pRESIDENT'S mESSAGE
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Tom Uyeno |
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It’s Summer! I thought that Winter would never end. I imagine many of you are taking advantage of the warmer weather. One warm-weather activity we all enjoyed was our annual CJCA/NJCA Picnic/Sports Day on June 28th at Bowness Park. Thanks again to Alex and Taeko Nagao, Mikiko Saito, and others mainly of NJCA, for organizing yet another hugely successful gathering. The bento and the watermelon were delicious. An upcoming Summer activity is the annual CJCA/CJBA golf tournament on July 23rd at the Lynx Ridge Golf and Country Club. In Fall 2008 the CJCA board initiated meeting on a regular basis with the boards of sister organizations including Kotobuki and Kaede groups. For efficiency sake, in addition to that, a much smaller facility administration committee will be reinstated. It will consist of 2 or 3 representatives from each organization, with recommendations tabled by the committee to be brought to the CJCA and respective boards for ratification. Alan Tanaka is spearheading the History Preservation Project, and is making great headways. A member of the Project committee, Kevin Okabe, is organizing an Open House at the Centre for September 19th during which we hope to gather large amount of data (oral, video, written, pictures for scanning, etc.). To be successful we will need several volunteers. The news of the difficulties encountered by 16-year-old Taro Okada and his family touched us all. There was rallying by communities at all levels, including CJCA and its sister organization, Kotobuki-kai; the citizens of the town of Cochrane and Taro’s school classmates, among others, and together raised a considerable sum. Kevin Okabe is in close touch with Mr. Tomonori Nakahara in Calgary who is acting on behalf of the Mr. and Mrs. Shojiro Okada and family. We are participating in Project Ploughshares Calgary, Community Peace Pole Project. Its charter promotes the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” and initially was a response to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There will be an unveiling of the Peace Pole on September 20th and will be located on the south bank of Bow River, just east of the 10th Street bridge. It will have the message “Peace” etched in 40 languages, including Japanese. Below is a picture of one of 250,000 peace poles in the world, this one taken in Flagstaff, Arizona in Christmas 2007. Through the courtesies of the Consul Generals Minemura in Calgary and Otsuka in Vancouver, a few of us are privileged and honoured to be invited to a reception on the occasion of a state visit by Their Majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Japan. The reception will be in Vancouver in mid-July. At the AGM on April 19th, the following executives were elected: President, Tom Uyeno; Vice-President, Mai Nagao; Treasurer, Richard Hayashi, and Secretary, Peter Harvey. Directors are Taeko Nagao, Mikiko Saito and Bill Hasegawa; and Rocky Oishi, Kevin Okabe, and Alan Tanaka. Some notable past events include: Bill Hasegawa was successful in obtaining a $80,000 grant from the provincial CFEP (Community Facility Enhancement Program). The money will be put to good use in resurfacing the Centre’s roof which is currently leaky in places. Courtesy of the Japanese Consulate, “An Exhibition of Photographic Moments in the History of Japanese Canadians” was displayed at the Centre on April 17th to 19th. Some photographs were provided by Roy Nagata, and one of them reminded us how time flies as we viewed the picture, taken many eons ago, of young and vibrant-looking Peter and Caroline Hori at their produce store on 17th Avenue and 4th Street SW! On April 25th, SAJETAA (Southern Alberta Japanese Exchange and Teaching Alumni Association) put on Hanamatsuri Festival at the Centre. We learned the basics of origami foldings and thoroughly enjoyed the fine taiko playing by Midnight Taiko. Some even participated and learned the movement and timing in drumming! The Midnight Taiko group started its biweekly practice sessions, with invitation to all those who are interested in learning more about this ancient Japanese tradition. On June 14th it held a workshop at the Centre that was open to general public. As part of Asian Heritage Month activities, on May 3rd at Glenbow Museum, there was the opening of a display of the shrine from the former Raymond Buddhist Church, together with a brief history of the Japanese Canadians in southern Alberta. After the opening we were treated to odori dancing by ladies of the Kaede Cultural Group. On May 18th, the Karaoke Club hosted a songfest with invited guests from Winnipeg and Toronto. Some 25 singers participated in this all-day get-together and, in addition to fine entertainment, we all enjoyed the delicious lunch and dinner. Visiting with some friends not seen in decades was a bonus. The Club gathered for its final songfest before the Summer break on June 29th , with Consul General and Mrs. Minemura participating. The NJCA has hosted a series of events including over-subscribed cooking class on May 24th and children’s talent show on June 7th. The CJCA Community and Seniors Foundation is now a member of NAJC, the National Assn of Japanese Canadians. Rocky Oishi will be attending the NAJC AGM in Vancouver in October as its delegate. Representing CJCA will be Mai Nagao as delegate, with Peter Harvey and Mikiko Saito as observers. Lately a series of ugly incidents have taken place in the parking lot behind our Centre. Parked cars have been vandalized. We are looking at ways to ameliorate this problem. Our administrator, Mari Sasaki, is continually looking for ways to make our Association socially active and beneficial to our community. She has arranged an “Orientation for Newcomers” for July 24th at the Centre. We continue to benefit from Allan Okabe’s maintenance of our website: www.calgaryjca.com. As always, we need volunteers for many positions, so if you can help, please contact Mari at the Nikkei Cultural Centre at 403-242-4143 or at cjcamain@shaw.ca. Have a great Summer and see you in the Fall. Sincerely, Tom Uyeno |
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