After months of preparation and emails between MusiCares students and ImpactHK Founder and CEO Jeff Rotmeyer, the time for the Kindness Walk finally arrived!

MusiCares students took the bins of shirts and sneakers which had been donated by SMAHK families to give to the staff at the Guest Room. The donations were very warmly received.

The entire experience was led by Mr. Jeff. He began by talking with the group about how the whole starting point of what ImpactHK does is to spread kindness, develop friendships and build trust. He gave several examples of people who either still are, or had been, homeless – what their current situation is, as well as what events led to them becoming homeless.

Some things we learned:

• #kindnessmatters
• They have existed for 2 years
• They have gotten 200 people off the streets in 2 years
• They have homed 5 people since the beginning of 2020
• They offer three meals every day at the Guest Room
  • They had almost 50 people at lunch on Saturday
• They do a Kindness Walk around 4 times every day
• In addition to meals, the Guest Room offers people
  • A place to gather
  • A way to do laundry
  • A place to take a shower
• ImpactHK also offers
  • Counselling services
  • Yoga classes
  • Other helpful things

MusiCares students had this to say about the experience:

“Today was a very touching, very wonderful, eye opening experience for me. Before, I thought that if we show care for street cleaners and the homeless, they would feel insulted as it would hurt their pride. Now I know that #kindness matters, and that kindness can’t go wrong. That acting kindly, and intrinsicly, and empathetically is all that matters. Now, whenever I walk on the street, I will treat street cleaners/the poor much more differently with confidence! To spread the seeds of love!”

“I learned a lot more about the homeless people in Hong Kong and what I thought was a norm which is now a definitely mean thing to think.”

“I learned that we should love and care for the homeless people everywhere. And I will help other people in the future.”

“This kindness walk has furthered my understanding of how to view the homeless and to treat them with care.”

“This kindness walk was a very new experience to me and I enjoyed it very much. Before this, I had no idea that so many people in Hong Kong needed our help. Giving the homeless people food really made their day and it also made me feel better and happier.”

“Doing the Kindness walk today, and from past kindness walks, helped me better understand what ImpactHK is. As well as this, I was able to see what the conditions were when we got to each person, because the past walks I’ve been on I didn’t see the people at their ‘homes’. Today was also niece to see the other people’s opinion of ImpactHK since none of them had experienced it before.”

“I think it was a very eye opening experience for me and I had lots of fun. I hope I can get to have another chance to help the homeless and offer them a better opportunity.”

“Today, I started to understand more about the homeless and found out that they need more help than I thought. I gave out eggs to the homeless and when I saw the smile on their faces that made me feel very good. I learned that I need to pay more attention to the homeless and be nicer to them. The homeless really need help and I hope they get the help they need.”

“This was an eye-opening experience for me. During this adventure, I learned the importance of kindness, the value of giving love and caring for people. Just a simple act of giving a banana can bring a smile to someone’s face, helping them and spreading joy. Us humans should all be a little more caring, more altruistic and spend some time making somebody’s day just a bit better.”

100% of the required $4000 donation to participate in a kindness walk is used to help the homeless. On average, it costs over $30,000 in real money, in addition to the hours of time and volunteer services, for one person to move through the process from homeless to employed and with a home. We hope that you will continue to donate so that we can wind up giving ImpactHK much more than the required donation!

(Ms Diane is very proud that several of the MusiCares students have already made contributions from their own pocket money!).

For months, MusiCares worked with the organisers of the Ma Wan Easter Egg hunt to make a plan for them to be able to assist with the easter egg hunt itself, as well as providing music for the event. In spite of weather, illness and other challenges which severely curtailed their numbers, a few MusiCares students did brave the weather to fulfil their group’s commitment. Here’s their story of the experience:

~by Amarbir, MaryChun and Naphat

We arrived at Ma Wan to play violin and help with the easter egg hunt. We were supposed to play violin at 1:00 and 3:00, but at 1 o’clock it started raining very lightly. We decided not to play that time because it would not be safe to take out our instruments as they would get wet.

We waited for the first easter egg hunt to finish, then held hands with the other staff and formed a human chain to clear the people off the sand. Then we joined assistants to help bury more easter eggs into the sand using spades. In some of the egg hunts there was light rain, but the staff didn’t allow the people doing the egg hunts to open their umbrella just in case the umbrella might hurt someone.

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It was very fun helping the staff bury the eggs. After 1:30 the staff announced that this might be the last egg hunt for today because the weather started getting more humid and the sky looked very dark. When that egg hunt was finished the weather forecast said that it was becoming amber warning as the rain started pouring heavily. We had to hurry and clear off the last people and get all of our belongings and go on the coach.

~ by Ms. Monica

I am so excited after my time spent at the European Suzuki Viola Gathering 2019.  There were 280 people there from 19 countries…all for the viola!  Some were family members, but we had SO MANY VIOLAS all playing on stage together.  Even though we didn’t all speak the same language, we were able to communicate through our music.  https://youtu.be/vD_ei8OwnRM

I was invited to teach a parent class; isn’t it wonderful that you, like so many others around the world, are doing something so special with your children??  This is a one-of-a-kind event…I’ve never been to anything with so many violas in one place before, and with no other instruments! It was truly magical to be surrounded by our rich viola tone.

This year, the event was held in El Escorial, Spain.  It’s about an hour north of Madrid, and was a former capital of Spain.  I got to visit the Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We had students from Pre-Twinkle all the way up through Book 6, and it is growing each and every time we meet.  Two years ago, we were in Watford, which is just outside of London.  I feel so privileged to use Suzuki Viola as a way to explore the world, but especially as a way to meet students all over the globe.  Perhaps in two years time, you’ll join me?