace went to Simon Chan who brought the present for his wife who was unable to join the dinner at an auction price of HK$700.

Another donated item from Sylvia Chan was a Panansonic 21" TV set. After a big fight between Raymond Cheung and Simon Yim, the TV went to Simon Yim with a donation of HK$2,000 to the fund.

The highlights of the night were the three programs for the theme: “DEC公益金, 互愛互助樂人生”. Besides raising monies for the DCCL funds, the programs were all entertaining and reflective of the slogan spirit:

• Millionaire questions to a group of 5 senior DECees on their knowledge about Digital Far East. Baron Ho asked tricky questions to make sure they don't know the answer – hence the donation. Well done, Baron! A total of HK$4,300 was raised from this game.

• Auction for gadgets donated by DECees. The highlight was in the last auction item. PW Pong astonished the crowd by doubling the bid price of a Compaq iPAQ PPC by matching the price of the highest bid while the Pocket PC went to the highest bidder Steve To.  A sum of HK$18,000 was raised with just one item. Great teamwork.  Our gratitude went to Peter Yeung for his donation of two Compaq Pocket PCs and Baron Ho for three HP Jornada 525; these five auction items had generated a total sum of HK$38,320.00 on the night.

• Appeal for "Gung Yik" Gum. Doing charity can be gummy and chewy, as Steve To explained the goodness of the sugar free chewing gum and pleaded for subscription of a carton of gums for HK$2,000. A strong response with nineteen cartons at a total of HK$38,000 resulted.

All in all, a total of HK$84,180 was raised for the night. My sincere gratitude went to Connie Lau, Sylvia Chan and the rest of the organizing team for such a great work done.

As the event coincided the AGBM of Digital Community Chest Ltd. (DCCL) formed two years ago, Sam Yip as the chairman gave a report on DCCL. Two other directors Cho Wong and Harris Ng shared the creation of DCCL website (http://www.dccl.info/) and investment strategy respectively.

It was a fruitful and memorable night for both the DECees and DCCL. Missing a lot? Don't be disappointed if you weren't there. Watch you for the next one. As our caring mommy Connie Lau puts it: "I will organize the spring dinner as long as there is a minimum of 60 joining". See you next year!

Note: Simon Chan is one of the directors of DCCL and Digital staff from 1989 to 1997 as Telecommunications Manager and Outsourcing Management Service Delivery Manager.