President’s Message

Hi everyone!
First I would like to apologize to everyone who already purchased a ticket for our planned Halloween Dance that was to happen on November 1 at Nikkei Place. For those few who did commit, a sincere thank you for your support. We will endeavour to provide your reimbursement as quickly as possible. It takes a lot to make a function like this happen but unfortunately, not having enough commitments lead us to cancelling this particular event. It was truly a hard decision to make as we had everything set to proceed for a fun evening. Hopefully in the spring, on Valentine’s Day, we will receive a much higher response and we can all enjoy another community social event gathering, which will be a fundraiser for the GVJCCA. Fundraising has always been a difficult but necessary task as we seek ways to cover the expenses to provide social, cultural, and educational workshops for the Japanese Canadian community along with other ethnic groups.

Upcoming on November 11th is the Remembrance Day Service at the Japanese Canadian War Memorial Cenotaph in Stanley Park. This event starts at 10am and I hope you will all get the chance to come down and pay your respects to the many Japanese Canadians who fought for Canada during the World Wars. Although our JC community endured many hardships during WWII, there were many who did enlist to fight for democracy and peace.

The GVJCCA will be having its Volunteer Appreciation Party on November 22 at Nikkei Place from 6-8 pm. The GVJCCA always appreciates the many volunteers who lend their helping hand at our workshops, community events such as Keiro-kai and the Powell Street Festival BBQ, the Bulletin/Geppo production and distribution and also our advertisers each month who support the Bulletin/Geppo. It is always difficult to acknowledge everyone who has helped out the GVJCCA, and these volunteer appreciation parties are our way of saying thank you for your assistance and generosity.

Membership reminder
Just a reminder, since our holiday season is coming up and it is sometimes difficult to remember about renewing your annual membership to the GVJCCA, if you could submit your renewal form and payment, it would be greatly appreciated. Keeping your membership to the GVJCCA up-to-date greatly assists us in maintaining our database in an efficient way.  If you’re not sure when your membership expires, check the mailing label on the back cover.

I hope you have a great month!

Ron Nishimura
President GVJCCA