【時報訊】

聖路易領養中國孩子美國家庭FCC(Families with Children from China)於2月20日下午一時，在Maryland Heights社區中心舉行2005年中國雞年新年聯歡會，近四百位家長和兒童與會，場面盛大。

華盛頓大學亞裔同學會在會場提供精彩表演節目，歡樂滿堂。FCC慶祝中國新年活動一年比一年熱鬧，一年比一年人數增加，對中國文化在聖路易紮根發揚，意義極大。

中國女娃娃

FCC中國新年慶祝會由會長Donna Schnieders主持，她首先介紹FCC組織幹部及會務計劃，FCC每年定期舉辦兩項大型活動，除中國新年慶祝會外，另一個就是與聖路易美華協會(OCA)聯合舉辦之秋季野餐會，20日當天下午，美華協會會長唐振飛亦到達會場參加FCC中國新年慶祝活動。

父母親帶著寶貝女兒慶祝中國新年

今年的表演節目由聖路易華盛頓大學亞裔同學會擔綱演出，共演出孔雀舞、彩帶舞、中國功夫、扯鈴表演和舞獅等五個節目。這些華大同學們剛演完華大2月5日的中國新年慶祝表演節目，原班人馬來到FCC會場，獲得滿場掌聲，演出後孩子們則和大哥哥、大姐姐們一齊玩扯鈴，逗舞獅，其樂洋洋。

華大同學舞獅表演

FCC中國新年慶祝會的美味Buffet午餐由聖市美華餐廳提供。FCC特別向美華餐廳施老闆(Jack Shih)致謝，慶祝會中同時進行不叫價募款拍賣，提供禮品贊助的廠商包括聖市金滿樓餐廳，P.F.Chang餐廳等。

FCC中國新年慶祝會，左起 Rick Westerhold, 唐振飛會長， Mary Neal, Donna Schnieders會長

By FCC Newsletter

THANK YOU EVERYONE for making this a wonderful Chinese New Year celebration at Maryland Heights Center on February 20! 91 families (375 people) enjoyed a wonderful day!

Everyone enjoyed a wonderful performance by the Asian Student Association of Washington University. Afterwards, the kids got to enjoy trying out the lion dance costumes and the yo-yos!

華大同學中國功夫表演

We made $2,711 on the silent auction - THANK YOU EVERYONE! We will be sending that money onto various Chinese orphanage charities, including the FCC National Appeal (http://www.fccny.org/cicpages/intro.asp or http://www.fwcc.org/fccnationalappeal.htm), Half the Sky (http://www.halfthesky.org) & others that the board will decide. This does not include the money made from the grab bag/photo frames/donations (totals to come later!)

Make sure to check out the photos on the Kabance Photo site at ww.kabancephoto.com. Hope everyone had ample chance to get their family & friends pictures taken!

As posted earlier, our own FCCer Veronica Koh Maher has dedicated herself to making & promoting a CD to benefit the CHI Humanitarian Aid fund. Contact Veronica at: virtualhelper@sbcglobal.net, or at 314-469-0754. In the near future, you'll be able to order these online at the FCC website at www.fccstl.org -- we'll let you know when this is up & running.

華大同學綵帶舞

Check out the St. Louis Chinese American News (www.scanews.com) for tons of pictures from today's event. SCANews is always happy to cover our events & we have
our own space (www.scanews.com\fcc) on their website! If the pics are not on the front
page, you may have to click on the FCC logo on the far right side.

We got some other coverage too -- Channel 2 was there! There was also a photographer from the St. Louis Post Dispatch there for some time. The World Journal was also there - an international newspaper with reporters here in town.

FINALLY, another HUGE THANK YOU to all the volunteers who helped make this day run so well -- especially Garland & Laurie, but also those that helped in any way -- auction donations, auction/basket setup, setup this morning (in record time & smoothly, due to all the help!), registration desk, and the cleanup.