Our 2018: A Retrospect

In the year 2018, the East and West Learning Club held 33 in-house events, including 7 East&West dialogues, 7 workshops and lectures, and 19 regular book club meetings.  We also organized a couple of field trips to the Royal Ontario museum.  The activities drew around 300 visits by professionals, business owners, home-makers as well as students.  It was a fruitful year!

 

  • In the beginning of the year, we received some donations from individuals who valued the Club’s effort to help immigrant families adapt to local culture through learning and engaging activities.  We were therefore able to provide simple meals before each book club meeting, and introducing improv acting classes to our members at a subsidized low price.  Also, we were granted a permanent membership by YLYK app provider so we got free access to a wealth of quality courses teaching both eastern and western cultures.  Iroquois Junior Public School and Academy of New Echo Education opened their staff rooms for free to host our meetings.  Agincourt Collegiate Institute and Henry Kelsey Senior Public School helped circulate our event announcements among their students.  We thank our donors, sponsors and supporters so much,  for the strength and encouragement they have generously infused to the Club!  Please be assured that we will continue to work hard, and make this non-profit, cultural club a small but attractive corner in Scarborough for immigrant families to come and enjoy the fun of learning!
  • In May the club members collectively made a donation of $150 to the Toronto Strong Fund to support the victims in the van attack on Yonge Street in Toronto.
  • On May 19, the Club was invited to attend the Asian Heritage Month celebration held by Canada One Family at Markham Town Centre.  Our Club organizer gave a keynote speech about the East and West Learning Club.
  • We skipped the night of June 7 because it was Ontario general election day, and we encouraged members to go to vote to voice their opinions.
  • What did we do and how we did it at the Club?  Have a glimpse here 
  • Our improv acting class instructor, Nancy Morrison, was available for four classes, instead of seven as originally planned, due to other commitments.  Still the four classes filled our minds with exciting challenges and shining memories!  See Improv Classes Minutes
  • The East&West Dialogues brought in 14 guest speakers’ expertise, perspectives and life stories in 2018, helping us understand Canadian society, people, and culture in depth.  We gave our sincere appreciation to the following guests who came to our club as volunteers from all walks of life, but with the same purpose — to help immigrants adapt to their new home with more ease and grace.

Marcia Pate and Quincy James

Marcia Dunbar  and Shengnan Ma

Ian White and  Wayne Henshall

Kaye Leslie and Lin Tian

Chris and Lynda Spinney

Doris Purchase  and Lei Xu

Tore and Marilyn Eriksen 

  •  The three workshops/lectures broaden our knowledge in different areas of interest – thanks to the facilitators!

Poetry Workshop by Anna Yin  

Voice Projection Workshop by Yuan Gao  

Leadership and communication Skills Lecture by Mason Zhou 

  • Last but not least, let’s give ourselves a round of applause for taking the time to learn new knowledge and skills, and striving to improve ourselves no matter how old or young are we!  See some of the harvests we collected here.

Everybody, let’s keep up our curiosity, passion and effort, and learn more about eastern and western cultures in 2019.

Happy New Year!

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