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President: |
Here it is at the end of the year, and again, we have accomplished so much that it is impossible to list everything in one small message. I want to thank everyone for all their hard work and the donation of so much time and effort in making RECA a growing organization within our community. Throughout the year, we have participated in many community events such as the Santa Rosa Rose Parade, the Santa Rosa Junior College’s Day Under the Oaks, the second annual International Village Parade, the first-ever Santa Rosa Racial Equality Week and the Santa Rosa Diversity Festival. We participated in the Listening Project, a variety of store openings, weddings, school and business presentations, our own Chinese New Year’s Celebration, social gatherings and a new singing group. Our youth group, Mahjong Club and language classes are active and strong. Our reputation as a socially active and beneficial organization continues to grow. Without the participation of everyone, we could not accomplish so much. Two of our main annual events are rapidly approaching: our December Social on December 4 at the 4-H Building in Rohnert Park and our Chinese New Year’s Celebration on February 26 at the Santa Rosa Veteran’s Memorial Building. I hope to see you all at both events. Again, thank you to every one who has given their time, effort, money and talents to make RECA the success that it is today.
On September 11, new and continuing students flocked to our Center, eager to learn Chinese. Our classes are considered high quality with low tuition compared to other Chinese classes available in the Santa Rosa area. The Saturday Children’s Beginning Mandarin Class is full with the cutest kids imaginable. Our new Saturday Beginning Mandarin teacher is Cathy Ringstad. She is teaching the kids through games, singing, art, puppets, and all the tools available to let them enjoy the Chinese language as they learn.
Saturday Continuing Mandarin Class could enroll 4 more students. Focused on students who have at least a 100-word vocabulary, it teaches sentence structure for conversation and learning to write. We still teach traditional writing. If you are taught traditional, you can learn simplified by yourself. If you are taught simplified, almost no Chinese-as-a-second-language student will be able to teach himself or herself traditional. Our Saturday Continuing Mandarin Class teacher is our well-loved Hsiu-Chuan Armstrong.
Parents and young kids learn colors in Beginning Mandarin class. Three weeks later, they were able to ask for their snacks--please, yellow banana, red apple, green grapes.
The Beginning Mandarin Class shows off their Halloween costumes and faces. No wonder this class has a waiting list. Our new teacher, Cathy Ringstad, is making this class a lot of fun filled with lots of learning. In the back row on the right is teenager Meesha Heydon, who helps out everywhere doing whatever.
Wednesday classes are not full. We planned to offer two classes in Mandarin, but have combined the two classes into one, and we still have space. Right now, Lily Chang and a new teacher, Wenchao (Ying) Grebe are team-teaching the class that ranges from beginning to intermediate. For those of you who cannot come on Saturday, the Wednesday class from 4:00-5:30 PM is available for concentrated classes: you come, learn, go. All Wednesday students are invited to participate in the extras offered on Saturday mornings.
For the past couple of months, we have been performing community service around Santa Rosa, such as joining our local Volunteer Youth Center for Community Building in Hands Across The County program, working in gardens, cleaning the creeks in Santa Rosa area, and helping in Cambodian community events such as giving food and school supplies to the needy and low-income folks. We also helped set up games for the Families with Children from Asia at their annual picnic. There are many meaningful activities that we have done, thanks to our enthusiastic youth group. Our group is multi-cultural and multi-racial; they all get along very well. Our regular meetings are still on the 1st Friday of every month. We also gather for special events and purposes as well. And of course, from time-to-time, we perform community service. It is very important for our youth to learn the skills of leadership and socialization in this society. They also learn the values of citizenship and community responsibility.
From left to right: Ah Fu, Choa, Lisa, Anna, Bennett, Kevin, Wen, Bryce, Meesha, and Cynthia Again, if you are interested or need more information about our RECA Youth Group, call us, Azy or Bryce, at (707) 575-9541.
Sing with friends and enjoy our heritage. Join the RECA Singing Group. Coming together for the first time on October 16, 2004, the RECA Singing Group is producing joyful songs loudly and proudly.
RECA Singing Group hard at work singing a new arrangement of a song to be presented for our RECA December Potluck Social.
The Cotati Philharmonic Orchestra, a non-profit community orchestra, invites everyone to their free winter concert that will be held the weekend before Chinese New Year on Feb. 4-5, 2005. The program includes the famous “Butterfly Lovers” Concerto, with internationally renowned erhu soloist Xiaofeng Zhang. The program includes the following pieces:
You may have seen the photo in the Press Democrat of RECA’s colorful 27-person dragon team cavorting along Sebastopol Road in celebration of the second annual International Village Parade on September 25. The event was a kickoff to Racial Equality Week sponsored by the City of Santa Rosa and other ethnic organizations like RECA to highlight various cultures in our community.
Irene Fong, Hsiu-Chuan Armstrong, and Carl Wong served up Chinese entrees. Thank you also to Thien-Huong Tran and Kim Thanh for their cheery presence at RECA’s indoor booth displaying traditional Chinese costumes and selling inexpensive artwork and merchandise. Elee Tsai, among several presenters doing storytelling, told the Monkey King story to kids and then, on a more personal note, spoke of his experience growing up as an immigrant in the East Bay.
Thien-Huong Tran and Kim Thanh staffed RECA’s booth. Cindy Avenall stopped by to visit. The program wrapped up with entertainment including our Youth Group wowing the crowd with their cultural dance and dazzling lion performances. Kudos to Youth Group Leaders Mark and Azy Heydon for their hard work coordinating the teens!
Mary Lowe got some help from Savanna and Alexi, members of RECA’s Youth Group. (Photo by Mark Heydon)
On September 25, the third Saturday of Chinese Language Classes, new students were amazed to see our dragon come out for a morning romp.
Romping down Santa Rosa Ave., our 250-foot dragon thrilled parade enthusiasts on during the International Village Parade on September 25, 2004. Thank you to Gloria McDonald and her family for donating a VCR/DVD player for use in the Beginning Mandarin Class. Our Saturday kid's class is filled with active 5-7 year olds and their parents. They are using games, singing, role-playing and videos to learn basic words in Mandarin, and discovering that Chinese culture is lots of fun and something to be proud of. Elee Tsai, Architect, received a Santa Rosa City Merit Award for City Enhancement for his remodeling of the art deco building at 600 B Street in the historic St. Rose area from Mayor Sharon Wright and the Santa Rosa City Council. Both Elee Tsai and Mayor Sharon Wright are members of RECA. The awards ceremony was held in the City Council Chambers on November 8, 2004.
RECA offers condolences to Yu-Shi Wiebers and her family on the death of her father, Wan-Cheng George Kung. Our thoughts and kind wishes are with you in this time of sorrow. Wan-Cheng passed away on October 31, 2004 at the age of 81. He was born, raised, and educated in Ping-Tung, Taiwan and moved to Sonoma County in 1986. He was a hard worker for his family and helped out at the family restaurants, Genghis Khan and Great China in Santa Rosa. He will be dearly missed. Services were held on November 6 at the Pleasant Hill Mortuary in Sebastopol. Donations may be made in Wan-Cheng’s name to Memorial Hospice, 821 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401.
Visit with friends, enjoy good food. Our picnic is a time for all ages to have fun together.
Big hats for shade, big gloves to protect from the heat! Chicken, veggie burgers, side dishes were all part of our picnic feast
Fun and games for all the kids. These young ones are learning to ski on the grass. The teens were much better coordinated when they tried this new team sport.
Mary Lowe, coordinator and MC of our picnic, announced our jump rope contest, our winning raffle prize numbers, and our guest speaker, Lee Ann Manley, who gave a talk about feng shui.
Everyone helps out at the picnic. Teens sold soft drinks. Balloons were for a balloon-stomping contest later. Who could protect their own balloons while stomping on the balloons tied to the ankles of other kids. Who won? Who knows! But everyone had fun either stomping or watching.
While teens chat in the background, young kids watch older adults play mahjong at our picnic.
When: Saturday, Dec. 4th. Pose with Santa for a free Polaroid Want to participate in our gift exchange? Bring a present under $10. Label it: "boy," "girl," "adult male," or "adult female." We will have entertainment and door prizes too. Come and help kick off the holiday season and make our celebration merrier! Entertainment will include the debut of RECA’s Singing Group and a performance of the “Monkey King” drama by the Youth Group. Advertisements in the newsletter are available to all members. The fee is $30 for a one-time advertisement, or $100 for advertisements in all issues for one year. Please send a check for the advertising fee along with your ad to RECA at P.O. Box 7854, Santa Rosa, CA 95407.
Redwood Empire Chinese Association
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November 2001
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 © Copyright 2002 Redwood Empire Chinese Association |