Hi everyone!
The Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association would like to extend congratulations to the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre on its 10th Anniversary. The National Nikkei Heritage Centre opened its doors to the public September 22, 2000, and has served the local Japanese Canadian community in providing programs, exhibits, services, publications, and special events. The Gala Dinner being held at the new Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel on September 25th is sold out but a waiting list is being made. Please contact Harumi Suzuki at 778.835.1091 or email: harumisuzuki@shaw.ca.
Last month’s Powell Street Festival at the newly renovated Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s old Japantown was a huge success with excellent weather. From the comments that I received, everyone enjoyed and appreciated the redesign and additions made to the overall park especially for the children who enjoyed the modified playground area with its streams of water running through it. The GVJCCA thanks all the volunteers and appreciates all the donations for the Salmon BBQ as well our new addition to our menu which was our Spam Musubi. Thanks should also go to the volunteers at the GVJCCA Human Rights and community booth, who spent many hours in the wonderful sunshine during the Festival.
The GVJCCA would like to thank Reverend Aoki from the Vancouver Buddhist Temple and Reverend Ikuta from the Steveston Buddhist Temple for providing an Obon Service at Nikkei Place on August 4th. Each year the Service has more attendees, serving those who were unable to attend other Obon services locally. We are all very happy with the turnout. Thanks and appreciation go out to all who donated and volunteered their services for this important community event.
Last year, the National Association of Japanese Canadians and the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association, co-hosted the “Honouring Our People: Stories of the Internment” on September 25-27, at Nikkei Place in Burnaby, BC. This Conference proved to be a great success, that the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Foundation and the Nelson Arthur Hyland Foundation, will be hosting the Japanese Canadian Experience Conference: “Sharing Your Stories of the War Years” in Toronto for those of you who were not able to attend the Conference in 2009. The Conference will be held November 19-21, 2010, in Toronto, ON. This Conference allows an opportunity for nisei’s to share their war years memories and experiences with family, friends, and their community. Stories will be welcome from the internment camps, sugar beet farms, self-supporting camps, and other locations across Canada and Japan. For additional information or program expected please contact Lisa Uyeda at 416.441.2345 ext 303, email lisa.uyeda@jccc.on.ca or visit jccc.on.ca.
From October 16-17, the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC), will be holding its annual AGM in Ottawa. This will be an important AGM as the membership will be electing its new Board of Directors. Also the NAJC helps fund eligible individuals and group applicants for Sports, Education, and Arts Development (SEAD) and Cultural Development (CD) Programs.
Please have all requests in to your NAJC member organizations as soon as possible as the deadline is the end of September. To find out whether you are eligible for any of these funding please either contact your respective member offices or view the application forms at the NAJC website: www.najc.ca.
Each year the GVJCCA thanks its many volunteers, donors, and advertisers by holding a Volunteer Appreciation Night. This year’s event will be held on November 19th, at Nikkei Place from 6:30 – 8pm. We hope you can attend and will enjoy seeing your many friends from past events throughout the year before getting yourself prepared for the busy holiday season during the month of December. Hope to see you there!
Thanks, Ron Nishimura
President, GVJCCA
