(by Dennis & Xin)
On January 22, 2011, MSFT CHIME held its biggest Chinese New Year celebration at the Overlake Christian Church in Redmond. With our dedicated volunteers, the event was a big success for CTEF.
In the afternoon events, CTEF booth rocks with high tech-tag games as well as traditional yet popular Chinese games. Our booth attracted many interested visitors and our volunteers took the opportunities to talk to them about our operation.
Our president and his wife, Dennis and Millie, was invited by CHIME's president, Yushi Shen to a VIP reception shortly before the performance in the evening. By the time most audience was finishing their box dinners and finding seats in the huge sanctuary of the church, a small group of invited guests of CHIME was having a social hour in a back room. There were elected officials, community organization representatives, and other prominent Chinese Americans. Then suddenly Steve Ballmer entered the room , like a movie star, people immediately gathered around him to say hello and to take picture with him. The below picture shows Dennis (1st right) , his wife (2nd right), Ron Chou (2nd left) and his assistant (1st left). Ron is the chair of the sister city group between University Place in Tacoma, and Mein Yang in Sichuan. He was one of the first international aid groups arrived at the 5-12 quake center with a plane load of tents within the first week of the quake.
During the evening entertainment show, a Thank you Letter from student Liu Qin (from our recent 1+1 scholarship program) in Sichuan, China touched many audience. It is amazing how a little help can go such a long way. Thank you, our donors for continued support!
Thanks CHIME board for giving us such a great opportunities to express our appreciation to our donor community, to report our progress and to further enhance our image.
Thanks goes to our long time volunteers, many new faces(a big welcome!), and more young volunteers (going through the training with their parents—way to go)!
Happy Chinese New Year!
