President’s Message

Hi everyone!

The GVJCCA and the Hastings Park Commemoration Committee is still encouraging community members to come forth and voice some of their thoughts on the Hastings Park Redevelopment Project. The Hastings Park Redevelopment Project Management team would still like input from the Japanese Canadian community on providing some historical, commemorative and cultural content in the Park. The Project Management team recognizes the historical connection for many Japanese Canadians who were temporarily placed at Hastings Park before removed from the coast and being relocated elsewhere in BC and Canada during WWII. There is a questionnaire which is available for anyone interested and available at the GVJCCA office and the Nikkei Centre in Burnaby, BC.

This month on October 15-16, the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) will be holding its annual AGM in Edmonton. This will be an important AGM as the membership will be discussing many items that the NAJC National Executive Board has been working on during the course of its fiscal year. Some of the items anticipated include: pursuit of government funding towards the upgrade of the New Denver Museum; digitizing of some of the many stories of our elders who lived through the Internment years; upgrading of the NAJC website; planned programming surrounding the 70th Anniversary of Internment; and future financial sustainability of the NAJC.
On Friday November 18th at Nikkei Place from 6pm – 8pm, the GVJCCA will be holding its Volunteer Appreciation Night to thank its many volunteers, donors, and advertisers. Since the GVJCCA is so reliant on volunteers for our activities such as during Keiro-kai, Shinnen-kai, Powell Street Festival Salmon BBQ, Golf Tournament, and our many workshops, we present this special night of appreciation. We hope that you can attend and enjoy seeing your many friends from past events throughout the year. Hope to see you there!

Sadly, I would like to inform everyone that the GVJCCA building at 511 Broadway (Tonari Gumi operates out of the building, providing their valuable programming for the community) was seriously broken into and there was considerable damage done throughout the premises. Unfortunately the damages were so great that the insurance may not cover everything but we hope to have things back in full operation again. Sorry about the temporary inconvenience.

Ron Nishimura
President, GVJCCA