Know your volunteer – Nicola Cheung

Tell us something about yourself…

Hey, everyone! My name is Nicola. I am 32 years old now. I was born in Pasadena, Los Angeles and ended up moving to Hong Kong when I was about 6 months old due to relocation of my parents' jobs. I lived here until I was about 12 years old before going back to the US for school, then returned to Hong Kong again after college.

Fun fact #1... I love sports and being outdoors.

This is me at the Rugby Sevens event this year.

I love getting outdoors to go ride my scooter around the city of Hong Kong. You can see me on my scooter all over central HK island but one of my fav spots is the Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.

One of my favourite sports is boxing. Another favourite pastime of mine is exploring abandoned and haunted places in Hong Kong.

Fun fact #2... I love animals.

I love animals and have many of 4 legged friends.

Below is me celebrating my 32nd birthday this year at my grandparents' house with my toy pet turtle.

I also have a real turtle named Normandy. She is a female mud and musk turtle.

Fun fact #3… l love children.

Babies are so cute and innocent. I love children, especially ones at the pre-school to early primary school age. I love their small world and sometimes wish i could be little again.

This is me with a very cute sleeping baby beauty Kai, LocalHood volunteer Fiona second child.

My community...

My spiritual christian parents are absolutely my favourite people. This is John on the left and Sandra on the right, I call them mom and dad. I attend church every Saturday evening for their English service.

I've been volunteering with Local Hood for a 4 years now, and the other volunteers are like a second family. This is a photo of me at one of LocalHood volunteers social last year..

How did you join Local Hood?

I joined Local Hood after being reached out by them on Facebook and I thought it was rather interesting because I had never heard of this group before. I met a few volunteers and we mutually felt I was a good fit to the volunteer team. I love hanging out and meeting so many people in Local Hood from all walks of life. I am so glad I am part of this group connecting people and neighbourhoods. I love the fact that each one of the volunteer team is so international, full of energy, ideas and giving of their time for Hong Kong and for their respective Hood's despite having a full-time high intensity job.

How are you involved with Local Hood?

In Pic: Me researching for an article on the new Exhibition Center MTR

I am part of the LocalHood Website Content Volunteers team. I choose to be a part of this team as the team seemed very cool to me and also the team spirit seemed really nice. I had never been big into writing before but discovered this new talent in me thanks to LocalHood!! Now I am a regular writing and volunteer on any interesting ideas of rarticles that are discussed in our monthly meetings. I also love attending the different events scheduled by the LocalHood Events Team, that are scheduled.

How has it impacted you on a personal/ family/ social level?

Joining Local Hood has helped me step out of my comfort zone when meeting new people. I used to be really shy before, I joined this group. But now, I gained a lot of confidence and am able to talk to people and communicate on a different level.

I love Local Hood a lot because it's a family of awesome and very special people who care about me and reach out to me when there are events and meetings within the group itself. I enjoy being a member of Local Hood because I feel like I am loved and cared for by others. Team LocalHood is very cohesive and supportive. During my dark moments they never stopped believing in me and encouraging me to grow and to be able to grow out of my comfort zone.

In short I'd say that LocalHood is pretty cool and meeting new people has really helped me grow the last few years of my life.

What would you say to others wanting to join Localhood?

I would say to people who want to join Local Hood to go ahead and reach out and say hi to us. Let us know you would love to get involved. You gain a bigger family and that these people are awesome and very special in many ways. You gain more friends and you attend fun activities and very interesting meetings.

Local Hood also helps you to learn about new things through volunteering like writing articles, event management, team spirit, personality building, negotiation skill (no ego pls--we are all volunteer!!).

So, don’t be shy and please reach out to us if you have any questions about Local Hood you won’t regret it at all!!