Royal Buscombe; 45 year member of PPSEAWA
Los Angeles Chapter Report
PDF Version of this Bulletin
New Jersey Chapter
In January four members visited the Buddhist Temple at Cherry Hill. A young monk, Lian Ja, a former chemical engineer from U Penn, who was raised in Hong Kong and the United States, is the director of the temple. He explained Buddhist symbols, statuary, and history to us. He told us of his conversion to Buddhism. After an interesting discussion, Lian Ja treated the group to fabulous Chinese pastries and other refreshments. We plan to maintain this link with Lian Ja.Marlene Colbeck and Libby Zinman-Schwartz attended a Cambodian memorial in February. They learned a lot about the Cambodian community in Philadelphia. Dinner was served and they were entertained by a performance by a Cambodian male dancer.
The March membership drive attracted nine new members. We now have seventeen members.
Six members of the Rowan University Vietnamese student Club joined. They expressed their appreciation of chapter support at the Tet celebration and also to our tutors who assisted them with college writing assignments.
Four of our members attended the Tet New Year celebration at St. Joseph's Church in Camden. They were invited by members of our fledgling project, the Vietnamese Student Club, who reserved seats and dinners for us. We watched Vietnamese youth perform contemporary and folk dances and listened to songs and musical recitals.
Two Chinese women, representing S. J. Chinese Cultural Society, joined out chapter as well. Their mission is to find a space of their own with a telephone and attendants to provide information and resources to Chinese new to their community.
Another new member is Carol Smalley. Carol was born and raised in Vietnam and Thailand and is enthusiastic about offering her insights and resources to the Asian community in this area.
A discussion was held to clarify our goals. Four types of resources which we can offer Asians in South Jersey were identified:
1. Information and assistance in medical, legal, economic, social, and educational areas of concern and need. As a liaison group or a resource bank, we can either assist directly, if we have a chapter member directly involved in the area of inquiry, or we can direct inquiries to the most appropriate source(s).
2. Intercultural exchange of holidays, celebrations, customs, with reciprocity of cultural information and experience as the goal of the exchange.
3. Grant development.
4. Tutoring and literacy development at the high school and college levels.
Because of our small members we determined that our primary mode of interaction with Asians in the community should be social and cultural, and as a resource bank or networking liaison group. Consequently, our first event of the spring-summer will be an American barbecue to be help at the Green Acres Park in Mt. Laurel, NJ on May 31.
