Community Spotlight: Allen Po, Civil Servant

Curious about what volunteerism and Time Auction events are all about? Meet our community who has shared their memorable experiences in their volunteering journey and meetings with our featured guests!

Meet Allen Po!

Allen is a graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is also a civil servant who has been volunteering for 15 years. With his volunteer hours, he can sign up for any Time Auction events that appeal to him!

His most memorable volunteer experience?

Allen enjoys a variety of volunteer activities and one of his favorites is the letter-writing scheme organized by The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong. This scheme helps children in need who find it difficult to share their thoughts or express their feelings, so he gives advice to children in writing the letters. Besides that, Allen regularly visits elderly houses and centers. Throughout these years of service, he loved witnessing how the children has grown. He also realized, even himself when he was small, children tend to care about how people see and say about themselves.

When he faced difficulties and hard times, he reflects on the life principles a teacher taught him during a volunteer activity — to always face challenges with positive thoughts, and not take things for granted. These principles stayed with him throughout his career which made him more resilient.

What did Allen learn from Time Auction experiences?

Allen has joined more than 10 Time Auction Events, most of which the guests are dignitaries of the community who engage in public offices and whose field he is interested in. Compare to reading books, he prefers learning from people. During the dinner with Jasper Tsang (曾鈺成), Former President of the Legislative Council, he said that the hardest part of being a leader is to listen. Sometimes we focus on expressing our own views and forget to listen to other people’s opinions.

In another dinner with Cheuk Wan Chi (卓韻芝), Prolific Creative, she said that people can learn a lot when they travel as a tourist, how people talk and act, how people communicate. By observing them, you will know more about the place and the people’s uniqueness.

The one thing that Allen likes the most about Time Auction is that the events give him an opportunity to meet people from different professions but with similar visions. He recalls that he occasionally meet some of them again in other activities.

Live every day positively

Allen thinks that being a good and responsible listener is what he wants to achieve, and this is also his motto to remind himself of every day:

“To live every day positively and to listen to other people.”

Thank you so much to Allen for contributing 180 volunteer hours and participating in 17 events!

To see our upcoming experiences, head over to the Time Auction website!

Interviewed and written by Cindy Chan | Edited by Dolphin Chan