Hello everyone,

Three events back to back in February 2008, one set the bar higher than the others…the 25th Anniversary celebration of the Mandarin Bilingual program has gone out with a bang. After Saturday night, I had the rest of the long weekend to reflect on every single 25th anniversary event for the past 2 ½ years, from idea conception to implementation.

• First of all, we needed to re-brand the association logo for the 25th with the great design work done by Leslieanna Blackner-Au (our in-house volunteer-parent graphic designer). This was like giving the association a new suit. We also needed a slogan to keep a common theme for all the events, so I woke up in the middle of the night and came up with the Chinese slogan of “中英雙語天下行” and with the help of Tanya Casperson (our volunteer parent editor), we came up with the slogan “Talk to the World – through Mandarin Bilingual Education”. Now we were ready to party for the 25th year.
• The Poster Contest (April, 2006).
• “Talk to the World” students’ comment booklet (October, 2006).
• The 2007 calendar with winning entries from the Poster Contest (April, 2006).
• The 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book is now available at all Edmonton Public Library branches (February, 2007). One of the most treasured items in the c-book was the chance to record the founders' and the alumni experience on the program. I don’t remember how many late nights, my wife, Brenda spent doing Chinese typing; and how many times, we faxed and emailed article after article between the c-book editorial and committee members.
• The sold-out Century Palace ECBEA 25th anniversary banquet with attendance of our Lieutenant Governor, Premier and Mayor – we were told later that this was unprecedented since the LG and the Premier would not choose to attend the same function together according to protocol (February, 2007).
• The first ever ECBEA Literary Festival at the Royal Alberta Museum theatre (February, 2007), a presentation that focused on our students’ Mandarin as well as English language presentation skills, on top of singing and dancing.
• The Capital-Ex parade dragon float - ECBEA put it together in conjunction with ASSIST Community Services Centre – the ECBEA sister community group, since both were spearheaded by the Chinese Graduates Association of Alberta, 25 and 30 years ago; ECBEA has reconnected with its community roots (July, 2007).
• The first ever ECBEA Mid-Autumn Festival Carnival at West Edmonton Mall with a book fair, focusing on Chinese story books parents could purchase for their children’s home reading (September, 2007).
• The Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Contest conducted live at WEM, all 16 winning entries were sent to Beijing for mounting and auctioned off at the Winspear Gala (September, 2007).
• The 2008 calendar with winning entries from the contest (September, 2007).
• The Children’s Corner at the Chinese Community Lunar New Year Flower Market, ECBEA grows from just a participant renting a table in the past to become part of the organizing committee for the event (February 2 and 3, 2008).
• The Chinese New Year Lunar Carnival at City Hall – with 3 solid hours of performances, carnival games with free prize give-aways and free Chinese New Year food sampling; ECBEA also played host to other community groups, such as Edmonton Beijing Opera Association, ASSIST, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Edmonton Chinese Philharmonica, Sabaki Go Club, Tat Ming Yee’s Art Studio, Music Lovers Guzheng Society, Shang De Tai Chi Mantis Martial Arts Association, etc. showcasing a full spectrum of Chinese culture in Edmonton; on a very cold afternoon, we attracted over 2000 audience members and participants with 60% of the audience comprised of young families with non-Asian backgrounds, our target audience (February 9, 2008).
• The 25th Anniversary Fund-Raising Finale Gala at Winspear Centre - video clips were used to retell and reconfirm the success of the program of the past 25 years and shared some ideas on what we can expect in the coming future. A huge thanks to our volunteer director Jeremy Yung who had taken on the project for the past 2 ½ years; he even joined the Londonderry students in Beijing on their China trip to capture some video footage. The video clips interspersed with a full range of our students’ performances, showed the public the true colors and diversity of our students’ talents, which not only included traditional dance, songs and Chinese musical instruments, but also included elements of playful dramas, hip hop modern dance, piano & violin and a 100 member choir consisting of students from all 5 elementary schools. The best comments that I received from the audience so far was from a patron of non Asian background – “Although we were not even aware of the ECBEA before this event, we now have an understanding and admiration for your commitment.” Also from a past-executive member – “The gala was put together handsomely; it made us proud to be part of it.” (February 16, 2008).
• The final message of our video clips stated: Mandarin Bilingual – Make it Your Future; hoping this is what the audience will take home. (February 16, 2008).

As a result of all these events, the program has received coverage from the Globe and Mail, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, 630 CHED, Fairchild Radio in Calgary, CBC Radio and TV, World FM, CTV, Global TV, City TV and countless community newspapers. We have no doubt this will help enrolments as well as to create awareness of the program in the mainstream/non-Asian population. As you all know, the program not only has to keep its link to the Chinese community, it must also start attracting families with non-Asian backgrounds in order to grow further. All 25th Anniversary events were
designed to renew connections with the Asian community as well as to create awareness outside of the Chinese community and I believe that we have taken the first step.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary had 2 main purposes - further promotion of the program is one; renewing parent members’, students’ as well as educators’ involvement is the other goal. Through the past 10 or so events, we have received help from well over 500 volunteers and 400 performers. Without the support of the ECBEA Board members and all the volunteer students, parents, teachers and principals who came out to attend meetings and helped out in all the events, none of this would have happened; so all the credits should go to you.

Let’s just look back to September 2005; the first ECBEA general meeting in the school year in Meadowlark School’s music room. Brenda dragged me to the meeting so that I could meet Meadowlark’s new principal, Karen Redhead. It just happened that the Board had started to talk about celebrating the 25th anniversary. An ordinary parent, just like you, who was busy with 2 school children, a full time job with the Alberta Government, a part time job in running his own clinic, with zero background in organizing big events and a bunch of hobbies that he loves to spend his time on, such as his 150-gallon salt water aquarium, his garden, his calligraphy and his golf game, just raised his hand and said, “It would be nice if we could do this”…then all of a sudden, thirteen 25th anniversary events, 18 planning meetings, countless general meetings and meetings with potential sponsors. So don’t ever under-estimate these boring ECBEA general meetings and don’t ever dismiss them as a waste of your valuable time. At the end, lessons that I’ve learned, valuable friendships that I’ve made all are priceless and worth every bit of it.

Thank you all for giving me the opportunity so that I can proudly tell my children that I did contribute in a very small way in their education, the rest is up to them; and just the same, if you really want to make a small difference in your children’s education, the rest is really up to you.

Regards, Stephen Tsang ECBEA 25th Anniversary Chair (Signing off with this title one last time)