Every year at Harrow UK, boys, teachers, Old Harrovians and parents combine to organise and undertake a charity sponsored run, the Long Ducker. Symbolically, it takes place along one of John Lyon’s roads, the Harrow Road from Marble Arch in central London to Harrow.
The Hong Kong ‘twist’ now takes place along a 15.8km route on the MacLehose trail that runs immediately behind the School campus, with alternative shorter routes that allow participation of pupils and their families from the youngest in Early Years to the oldest in Year 13, both walking and running.
The run is followed up by a huge community celebration at the School, showcasing the talents of our vibrant community. Friends of Harrow coordinates with parents to deliver an amazing range of international cuisine, setting the scene for a lively carnival atmosphere in the afternoon. The authentic food and drink, live music laid on by Harrow Hong Kong performers, and fun, games and activities all contribute to a relaxed and enjoyable day out for the entire School community.
The School aims to continue the charity tradition of Harrow School in England, and further develop our charitable support to make a difference in Hong Kong and around the world.
THE SPIRIT OF CHARITY AMONG OUR COMMUNITY
The annual Long Ducker was kicked off by an exciting Prep-Long Ducker Warm Up programme. A variety of fun activities helped get participants excited for the main event, including creative activities like “Flowers & Cards for Gratitude and Kindness”, a “Branches of Hope concert & bake sale”, and a “Books for Love Charity Campaign”. A highlight was a special assembly featuring sixth formers leading the whole school in a dance to teach the self-choreographed “duck dance”.
For Long Ducker Day itself, the community came together to support important causes. In addition to our school charity stalls, we invited Crossroads, Zubin Foundation, Hong Kong Dog Rescue, Wheels for Oneness, Branches of Hope, Impact HK, A Drop of Life, The Elephant Foundation, and Mind HK to set up their stalls. Our partnership schools JCC Tuen Mun, Yuen Long and Kuai Chong also joined in fostering an atmosphere of positivity and charity.
Visitors perused the activity and food stalls and learned about each charity stall. A total of HKD 360,000 was raised for distribution among the worthy causes by year’s end. It was a joyful experience for students, families, schools and charities to unite in the spirit of compassion. The successful Long Ducker event exemplified how community cooperation and shared positivity can make a positive difference. Through care, kindness and charity, members came together in a heartwarming display of support for those in need. The day was a great success and captured the community’s spirit of rallying together through service.
Ms Yang (Head of Charities & Community Service)
This was my first Long Ducker in Upper School. It was very meaningful as it was my first time participating as Charity Rep and we had a host of activities leading up to the big event. Representing Banks House, we first started with the Books for Love campaign as one of the Pre-Long Ducker Warm-up events, then hosted the promotional Lucky Draw in the Temple, and finally ran the Banks popcorn and cookie stall on the Long Ducker Day where it was very popular and all of our popcorn was sold well before the end of the event! These events couldn’t have happened without everyone coming together from Banks House to support. We had a fun time together making bags and bags of popcorn!
Miles Hui, Year 6
Banks House
As you may all be wondering what Fry’s long ducker stall is. Well, let’s quickly do a run through of what it is. Chuck a duck is an easy game where you throw a small duck into a certain hole to win points. The aim of this game is to earn the highest points and win prizes ranging from small to large ones.
During the long ducker, there was already a line filling up Fry’s stall eagerly waiting to play. So, we all knew it was going to be a tremendous success. After leaving the stall for a couple due to the short ducker, I came back with a trail of people wanting to play our stall. The ducks flew everywhere, sideways, behind the net and lots more. An instant smile went up my face as there were lots of people there making it even livelier than the start of the stall.
Once people started to get used to throwing the ducks into the whole and getting the gist of it, the plushies and large prizes started to die down, but there were still loads of people wanting to try it out. From the moment when we started and we ended long ducker, everything was sold out. We all felt extremely proud after learning that lots of people went home with lots of prizes in their hands.
After knowing that this is a huge success, we will try and do an even better charity event next year. Thank you to all the girls, staff and parents from Fry helping us out with this stall.
Miles Hui, Year 6
Fry House
In Nightingale House, we ran a face crystal and temporary tattoo stall on the Long Ducker Day. We raised quite a lot of money, with lots of people supporting us. It was very fun and enjoyable, and everyone helped – teachers, parents and students alike. This shows the great compassion we have in our Harrow community, and that we will always help those in need.
Grace Chan, Year 7
Nightingale House
Shaftesbury house had the pleasure of once again hosting the Sponging stall, where people could throw wet sponges, shoot water guns and splash friends and family with water. Our other stall, Duck Fishing, which involved fishing out 3 ducks to win a prize, was also very popular, especially with the younger kids. We are thrilled to announce that this year, we managed to raise a significant amount of money, smashing our record last year raised! This is an amazing achievement that couldn’t have been achieved without the collective effort of all those who helped organise the stall, as well as those who helped on the day. We look forward to next year’s Long Ducker!
Daniel Tam, Year 12
Shaftesbury
For the Pre-Long Ducker event, Gellhorn hosted a Ducky Drink Stall. There was lemonade, ice chocolate and even smoothies on sale. Alongside with the drinks, we also have fruit skewers on offer. The drinks (especially the smoothie) ran out quickly once we set up the stall. I had an amazing time working with Elaine Mo, Nga Kiu, Vanessa and Ashley Tam to pull this event together.
On the actual Long Ducker Day, Gellhorn raised up a lot of money with everyone’s help. It was a success! We had frozen pineapples, fruit skewers, friendship bracelets, face painting and t-shirt painting all on offer on the Long Ducker Day. The friendship bracelets that we sold were all hand-made by the pupils in boarding, and they were definitely very popular. Additionally, we have a lot of talented artists in our house that helped people to do face paints. Overall, it was a wonderful experience to work alongside with various people in our house to mastermind, organise and run these awesome events. I can’t wait to do it again next year!
Gellhorn
The Peel stall was a resounding success. We had already done bubble tea in the past, but this year was significant step up in the quality of the stall. We had a variety of different juice flavours as well as different boba flavours, providing our customers with an abundant combination of punchy flavours.
The shaved ice was a new, creative idea from the Peel boys and proved to be an instant success. The shaved ice was a manual process, so, in terms of set up, it was very simple but also fun and creative. The boys combined a portion of shaved ice with a flavour and sold it. We also had great success here which helped us raise a very healthy portion of money for Hong Kong Dog Rescue!
Peel
