My name is Grace Chen. I am an 8-year-old golfer, and I am starting a donation program to support childhood leukemia research to save other children’s lives. Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer, affecting more than 3,500 children in the U.S. every year. 250,000 children and adults worldwide are also diagnosed yearly with some form of leukemia. This represents about 2.5% of all people diagnosed with cancer.
In the major junior golf events I play (two world junior golf championships with details below), the Gracious Life Foundation (GLF) and I are reaching out to you for help. You can pledge three or more dollars for every birdie I score or a one-time donation of any amount. Anything you can do for my efforts would be greatly appreciated.
Birdie for ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia) Sponsored by Gracious Life Foundation
All donations will benefit Dr. Gary Dahl’s cutting-edge leukemia research at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Dr. Dahl is a world-renowned oncology expert and pediatrician in leukemia disease research and treatment in the Department of Hematology and Oncology.
All donations will go to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) In support of Dr. Gary Dahl’s pediatric leukemia research
The Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation will match funds for any donations made to Birdie For ALL.
Grace’s scores for the following world championships will be posted online daily, so it is easy to follow her results:
There are more than 3 million migrant workers in Shanghai, who help the development of the city while without a citizenship. Most of them treasure the more advanced educational method in the big city as compared with their hometown and bring their children to attend schools in Shanghai. This is how schools for migrant kids who are less advantaged than their shanghainese peers spring up. MMK（More for Migrant Kids）is the specialty of TECC, Shanghai. MMK is working on the Education for migrant kids, most of which come from families of migrant workers and are relatively less educated as compared with local peers. MMK volunteers give migrant kids extra-curricular lessons of various forms, helping those underprivileged kids achieve an overall development.This year(2008), PESI works in cooperation with TECC,Shanghai to hold a week-long summer camp with migrant kids and volunteers from China and the U.S. in an attempt to stage volunteers to communicate, organize and lead within teamwork and to arouse the social responsibility from young people for the underprivileged. Meanwhile, volunteers are work to encourage the migrant kids to be confident and independent so they can make their live a better one.
We need as much help as possible to spread the word about the May 2nd ServiceAsia Concert. Please join our street team by filling out the form below and email it to eastvillagers@gmail.com
Please fill out this form below so I can confirm who you are and what you are doing: Name: Age: Places you will promote: Are you leading an EV Street Team in your area? Y/N If, so approx. how many people?
Here is the list of what to do when you join the EV Street Team:
1. Print out the poster attached to this email and flyer at your school, church, and pass it out to your family and friends. We also have glossy posters and club flyers upon request.
2. Change your facebook profile picture to this image.
4. Make sure the people you invited have 1) signed-up for East Villagers 2) filled out the form to register for the concert (many people miss the second step at the end of the site registration) 5. Be excited about the event and tell everyone you know!! =)
If you are leading an EV Street Team, please send this message to your friends and also have them fill out the form. Make sure to follow the to dos as a leader.
Thanks so much for all your help and support. We wouldn't be able to do this without you.
Prior to coming on this project, I made sure to read the profile of my mentee so that I could prepare questions that would spark conversations between the two of us. When I arrived, I discovered that she had mysteriously dropped out of the program. Instead, I was reassigned to one of the village children who had already come. She speaks no English so I welcomed the challenge to overcome the language barrier and to practice my own Vietnamese. It was better for her and to make her experience in this program, however, if she was able to have someone who was able to communicate with her more fluently. Therefore, she was assigned to another mentor and I was given one who could speak English well enough. She was only my mentee for an hour or two, but I still felt like I had failed her in not being able to communicate with her, so I have been striving to speak with her, no matter how little, to ascertain with her that I still hold an interest in her gettin the most from these two weeks as possible. For three days now, I have been asking questions, elementary at best, and she has managed shy answers. Today, however, she approached me and asked me a conversational question. It was a sign of success to me because I have made her feel comfortable enough to strike up a conversation with me, a foreigner. This was indicative that I have done well in helping her, for which I am very happy. More materially, I have broken ground with my proper mentee. She has expressed a wish for us to become better acquainted on a personal level so that we can communicate clearly throughout this project. I like her very much so I am glad that I have been able to put her at ease enough for her to wish to close the spheres of privacy that separate us momentarily. This is also a first step toward my ultimate goal, which is to build a long lasting relationship with her that will extend beyond the program. Today has been very successful for me and I will sleep well tonight knowing that the work I have done, laying relationship groundwork, is beginning to show its first fruits. I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow holds!
“When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lay down to die, what it makes in all my days till then–that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it.” The above quotation is from C.S. Lewis’s novel Out of the Silent Planet. Hopefully its being from a science fiction novel does not take away from its meaning to you, dear reader, because in the past couple of days I have seen their truth in progress. In the past, when I have partaken of leadership activities, I have always felt like something of a third wheel. This time it is different. There is so much unaffected warmth from both the members and the high school students that it would be difficult for one to remain untouched. The past forty-eight hours have changed my life for ever, or at least hold that potential if I choose to let them. I came to Vietnam seeking a new perspective on the world. I did not, however, expect to gain it so soon into the program. I have gained so much to think on and meditate about in the past even few hours that I would write far more than I am sure you are willing to read. I will give a synopsis, though. This morning, the SEALNet members and the high school students went to Da Nang College to set up computers for the Foreign Language Department. Each of three teams were given two or three computers to set up and every team set to work with such unpretending excitement and ambition that a task that was meant to take a couple of hours took half of that. Consequently, there was plenty of time to talk with the high school students. I spoke with my mentee and tried to get to know her. She is a taciturn, intelligent, optimistic young woman who hopes to extend her education in the states. She worries, however, about the SAT testing that she will have to take in order to get into an American university. As soon as I began to describe the testing process to her, three or four other girls quickly gathered around to ask questions and learn as much as they could. One high school student has set his sights on Harvard. Not even I, a citizen of the U.S. with very little financial hardship in my past and all sorts of educational opportunities at my fingertips, never dared to try for Harvard. Their ambition is almost daunting and has made me feel ungrateful for my own good fortune by comparison. Secondly, the workshops here have helped me to define what it is in my own life philosophy that I have had trouble doing myself. It is, perhaps, too verbose to divulge all of my thoughts here. The emotions flowing forth from them are still too fresh to articulate well. I will say, however, that what I have experienced has made an indelible imprint on my heart and mind and that I am forever grateful to my SEALNet teammates and leaders for affording me this invaluable experience.
Today is day two of the Vietnam Project. Everyone woke up and made it to breakfast by 8 am — sadly, most of the food was gone by that time! So tomorrow morning we will all have to wake up earlier. Everyone, SEALNet members and high school students, drove to Danang College of Foreign Language where SEALNet members were introduced to the professors and given a brief speech about the project’s work. The professors recognized Viet and Nancy’s efforts and Nancy invited them to our banquet next Friday. All the members divided into three groups and began the day’s task of setting up 7 computers. Amazingly, everyone worked very competitively and cooperatively to accomplish the setup in about 30 minutes. After finishing up everyone hung out in groups in the newly established computer lab, getting to know fellow group members and eating fruit provided by the DCFL. For lunch, everyone went to Co Sang’s house for a home-cooked meal. So many people tried to pack into her house that we resorted to sitting on the floor cross-legged – and even so we still had to eat in shifts! Filled with food and rested after a short break, the SEALNet members gathered in a hotel room to conduct internal training and the high school students attended an impromptu workshop devised by Phuong and Tuyet-Mai about applying to colleges in the United States. The SEALNet members’ internal training session was very intense, but helped all of us to learn more about owning leadership and owning our own experiences in a session. After a delicious dinner selected by Ca Dao, all members returned to Daesco hotel for more sessions. The SEALNet members gathered to learn about social entrepreneurship from Leng, who shared some personal experiences with the group. The members also learned about the Johardi Window and how to build teams by making private personal information known to others. The group participated in a “Spotlight On” session for Viet, who will be leaving for Thailand tomorrow morning. Viet shared his story of growing up as a “lucky” boy and his experiences in Singapore and at Stanford. Members were invited to ask him questions about himself and provide him with feedback about how he has affected them. Phuong, Tuan, Nancy and Quynh, among others shared their appreciation, admiration and respect for Viet with him. By this point, everyone was exhausted so the group decided to break for the night. All in all, Dani and I agreed it was a very thought-provoking day.
It was 5am when the sun arose and shone right into our bedroom. Thai was already prancing around the room by then. When I opened my eyes an hour later, he was back in bed, complaining about the light bulb that had fused in our bathroom. We both showered in the dark (NOT at the same time obviously) and he slipped and hit the toilet bowl while I didn’t. I suppose that encounter is sort of symbolic of how we came together as a group. Some of us weren’t quite used to the amenities (or lack thereof) in Vietnam, whereas others grew up in this environment. Some of us came prepared, whilst some others had to grope somewhat in the dark to find their way through the various aspects of this project. But no matter what had brought us to Danang, we were all here together (OK save for a few of our team members, but they’re graduating so let’s give them the break they deserve) and are going forward with this project at the forefront of our minds for the next two weeks. The morning and afternoon of the first day consisted of getting people from the airport to the hotel. Some of us then shopped around for snacks. We had passed many bakeries (some looked quite fancy) yesterday, but somehow when we really needed to stop by a bakery to get some cakes and bread we couldn’t find very many. After walking about in circles (for which I sincerely apologise — we walked out of our hotel, then along the river, then turned back to where we started out from) we found two small bakeries with the help of the local vendors we approached. As we didn’t know what was in the most of the cake stuff we saw, we ended up buying one item of each unknown delicacy to sample what it tasted like. Our greatest find was a green slimy looking thing (which we have now christened “the green slimy cake”) which actually turned out to be the most delicious of the lot. Just before we reached the hotel, we found roadside stalls which tempted us with lychees, dragonfruit and sugarcane pieces — to all of which we happily succumbed. Lunch was a joyful affair at Co Sang’s house. Co Sang is one of our local contacts at Cam Ne village. I probably should retell the story of that village. Her aunt lives alone and had very generously offered the use of her own living room/dining room for conversion into a computer lab for the village. No one in the village had ever touched a computer mouse before and when we visited her the night before she expressed gratitude that we could just read from her eyes, without the need to understand the Vietnamese she was speaking. Co Sang lives in Danang and very kindly offered to prepare lunch for all of us. It was a generous spread and we left her home happily full and fully happy. In the afternoon, a group of us went off to run some errands, like activating our sim cards for use in Vietnam. But we managed to chow down on some banh beo. We also had another version of banh laop(??), which Brooke very cheerfully nicknamed “the fossil thing” because the shrimp embedded in the rice flour paste really seemed like a fossil. Dinner was another cheerful affair (hey I hope everything can be done as cheerfully as they have been today) with some high school mentees joining us. At night we had our first session together as a group, with Leng, Hung, Viet and Nancy leading the icebreakers, sharing of the vision/history of SEALNet/SALI. It was very enriching and eye-opening to hear about the various burdens elsewhere which were splitting our attention and minds–worries about the future, our loved ones etc–as well as what we all would like to bring home with us from PV2006. We were certainly off to a good start. Hopefully everyone will get over their jet-lag and regain their voices as we embark on this journey to change others’ lives, and our own. Let’s all take a deep breath as we await the next day’s adventures. Over to you, tomorrow.
pheww…. what a tired day! ok so here is what we did in the past 2 days. yesterday i went to pick up nancy, chi tran, thai, mia and danelle (do i get everyone’s name rite?) at 12 pm. mia looks different than what i saw on our forum. thai always has a little laugh. danelle is really nice too. and nancy, of course, is the most talkative one. hahaha… we went to have “banh beo” for lunch. afternoon, going shopping (hurraaayyy… we’done with shopping rite? i hate shopping so much) and having “mi quang” and “cao lau” for dinner. then, everyone went to rest in daesco hotel today, pick up viet at 7:30 am. pick up kenneth at 9 am. viet went home after seeing everyone at daesco. 4pm. nancy, kenneth and i went to make the plaque, came to cam ne village to visit while others went to the beach with nancy’s aunt. this is time when i found out how heavy kenneth is. hahaha… we should have gone by taxi but kenneth chose to take a bike. i drove nancy on my mum’s bike. later when we came to co sang’s house, we switched. i took kenneth and… gosh! hahahaha he’s so heavy… hehehe…is it supposed that every singaporean guy is really “big”? hahaha.. i saw JH, Joel, BoonLeong, KS, Dexian… and they’re “big” guys hehehe…when nancy took pics, kenneth didn’t want to sit on the bed ’cause he was afraid that he would break that bed. and nancy, she talked soooo much (i told u, she’s a talkative woman) and now, she loses her voice … i need to call her now but as she loses her voice, uh oh… can’t do anything but wait for her to check her email. hahaha… cam ne’s quite far away from danang. we are gonna be there in wed and thurs of the seconday week. back to hotel and rest at 9pm. tomorrow. need to buy some more stuffs and pick up ppl with ca dao. uh oh, should take kenneth to a bakery too. oh gosh! i forgot we need the ID card for Viet and Tuyet Mai… how can i forget this???
