360° TOUR Long Ducker
Long Ducker is one of the charitable traditions taken from Harrow School in England.
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 year, Parks House hosted a stall full of water games. It was a huge success, and everyone had a fantastic time at the Long Ducker. Everyone contributed to leading our stall. Teachers came, and we dunked buckets of water on them. Everyone was refreshed after completing their long runs, whether it was the mini ducker, the long ducker, or the short ducker. We even had the chance to dunk our fellow peers and teachers, including Mr. Hicks. Not only did we have water bucket dumps, but also some delicious frozen jelly treats! We raised a lot of money for charity, with the support of pupils, parents, and staff. It was a day filled with fun and donations supporting Hong Kong charities such as our house charity, the Hong Kong Society for the Blind.
Parks
This year, Shackelton held a sports ground event including basketball and football combined. The Shackelton spirit was extremely high and we stived to raise money for our charity. At the beginning we did not really have many customers, but we showed endurance and persevered and got more and more people to come to our stall and it ended up being a great success.
Shackleton
For this year’s long ducker day, we ran two games raising an incredible amount of money. Our stalls consisted of a guessing game about the amount of Lego in a jar and a game called lob a choc where you would have to throw a marble and try to land it on a chocolate to win one, however if you did not get a chocolate, you would still get a treat from a treat box. Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible with the extreme amount of effort put into this event by staff and pupils. I am once again, grateful for all those who helped.
Lyon
Through our dedicated efforts, hard work, and the support of our amazing parents, we were able to raise an impressive amount of money at our charity stall on Long Ducker. Our stall was a treat for everyone, offering delicious popcorn that attracted both the young and the old at heart. Additionally, we had an exciting lucky draw, with prizes ranging from tasty snacks to stationery and even toys like Japanese capsules. The success of our stall was made possible by the incredible teamwork and fellowship showcased by our volunteers. Anthony, Matthew, Elson, and many others generously gave up their time and energy to ensure that a smooth operation and warm atmosphere of the stall was in place. I am extremely proud of how our house raised so much money and how much fun we had running the stall. Once again, I am truly grateful to everyone involved in the process.
Ethan Lei, Year 8
Darwin
The fellow Churchillians all gathered up on the Astro on the day of the Long Ducker, and despite the bad weather, we pushed on with our ball-throwing stall and tried not to let the weather dampen our spirits. People competed for snacks and toys as prizes for throwing in two balls out of three, all while raising lots of money for our house charity, Wheel for Oneness.
Wheel for Oneness also came to the Long Ducker, and they quickly became the spotlight of the run as Anson Wong and other fellow Harrovians carried wheelchair member Yip Cham-Kai along the MacLehose trail to complete the 8-kilometre short ducker. After the success of the run, they opened a wheelchair obstacle course stall on the Astro, where someone in a wheelchair must guide a blindfolded person to navigate through the maze without hitting the cones!
This stall aimed to demonstrate the hardships of people who are physically and visually impaired, and this will be further demonstrated in an initiative next year, where Mr Yip Cham-Kai, accompanied by two Harrow students, will attempt to beat the Guinness World Record for the Fastest Circumnavigation by Scheduled Flights, where he will try to fly around the world in less than 39 hours, all while in a wheelchair!
Ricky Li Y12
Churchill
Our house charity this year was Zubin foundation which empowers ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. This year in Wu, my partner, Katy Shiu who is also a charity representative organised this charity program (alongside Darwin) called “Acts of Kindness”. I believe that spreading kindness amongst classmates at school creates a nurturing learning environment that fosters growth and inspires dreams. But our work doesn’t stop there. We are committed to expanding our reach by incorporating Zubin foundation’s values and so, set up a traditional hair and makeup stall for long ducker, alongside other fun games. Over the past academic year, Wu has partaken and organised many charity initiatives that shows our unwavering support to not only Zubin foundation but to all the house charities in Harrow.
Wu
The Long Ducker was a huge success! We raised a significant amount of money for our house charity, Hong Kong Dog Rescue. Everyone who went on the Slip and Slide had a lot of fun getting wet and soapy. Most prizes were won from the Tombola; Cherry Ho, being the lucky one, won the big bear brought in by Emilie. Throughout the day, we had many girls from Keller helping with the stalls, participating in activities, and running/walking the Ducker. Thank you to everyone to donated items for the Tombola and helped with the charity stalls!
Keller
On Long Ducker Day Anderson’s stall was a stellar success! We were able to raise money for our house charity Branches of Hope by creating a plethora of fun activities such as fortune telling, bracelet making, and even a raffle to win a ginormous fluffy duck! The house charity representatives as well as the helpful volunteers had an amazing time promoting Branches of Hope’s cause as well as seeing everyone have fun. Our bracelet-making stall was very popular amongst the pupils. Many created fantastic designs and some creative phone chains.
Next year Anderson hopes to raise even more money for their house charity by providing new and exciting activities for Long Ducker!
Anderson
In the true spirit of the Long Ducker, Sun House decided to host a sportier and more competitive activity stall, our competitive rowing stall, which saw tremendous success.
The competition-like structure of our stall focused truly on evoking the competitive flare of proud Harrow students while still maintaining a light-hearted atmosphere around our stall! From the Year 6s to Year 13s, we saw people of all ages engaging in our rowing competition in hopes of ending up in the top five on the leaderboard. Regardless of the success we saw in this year’s long ducker, we’re determined to host an even better stall next year which will do even better for our chosen charity!
Sun
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
