This year's FCC-SoCal/OCA summer picnic on June 5th rejoined old and new friends alike at an unique park in the city of San Gabriel, in western San Gabriel Valley. We picnicked directly adjacent to Dinosaur Park, an artistic treasure nestled in the quiet corner of Victor Lugo Park. The event was well attended by over fifteen families, and offered opportunities for enjoying delicious food (Hawaiian theme!) and warm conversation. Many members met the new FCC board members for the first time.
 
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The little artists who attended the FCC November Art Making Workshop in Irvine on November 1, created beautiful drawings of Chinese lanterns, mandalas, dragons and butterflies. Artist, Melanie Vogel, introduced them to Chinese brush painting and oil pastels.

The best part, though, was seeing the pride on all of their faces as they viewed their masterpeice. And of course the parents didn't mind chatting while the kids were having their class.

A fun time was had by all at Orange County’s 12th annual Moon Festival Banquet on October 4 held at the Ten Ten Seafood Restaurant in Artesia. To start off the event, families played a game in which every guest had a picture of their Chinese zodiac animal pinned to their back, and children ran about the large dining room trying to count up all the roosters, rats, dragons, etc. to win the grand prize, a giant stuffed panda. Perhaps it was predictable that pigs represented the largest group that turned out for the banquet, but there was a scattering of every type of animal, and kids had a great time trying to count them all up.

At its 18th Annual Image Awards on October 2, OCA-Greater Los Angeles bestowed its Community Service Award to out-going FCC president Jeri Okamoto Floyd.  The award honors Jeri’s leadership in guiding FCC–Los Angeles from a fledgling chapter to a thriving nonprofit charitable organization. Jeri helped integrate the FCC adoption community with the broader Asian Pacific American community by establishing cultural interactive programs such as the award-winning FCC-SoCal/China Care Bruins Buddy Program, which pairs FCC kids (6 to teens) with UCLA student mentors for monthly activities.

Since 2005, FCC-SoCal has been coordinating a mentorship program with the China Care Bruins, a student-run group at UCLA. Last year, more than 50 FCC children (ages 6 to 15) were paired with college student “Big Buddies.” They participated in monthly Sunday afternoon get-togethers on the UCLA campus throughout the academic year.

We are delighted to announce that there are a few additional openings in the Buddy Program for the 2009-2010 academic year (October 2009 through May 2010). This includes the Little Buddies group (age 6 and older, up through 5th grade) and the new Youth Buddies group, for kids currently in 6th grade/Middle School and above.