A Speech Delivered At The Annual Gala Dinner Of The Taipei International Women's Club Saturday, 

April 13, 2002 - The Grand Hyatt Taipei 
Dr. Maria Rybicki TIWC President 2001-2002

Honorable guests, TIWC members and friends, welcome to the Annual Gala Dinner of the TIWC.
At the beginning of my term I selected the club motto for the year - Pooling Together To Pull Others Through. Those words so very neatly sum up the club's purpose: We come together to give our time, our talents and our efforts to help others and, equally important, to help others help themselves.
In these past 10 months, during which I have had the privilege of serving as president, I have appreciated how so many of you members have justified my choice by making this motto a reality.
We have made extraordinary progress over the past year. Let me briefly list some of our successes.
Most impressive was our achievement in collecting close to one million New Taiwan dollars at the Christmas Bazaar. This is a huge sum of money.
It has helped us to cement our relationship with Cathwell Services, our chosen recipient for half-a-million NT dollars. Cathwell Services provides a home for abandoned children, some of the most vulnerable people in any society. I am immensely proud that we are able to help them in their work.
We celebrated our fiftieth anniversary - twice: Once in September with a cake, on the date our club was established, and then again in December, with an enjoyable luncheon for almost 400 ladies. It was the biggest luncheon in the club's history.
Next is the TIWC Website, which has brought us into the information technology age and raised our profile in the outside world. Many people helped with this, and I thank them all.
We also created an information pack about our club, which will brighten our image, especially with the local and foreign media.
We have given a new and more eye-catching look to the Companion, our club magazine.
We are patiently working on finalizing arrangements for a TIWC office. We have never had a proper home. We need one, and getting one will be a major achievement.
Whatever we make today, the bulk of the money will go to the Cathwell Service. But some will also go to another organization: The Chinese Fund for Children and Families/Taiwan - the largest and oldest child and family welfare organization in Taiwan.
I enjoy being the TIWC president. I enjoy the fun and laughter, and I am impressed by the service the members give to the club. I feel privileged to belong to this truly extraordinary club that is so committed to making sure that others - people we don't know - can claim their Human Right to a reasonably fulfilling life.
I warmly congratulate you my fellow members, and I sincerely commend you on your dedication.
Let us never forget that as club members we must always pool together if we are to continue serving the club and its aims. We are doing well this year. We have come a long way and have a long way to go. Let us go into the future knowing that together, we can make a significant difference.
Let me thank all those who've helped with raising funds for tonight.

I would like to thank the Board of TIWC and our members for their hard work, without which this Gala Dinner would not have been possible.
A special thank you goes to Pallas Chen, a particularly hard-working and dedicated member of the Board who has been so successful in selling tables and raffle tickets.
Also, I thank all our generous corporate and individual donors of raffle prizes. We have received a great many donations from Trade Office Representatives, and I am very grateful to Mrs. Ayse Ulgen, wife of the Turkish Trade Office's representative. Mrs. Ulgen was responsible for providing nine raffle prizes, including tickets from Mandarin Airlines. Thank you. You are someone who has made a huge difference to the success of our fundraising activities

Thank you All

My warmest regards

Maria Rybicki

My Dear Ladies:

The foundation report had been successfully presented once again this year at the April General meeting. Four very talented English speakers showed up for the Dr. Lilian Chao Foundation speech contest, and the orchid baskets showed us that all the contestants were so good that the judges might not know who to choose! Thanks, Judges, Biyu and Livia, for the great job done. Jackie Lin from TIWCEF, was a recipient of the scholarship provided by TIWCEF and is now a translator and an editor at the Taipei Times. We do know there are hundreds of scholarship recipients from TIWCEF out there, and they are accepting great positions to serve society. Jackie is an example of one of the most remarkable ones.

The Lin Kun Ti Foundation always does a great job in helping blind students at Taipei University and at Social Services at the Taiwan University Hospital. Our senior member, Virginia Yang, has contributed a lot over the years. Thank you, Virginia and Mrs. Lin Kun Ti.

The Lily Chow Memorial Fund will help orphan adoptions in the coming year. Some of the board members tried hard to locate where and who we could support, and help in the future. We will soon see the results for sure.

Our May General Meeting will be a lunch meeting at the Lai Lai Sheraton on May 21, Tuesday from 11am to 2pm.

The final fiscal meeting is coming to a close for TIWC 2001-2002, and we will hand over the gavel to the new board for 2002-2003. The Christ's College music school students will come and perform their music at this meeting. Meet all these talented students on this meaningful day for TIWC. Tickets are selling at NT$1,000 for members and NT$1,200 for guests. Call Jen Chu at 2975-3045 or Pallas Chen at 2788-7415 for tickets.

Time flies before you and I know it. I am really glad that time has been always on our side, and that you are always the ones that make everything possible, and to go smoothly. I wish to take this opportunity to thank you all for the lovely times I have had with you.

With all my best,

Pallas Chen

Dear Ladies,

As most of you know, our Annual Gala at the Hyatt Hotel was great! We got to dance the night away, with lovely music, exciting dancers, and we all enjoyed the evening very much.

At our General Meeting we had participants from our English Speech Contest, and judges Lan-Sing, Jean, Hannah and Pearl in attendance. See the speech by one of our scholarship recipients, Jackie Lin, on page 26.

I enjoyed being your editor during this last year. I learned a lot, and I want to thank the board members for helping me. Pallas was available to identify people's names for me, and Maria and Ivonne always helped me with the articles, since my English is not that good. For our Companion's new look, I would like to thank Maria and Ivonne.

Also my special thanks to my colleague Ed. He and our designing department spent many late nights and weekends to be sure our magazine came out on time. Especially Ed, who was always there to rewrite copy for us.

So, in closing I want to thank you all, and wish the new board a very successful tenure. I am always available if I can help in any way.

Sincere Regards,

Mailing Henderson

Dear Ladies,

For all your assistance in helping me successfully complete the 2001/2002 TIWC Charity year, there is no way to express my deepest gratitude, so let me just say "Thank you".

Our Charity Gala Dinner was held on April 13th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The Cocktail Party, the Dinner, the Band with Latin Dancing, and the Raffle Drawing, etc. made the atmosphere of the whole night very high, and everybody was happy. For this successful Gala Dinner, there are many people I would like to express my appreciation to; especially:

First Vice President: Mrs. Ivonne Jeannette Goti for perfectly arranging the show for the night,

Second Vice President: Mrs. Pallas Chen and Publicity Mrs. Louise Bystrom for arranging the Hotel and the Sale of the Raffle tickets with me at the Taipei American School.

In addition, there were a lot of people who volunteered to help to sell Gala dinner tickets, Raffle prizes etc. Special thanks to:

Chinese PR Mrs. Anna Lu, Social Services Mrs. Iciar Yturriaga De Garcia Tapia, Mrs. Katie Wu, Mrs. Shu-Jing Ma, Treasurer Mrs. Jen Chu, Mrs. Susan Huang, Mrs. Kelly Cheng and my friend Mrs. Mailing Henderson, for their assistance, and of course our President Mrs. Maria Rybicki for her integrating work.

By the end of this month, I will finish my duty as the 2001/2002 Ways and Means Chairperson, and I am glad that it was a success. At the same time, I would like to thank our President, Mrs. Maria Rybicki for her suggesting my position several times. Due to my current job, I have decided not to serve as any kind of Chairperson. Although I am not going to be on the Board of Directors, if there is anyone that needs my help, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes,
Pearl Chen

Ways and Means Chairperson TIWC 2001/2002
Cell Phone: 0932-076-211 Fax.: 2897-1012