November-December NEWS

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
The National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre (NNMHC), which opened officially to the public in September 2000, endeavours to preserve Japanese Canadian heritage through programming that connects generations and educates all Canadians about the diverse Japanese culture. Nikkei means people of Japanese ancestry, and Nikkei Place is the legacy of over 100 years of Japanese presence in Canada, helping to connect our past with future generations of Canadians.

As this busy year draws to a close, please consider making a financial contribution to the NNMHC to help us continue to provide our valuable community programs and festive events in 2012. Unlike other community centres in Burnaby and the Lower Mainland, we do not receive operational funding from the government and we rely heavily on the support of people like you.

I would like to end off by strongly encouraging you to share your opinions and perceptions of how we can improve any aspect of Nikkei Centre.  Submit them to info@nikkeiplace.org and we will review every message.

Season’s Greetings & Happy New Year!
Craig Natsuhara

Report on Nikkei Fall Harvest Festival
This first annual fall celebration was a great success! We had many new visitors to Nikkei Centre for these events, and received very positive feedback. Special thanks to Akiko Gomyo, NNMHC Program Committee Chair, for her leadership and many volunteer hours she contributed to these events.

Famous Chef Cooking Class: The festival began with the first afternoon of our famous chefs cooking series. On September 24, Mr. Tojo led a sold-out class which inspired some of the attendees to book the next class as soon as the first one had ended. This is an opportunity to spend an intimate afternoon with a celebrated local chef, learn some new cooking tricks, and taste some delicious food!

Kimono Show: This sold out event, on September 30, featured performances, a market-place and models wearing gorgeous kimono of all styles and colours. This was a production that required a very large, talented group of dedicated volunteers (mostly women!). Special thanks to Naoko Ohkohchi and Kaori Lytton from Cosmos Seminar and Megumi Hasegawa from Jive Jive Hair and Makeup Ltd. for all of their hard work on the show. Kaori Lytton put together the 25 kimono and obi, matched the kimono to the models, and coordinated the models and music; while Megumi Hasegawa and her group worked long hours on the event day to dress the kimono and do make-up and hair. We would also like to thank Naomi Yamato for donating her time and services as an MC at the event. There are too many names to list here, but we would like to thank each and every person who helped make the event a success. Their efforts are much appreciated.

Fall Harvest Fair
The fall harvest fair was the final festival event, held on October 1, and brought together the annual Farmers Market and Open House with new food and merchandise vendors and additional programming. Nikkei Centre was abuzz with excitement as Festival goers were treated to a variety of performances, including Chibi Taiko, a yo-yo demonstration and a shishimai (lion dance) by performers from Japan. There were also many demonstrations by regular Nikkei Centre programs participants, as well as amazing food courtesy of the NNMHC Auxiliary Committee, Suzuya Market, Cake-Ya and more.

Special Thanks to the NNMHC Auxiliary
The NNMHC Auxiliary Committee is a small group of volunteers with big hearts! They work tirelessly throughout the year to produce annual events such as the Spring Bazaar, Farmers Market, Breakfast with Santa and Mochitsuki and are responsible for cooking and baking most of the delicious treats that you enjoy at many of our other special events. They take the money that is raised at these events and they put it back into Nikkei Centre, to improve the facility and its operations. This year, the Auxiliary donated $10,000 to be used towards the costs of cleaning the facility on an ongoing basis. We cannot thank them enough for their commitment, energy and kindness!

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Oct 2011 – NEWS

The Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society’s Outreach Needs Study continues to make progress.  Since the last update in July, the Committee has been reviewing the themes that have come up at the focus groups and interviews, and is now at the stage of developing the community wide questionnaire from the information gathered.  The distribution date is estimated to be January 2012, and findings reported to the community several months later 2012.

Some of the themes that will be covered  in the questionnaire are about education and information needs in the last six months; the type of housing that seniors need to remain independent; for Nikkei seniors which services would be most important to develop; and to find out what aspects of a seniors support system would be overwhelmed if there was sudden change in health.

The Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing sincerely appreciates the support this project has received from the volunteers and Nikkei Place Foundation for its financial support.

For more information about the project, please contact Naoko Ebata, Outreach Coordinator at 604-338-8370.

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Sept 2011 – NEWS

On September 24, 2011, an inaugural awards dinner was held at the Nikkei Centre to acknowledge Japanese Canadians who were instrumental in building a strong and vibrant community at Nikkei Place over the past decade. Part award ceremony, part fundraising dinner, the evening raised $85,000 for Nikkei Place. Paul Kariya, Nikkei Place Fund-Raising  Chair, said, “We exceeded our fund-raising goal at the Dinner but we still need to raise more to ensure our programs can  continue. We will continue to work hard to reach our target for 2011 of $300,000.”

The more than 200 guests who attended enjoyed a cocktail reception in the Ellipse Lobby. Guests were then ushered into the Special Events hall by an invigorating taiko performance by John Endo Greenaway. Justin Ault was the charming Master of Ceremonies who kept the evening’s program flowing with clockwork precision following the keynote presentation by MLA Naomi Yamamoto, Minister of Advanced Education, who was introduced by Arthur Hara, past Chair of the UBC Board of Governors. VIP guests included Consul General of Japan Hideki Ito and Consul Yoichi Ikeda of the Japanese Consulate, Raj Chouhan MLA, Don Campbell, former Canadian Ambassador to Japan, and Arthur Hara, O.C. and past chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of British Columbia.

The Community Award recipients were: Leadership - Linda Ohama  Community Spirit – Joyce Oikawa Special Events – Nobuji Hirosawa and Hiromi Kobayashi Philanthropy – Bob Nimi Quiet Endeavor – Tom Teranishi and Sakuya Nishimura Nikkei Heritage – Yoko Murakami, Gladstone Japanese Language School Award of Distinction – Vancouver Japanese Gardeners’ Association.  Many thanks to these individuals for their great effort in building a stronger and vibrant community.

On this evening, another group of dedicated individuals, all of whom are volunteers were acknowledged as Honorary Builders for their instrumental part in building Nikkei Place.

We want to thank our team of over 30 dedicated staff and volunteers with special mention of Fred Yada, Dinner Chair, and Cathy Makihara, Selection Committee Chair.

The 2011 Nikkei Place Community Awards & Fundraising dinner came together through the generous support of the following sponsors: Diamond: Bob & Jane Nimi Platinum: Davis LLP • Mitsuo & Emmie Hayashi Gold: Cypress Capital Management • Lemongrass Media • Republica Coffee • Spectrum HR Law Firm Silver: F.M. Yada Group Inc.• 3P Business Solutions Bronze: Chris Yamamoto • Goto Sargent Group • Naoto Horita Inc. • Sam Yamamoto Dinner: Hi Genki Japanese Restaurant Beer Garden: Pacific Western Brewing Company Dessert: Hapa Umi & Hapa Izakaya Restaurants Media: Vancouver Shinpo Entertainment: Gary Coward

The Dinnner Committee would like to thank all the people and companies that donated items for the silent auction. If you are interested in making a donation to help honour the work of these individuals and to support programs and services at Nikkei Place please contact Nikkei Place Foundation for more information at 604.777.2122 or email us at gifts@nikkeiplace.org.

Also, this month, the Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society’s Outreach Needs Study continue to make progress.  Since the last update in July, the Committee has been reviewing the themes that have come up at the focus groups and interviews, and is now at the stage of developing the community wide survey using the information gathered.  The survey distribution date is estimated to be November 2011, and findings reported to the community in 2012.

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July 2011-NEWS

July will be a month of changes for the Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society.  This month, our former Manager of Resident Services, Suni Arinobu, is moving to her new home in Alberta.  We are going to miss her very much but she will be staying in touch by email helping with our ‘needs study’.

The ‘needs study’ which was introduced earlier this year, is entering phase 2.  In phase 2, we are reviewing the information collected from our small group meetings, and identifying the trends, information that people brought up as needs, and then translating these into questions for our community wide survey.

It is still our goal, to send out our surveys around September 2011, in hopes of gathering and analyzing the findings by Fall 2011.  At that point, we will be presenting our findings, and hopefully individuals and community groups alike will be interested in finding out what we can all do to meet the needs of the seniors in our community.

We will continue to provide updates as we set up dates where we can assist with the filling out surveys, call on community groups to assist in publicizing the surveys, and meet with you to present our data.

We thank all the participants and volunteers for their support.  We also thank the Nikkei Place Foundation which provided us with a grant of $8,000 to help defray the costs of coordinating this project.  Many thanks to everyone.

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Ways to Support National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre

TREE OF PROSPERITY
The colourful Tree of Prosperity, located in the Heritage Centre foyer, is a major annual fundraiser for the Museum & Heritage Centre and once again we are asking for your help to make the tree grow! We want our programs to join the ranks of leading Canadian and international cultural organizations, and to engage more Canadian families through fun, growth and education. For our 2011 plans to be successful, more leaves are needed. Please help us to see our tree grow, leaf by leaf, and keep Nikkei heritage alive! Please call the Centre at 604.777.7000 to make your donation or for more information.

NIKKEI PLACE FOUNDATION: A gift in perpetuity
The Nikkei Place Foundation is a charitable foundation with an endowment fund for Nikkei Place. Donations go to an endowment which is invested in an interest-bearing account, and the interest generated on such gifts is allotted for programs of the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre and Nikkei Seniors Healthcare and Housing Society. Each year the Foundation has made a development grant to NNMHC from the interest earned on the Foundation’s cash assets. To make a gift, or for more information, please contact us at 604.777.2122.

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NEW!! Asahi: Canadian Baseball Legends
This is the story of the Vancouver Asahi baseball team whose home ground was Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver from 1914 to 1941. The online exhibit is presented in four chapters: Building the Club, Triumph, Pride of the Community and the Asahi Legacy which can each be explored in depth with many images, sound bites, and film. A timeline of events in team history and the history of Canada’s Nikkei community, as well as teachers