President’s Message

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all enjoying the great weather! Here on the West Coast, the great weather is especially nice as it allows us to enjoy to views of the Coast Mountains and Pacific Ocean, often just by turning our heads!. Although the weather has been hot during the day, at night the temperature cools down enough to make it bearable to sleep. During this hot weather I hope all our seniors are staying nice and cool and drinking lots of water so as not to get too dehydrated. Please make sure that you use necessary sunscreen and wear a hat when in direct sunlight.

Last year’s Powell Street Festival was held at Woodland Park but now it will be back at the newly-renovated Oppenheimer Park on July 31 and August 1. The official grand opening of the newly renovated Oppenheimer Park was held July 24th. Each year, the Powell Street Festival brings together most Nikkei organizations for a weekend of entertainment and traditional foods. The GVJCCA will again be participating in the Powell Street Festival, providing our popular salmon dinner, and we will be adding a couple of new items to our menu. We hope you will enjoy the new additions. The Bulletin/Geppo is again serving as the PSF Program Guide and the GVJCCA would like to thank ahead of time the many volunteers and donors who make the GVJCCA BBQ a success.

On Wednesday August 4, from 2 – 4 pm, the GVJCCA and Nikkei Place will be sponsoring an Obon Service and Odori at Nikkei Place, with Reverend Aoki from the Vancouver Buddhist Temple presiding over the service. We have been holding this collaborative event for the past 5 years so that the many seniors who live at Nikkei Home and Sakura-so can take part in this time-honoured event. We hope that you can be there too!

In September 2009, the GVJCCA and NAJC co-hosted the “Honoring Our People – Stories of the Internment” Conference.  Many of our Nikkei seniors kindly related their stories of growing up pre-Internment, during the Internment, and eventually post-Internment. Many of these stories had not been shared with the younger generations.  The GVJCCA Human Rights Committee received a federal grant to record the Conference and other individual stories and compile them into a book. We would like to add to our current story collection.  If you are interested in assisting our Committee by gathering stories from some of elders who lived in road camps or sugar beet farms for the duration of the Internment, we would like to hear from you. Please contact our book committee through the GVJCCA office at 604.777.5222, or email at GVJCCA@shaw.ca .

The GVJCCA would also like to extend best wishes to his Excellency Ambassador of Japan Tsuneo Nishida and his wife, for all their efforts and kindness during their stay in Canada and for his new appointment at the United Nations.

Ron Nishimura,
President, GVJCCA