If your family is planning on attending this event with the CCGGGR, please email Dan Richter at crookedbayct@earthlink.net
This information will help with the planning process. Thanks – Dan Richter
May 2008:
With Summer approaching there are several cultural opportunities for you and your family. In June, FFIC will be holding its annual Heritage Camp from June 17-June 20, 2008. For more information go to: http://www.fficgr.org/id3.html
On July 26, 2008 the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce will be holding its annual Dragon Boat Race For Literacy at Ping Tom Park in Chicago, Illinois (for more information go to: http://www.chicagochinatown.org/). To celebrate this event, there are several families from our local FCC group who will be traveling to Chicago for the weekend.
We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Mayan Adventure Indoor Water Park in Elmhurst, Illinois http://mayanindoorwaterpark.reachlocal.com/coupon/?scid=180826&cid=177176&tc=08051015115926832&dynamic_proxy=1&primary_serv=mayanindoorwaterpark.reachlocal.net&se_refer=http%253A%252F%252Fsearch.yahoo.com%252Fsearch%253Fp%253Dmayan%252Badventure%252Belmhurst%2526ei%253DUTF-8%2526fr%253Dmoz2. This hotel offers reasonable rates and includes an indoor water park that should be fun for all ages.
Additionally, there is a commuter train station 5 minutes from the hotel, offering hourly commutes into Chinatown. The hotel offers complimentary shuttle service to and from the train station, depending on interest level. For more information about fares and schedules, please visit: http://metrarail.com/. The Elmhurst station is on the pink line and is a 35-40 minute ride into Chicago.
An agenda for activities has been developed as follows:
Friday:
· Check-in time is 2 PM
· Dinner will be on your own
· Meet at the pool (open until 10 PM)
Saturday:
· Dragon Boat Festival is from 9 AM to 4 PM (come and go as you please)
· Pizza Party at the Pool at 5 PM
· Swimming until 10 PM
Sunday:
· Breakfast on your own
· 11 AM check out
· You may enjoy the pool until 3 PM
From July 28th through August 1st, Chinese Village & Young Champions will be holding a Wushu Summer Camp for ages 6 on up. For more information please visit their website at: http://chinesevillage.org
From August 8th through August 10th Families Through Adoption (Char Lanning’s organization) is planning a weekend gathering to celebrate the Olympics in Beijing. For more information, go to their website: http://familiesthroughadoption.org/celebrate.htm
I hope everyone enjoys a memorable summer. Peace – Dan Richter, CCGGGR chairperson.
Our Chinese New Year party is scheduled for February 8th at Keystone Church located at 655 Spaulding Ave. in Ada, MI The meeting time is from 6:30-8:30
This year we celebrate the Year of the Rat. The party will be potluck style so please bring a hot and cold dish to pass. We will provide place settings and something to drink. For more details please email mark@markandmelissa.com
6:30-7:30 – Announcements and dinner (potluck)
7:30 – Traditional Lion dance by members of The Panda Pals
7:45 – New Year Games (rat pinata to celebrate “The Year Of The Rat”)
8:00 – Humorous short video of Frank Jiang explaining how the order of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac came to be.
8:05 – Closing with an outdoors firework display
Thanks,
Mark
The new Board of Directors were voted in at the June 23, 2007 meeting. Many thanks go out to the Board for the commitment and sacrifice they make to ensure our group events run smoothly.
Dan Richter is stepping up to the Chair position with Mark Elenbaas now filling the Vice Chair position. Mike Pikaart will remain the group Treasurer and we have three Member-at-Large positions being filled by: Lori Visser, Gale Lanning and Kevin Weber.
If you’d like to congratulate a board member or if you ever need to get in touch with one of us, please visit the Contact Us page and click one of the email links.
CCGGGR Webmaster
At the end of March an invitation to serve on the board was extended to all members. To date, the executive committee hasn’t received any responses. Fortunately, several board members have stepped up and plan to run for another two year term, but we need your help to make these next two years our best ever. This year we plan to re-institute sub-committees to ensure meeting are planned and run smoothly. If you can’t commit to a two year or one year post please consider serving on one of the sub-committees (Education, Communication, Facility & other major event committees)
Serving on the board can be very rewarding and is a great way to get connected with the group. Please contact a board member if you are interested in one of these positions. For a list of board member email addresses go to http://ccgggr.org/content/contact-us/
Two Year Term Positions:
Chairperson – Dan Richter has expressed interest in this position
Vice Chairperson – Mark Elenbaas has expressed interest in this position
Secretary
TreasurerOne Year Term Positions:
Member at Large – Gale Lanning has expressed interest in this position
Member at Large
I love to keep up-to-date on what’s going on in China but often don’t have the time to scan the web. So, I implemented RSS feeds on the CCGGGR site to gather daily news feeds from two sources: Radio Free Asia and Peoples Daily Online.
News feeds are available at China News Feeds – RSS to read more of an article click on the article name and it will direct you to the appropriate website to continue reading. If you know of any other websites that offer a XML or RSS feed please email Mark
Enjoy
Coming this June, all current board member positions will be expiring. Spring is upon us and Summer is right around the corner so we wanted to give you plenty of time to consider serving on the board this next term. Serving on the board can be very rewarding and is a great way to get connected with the group. Please contact a board member if you are interested in one of these positions. For a list of board member email addresses go to http://ccgggr.org/content/contact-us/
Two Year Term Positions:
Chairperson
Vice Chairperson
Secretary
TreasurerOne Year Term Positions:
Member at Large (2 positions)
Due to the slippery roads and extreme cold weather, tonights meeting is cancelled. The meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 13th.
Thanks,
CCGGGR Board
We need your honest feedback as it relates to our monthly meetings. Attendance for our monthly meetings has dropped dramatically and the board has a few guesses as to why, but they are just that, guesses. Last night we hired Mr. He to teach calligraphy and papercutting and only had a few people attend (4 adults participated). In fact within the past year, we have had very little attendance outside of the larger events (Chinese New Year, etc.)
Please let us know your thoughts and if you’re willing to share, why you and your family have not been attending. This will help us decide which direction we need to take as an organization. Email addresses for board members can be found here
Thanks in advance,
Your Board of Directors
Members of the Culture Group have asked many times if there was an introductory class tailored for adoptive parents or adults traveling to China. Chinese Village has had a long standing relationship with our culture group and is now offering just such a class.
During the 6 weeks students will learn standard greeting in Chinese, how to ask for directions, bartering in the marketplace and other necessary phrases for getting around in China.This new class utilizes the Chinese-At-A-Glance book that can be purchased at Barnes and Noble or any other online bookseller like Amazon. Students will learn the PinYin system, which is the romanized or phoentic way to spell the Chinese language. Sentence structure will also be taught so that students can increase their vocabulary after classes conclude using the English/Chinese dictionary included with the Chinese-At-A-Glance book.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn Chinese but didn’t have the time resources that a semester course demands, please consider this class. Class meets on Saturday for 2 hours which is much more convienent for most adults.
Class will be taught by Esther Wang, who’s teaching format has helped equip dedicated students with the building blocks to begin speaking the Chinese language very quickly. Class is held at Keystone Community Church which is located between Spaulding Ave and Ada Drive.
To signup for this class please visit http://www.chinesevillage.org/register.html
xie xie,
Mark Elenbaas
CCGGGR Secretary and Webmaster
