 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
|
|
President: |
NEWSLETTER May 2013 Thank you, thank
you for all your help and assistance in putting on the 2013 Annual
Chinese New Year Celebration and Fundraiser. It was, as always, the best
ever. Without everyone pulling together and offering their talents,
services and financial support, we could not have accomplished what we
did. The New Year Celebration is our only major fundraiser which keeps
us going through the year. Our other sources of income are our
membership dues which cover the cost of the newsletters and a few bills;
donations that help with bills and extras, and an occasional one-time,
small fundraising opportunity such as the July 13th Montgomery Village
wine selling booth (see pg. 3).
This has been the best school year ever.
Our students are excellent. Our staff is outstanding. Now that classes
are looking forward to summer vacation, we can look back over the year
and be proud of our accomplishment.
Teens, mostly from Cardinal Newman High School, helped with giving
additional personal attention to students in all of the classes. Here,
Cara Huang assists Jasmine with her text book lessons.
Kimmy, from Windsor High, did an excellent job of leading the
beginning class when the teacher had to go to China. Our apologies that
we do not have photos and personal kudos for each of the teens who have
assisted us, but thank you, thank you to each and every one. Each teen
receives volunteer credit from their schools for their services to RECA.
May 25th is the last day of language
classes. Our next Please
join us on May 25 at noon to honor our benefactors, Dr. and Mrs. Hsin-Chung
Wang for donating their money so we could buy our Center.
July 15 - 19, 2013 For more information call Maximum number of campers will be
If you are not receiving RECA email
announcements and are a member of RECA, please send your name and email
address to Mark Heydon at mheydon@sonic.net. He will add you to our
email list.
Another marvelous New Year Celebration made our only annual fundraiser a grand success. We have enough funds to continue for another year. Proceeds from this event go to pay our property taxes, insurance, property maintenance, utilities and most of the other everyday expenses that comes from owning our property. With few exceptions, our only other sources of funds are our dues, donations and when our cultural performers are sometimes paid for their performances. Thank you all for coming and helping us pay the bills. We hope you got more than your money’s worth with the food, activities, displays, sales tables, our wonderful entertainment and visiting with so many people who came to support and enjoy.
People were greeted by the God of Good Fortune, complete with red lucky
money envelopes (lai si). Photo ops were frequent with all of our cultural
offerings.
Joe Wang made a grand God of Good Fortune. Among the many who had themselves photographed with him were David Poulsen and his son Alex.
Among the many tables of interest was our souvenir table with trinkets and fun things to carry away and remind us of our exciting evening. All proceeds from this table go to buy costumes and supplies for our RECA Cultural Dancers. We have two troupes, our RECA Advanced Cultural Dancers and our RECA Intermediate Cultural Dancers. Both troupes have been invited to perform throughout Sonoma County and even in San Francisco. Here, Ruth and Ellen Hickman man the table.
For children, we had two authors of children's books who write about Chinese/American culture and growing up as a Chinese-American. Arthur Chan, (L) and Camille Picott (3nd R, not visible) are always popular. Many people buy their books to take home.
Teen sell cold drinks. All of the proceeds go to fund activities for the RECA Youth Group supervised by Azy and Mark Heydon. Free tea is in the background.
Henry
Kaku (4th R) is always a big hit with his hands-on origami table. He
shows participants how to fold various origami animals and other things
which they get to take home as souvenirs.
We also sold beer and wine with all of the proceeds going to RECA as a whole to help with all programs, maintenance and general expenses.
Dan Potts provided security services in a friendly but efficient manner.
Out of all the prestigious special guests Clo the Cow is always the favorite.
Raffle tickets give are available before dinner. Buy tickets, then choose which prizes you would like to win with our Shoe Box Raffle.
Our silent auction brought in additional revenue. All of the general income from the CNY Celebration is divided into shares for the general fund, the scholarship program and the building fund. Our school supports itself with the tuition.
Food, lots of tasty Chinese food with a variety that tries to satisfy everyone’s favorite dish. There is roast pork, broccoli beef, rice, noodles, lots of other dishes and a table for vegetarians.
Henry and Linda Tang were our members of the year. The plaque was presented by Pres. Nancy Wang, and MC Don Taylor. Note: Don's jacket is a gift from JeJu Island, Korea, and is made of bamboo fibers.
The Council General from Taiwan sent a proclamation and five representatives. We also had the mayor of Santa Rosa, members of SR City Council, Sonoma County DA Jill Ravich, Kathleen Morgan from the Santa Rosa Symphony and many, many others.
Photo
ops with notables were an exciting possibility. L-R: Frances Lok and
RECA President. Nancy Wang pose with past California State
Assemblywoman, Fiona Ma. All other officials were also happy to be
photographed with New Year celebrants.
What
was one of ours biggest attractions?
As usual, we had so much entertainment, that it is impossible to adequately fit it on to only one page. To see photos in color, please visit our Center and ask to see the CNY, 2013 photo album. Also, photos will be on the RECA computer. Bring a CD to copy any that you like.
Our big dragon opened our entertainment with an excitingly wild romp through the audience.
Our youngest dancers, all from the Beginning and Intermediate Children's Language Classes, gave a greeting sung in Chinese with Claire Schultz and Kira Mendoza on drums. Nancy Wang held the microphone.
Catherine Liang gave us a piano solo of classical Chinese music.
Tina Lin gave a marvelous performance on her gu zheng.
Wu Academy Martial Arts demonstration.
Sonoma Academy's Mandarin class, taught by RECA conductor Lisa Gardener, sang a New Year's Greeting.
RECA Intermediate Dancers are an accomplished dance troupe. Each year they get better and better and better.
RECA Advanced Dance troupe this year made up of half last year's teens and half advanced from the younger group. They continue to be spectacular.
Our RECA Adult Chorus gave a beautiful performance.
Jiang Xiao Fong on Erhu
We had 4 lions frolicking in the audience, up close and personal. Our drummers were on stage, nice and loud!
Joe Wang is a familiar, happy face in our RECA community. Most people may
know him as Nancy Wang's husband, but he is more. He is also her biggest
supporter and one of RECA's biggest supporters in promoting the Chinese
culture and language in Sonoma County. His involvement with RECA started
back in 1990. At that time RECA was a social organization of less than 50
members. As it grew Nancy and Joe started the first language class of only
five children (where 3 of them were theirs and 2 of them were Lily and David
Yong's). Later in the year 2000, Joe and many others spearheaded the
purchase of the current RECA Center on Sebastopol Road. JOE WANG Joe Wang is a primary, indispensable part of RECA, whether in the role of an imperial God of Good Fortune, as Santa for our Winter Potluck Socials, or taking care of the physical requirements to keep our Center neat, clean and in good repair, for everything from the gardens, well, and plumbing to the roof, and even our septic system.
To see Joe at work in the community, please Google Santa Rosa Press Democrat. He is on the front page teaching origami to children in a local school on May 4. Joe called Affordable Septic Service Co., 707-823-7867 to take care of RECA's septic system. The photo above shows that John and Shanti truly give service with a smile.
To celebrate Earth Day, Quarryhill Oriental Botanical Garden invited RECA so we brought our Lion Team, both cultural dance troupes and the RECA Adult Chorus to perform. Tina Lin played the guzheng. She brought her friend, Rita, who played the hulusi. Quarryhill is a unique garden on 25 acres off of Highway 12 near Glen Ellen. To find out more about his location which is open to the public, with an entrance fee, please Google Quarryhill Botanical Garden. An unexpected adventure was the small wildlife exhibit. Our intermediate dancers got to hold a boa constrictor.
After being announced by Nancy Wang, Tina Lin (R), played the gu zheng. Her friend Rita played the hulusi. Both are students from China attending Cardinal Newman High. Photo by Jesming Liu
Both our Advanced Dance Troupe and our Intermediate Dance Troupe put on well appreciated, fantastic performances.
Our Adult Chorus was exquisite and our lions were lively and enjoyed
surprising the audience as they capered around the gazebo area of the
gardens. It was a wonderful day!
In the informal setting of the NAMI
office at 1300 Dutton Ave., Ste A, Santa Rosa, 13 RECA young teens and
adults met for discussion of mental health, mental illness, recognition,
and intervention. They served dinner ordered from Hang An Restaurant,
yum! Thank you NAMI! It's good to know what to do if one of us, or
someone we know, needs help.
On April 13, the seniors of RECA, and
a few non-seniors, joined together for fun and to honor each other.
Started by Phi Phi Dang, this event has been happening for the past few
years. Mary Lowe and Ann Schleeter helped with the organization. All
seniors over 60 were given a free lunch. Money came from donations,
mostly from the RECA Adult Chorus. During the afternoon, we had lunch at
Fresh China in Coddingtown, chatted with friends, had a raffle and were
entertained by the RECA Adult Chorus with some of the songs they are
practicing. A special thanks to Mrs. Ma of Asia Mart for donating $200
so we could better enjoy this tribute to our senior members.
Shrimp with tomato sauce, tofu with ground pork, cabbage with special
sauce: these were the dishes we learned to cook during a special cooking
class at G&G Market's Ginger Kitchen on April 27 at 2:00 pm. Nancy Wang
was the lead chef assisted by Xiao Qing Sullivan and Liu Xia. About 20
teens and adults watched the food being prepared, ate the delicious
creations, and left with written recipes to cook at home for their
family and friends. It was a tasty afternoon that we hope to repeat,
with new recipes, in a few months. Thank you to G&G for letting us use
their professional cooking demonstration classroom. After we ate,
everyone shopped at G&G to buy the ingredients. G&G has many special
Asian foods, both fresh and processed, that other stores do not carry.
On May 5, starting at 12:45, our lion
team lead a procession around SRJC, gathering an enthusiastic audience,
ending at the large stage area in front of the new library. At 1:30, our
lion team opened the performance. Our RECA Intermediate Cultural Dancers
and the Advance Cultural Dancers both wowed the audiences.
Photo by Cara Huang Each year, RECA gives the RECA Board an Appreciation Dinner. This year, it was on April 17 at Kyoto Restaurant in Rohnert Park. Hsiu Chuan took the photo, and Judy Photoshopped her in so she could be included. L-R around the table: Azy Heydon, Cheryl Brown, Joe Wang, Nancy Wang, Kim Sethavanish, Joe Colucci, Mary Lowe, (other side of the table coming forward) David Chung, Mirin Lew, Ann Schleeter, Linda Ibitz, Hsiu Chuan Armstrong, Judy Cheung and Mark Heydon. Thank you to all of our board members who put in endless hours to have RECA be the prestigious community service organization that it is.
Kim Sethavanish and Joe Colucci, RECA's two newest board members. Welcome! RECA PEARL SPONSORS   PAID ADS All RECA members are invited to have a paid advertisement in our RECA Newsletter. For $50, we will print your business card or a copy-ready ad of the same size for 4 editions (one year). We hope our members will use the services we advertise. We also hope that member businesses submit their ads to help members find the businesses they need.
RECA Membership dues are $20 per person (adult) or $30 per couple for January to December each year. If you want to get a print copy of the newsletter, please download from here. Redwood Empire Chinese Association |
|
 |
|
|
 © Copyright 2002-2013 Redwood Empire Chinese Association |