By Lynne Spina June 1, 2002
Participating in the Chinese Culture Day Botanical Gardens Celebrations offers St. Louis FCC Families one of the most all encompassing opportunities to experience our children's heritage. Each year during that special weekend, exposure to community leaders, entertainers and artisans help to deepen our family's understanding of the culture. Time spent experiencing Culture Day enriches the adoption journey all FCC families travel.
In addition to the benefits such exposure provides to individual families, FCC as an organization reaps benefits from actively participating in Culture Day. This year, as in the past several years, FCC collaborated with World Ways Children's Museum to run a very successful activity room for children. The visiting children enjoyed a variety of cultural crafts. They made dragon boats, paper fire cracker shakers, opera masks, horse puppets and learned some calligraphy. Although it was fulfilling to see the children enjoying the activities, other advantages reaching beyond the weekend will result from FCC taking part in the Culture Day planning process.
As organizers of FCC's involvement in the children's program, Lynn Raney and Zdenka Perez represented FCC on the Culture Day planning committee. The committee was also comprised of representatives from many Chinese American organizations. Raney explains, "our experience on the committee will help FCC to understand who the various Chinese American organizations are and what they have to offer. There is potential for FCC to work closely with several Chinese American organizations in St. Louis."
Establishing these relationships help to strengthen FCC. Relationship building is an activity which supports the FCC mission statement:
... to build a community of support for the healthy development of members' children through:
*Educational opportunities for learning about Chinese culture and developmental issues specific to raising children adopted from China.
*Children's and family activities to help all learn about Chinese culture.
*Opportunities for socializing and networking among families in order to enable peer support and community building.
In turn, FCC hopes that the Chinese American community gains advantages from its exchange with our families. The community has been welcoming to FCC families and for that we certainly are glad. FCC families recognize the potential long term impact friendships that bridge cultural gaps will make on our children. After all is said and done, isn't it true that...no matter the race or heritage of a parent, parents aim to provide the positive learning opportunities and life experiences that become the foundation on which their child will stand steady as he or she enters into young adulthood?
FCC congratulates the Chinese American community of St. Louis for a fantastic
2002 Culture Day and a job well done!
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