Opening Ceremony - 105 Gibson Centre, Markham, Ontario

Opening Ceremony  - 105 Gibson Centre - Markham

October 5, 2013

Praise God! The seemingly impossibility has become a reality!

It was a great day last Saturday  - A well anticipated and a joyful day for the community of Markham and especially for the congregation of the Toronto Chinese Community Church!

The Community Gathered and Celebrated

In less than four years time, the proud congregation of this Toronto church was able to raise nearly 12 million dollars through many various fundraising activities.

The church was able to purchase an old warehouse adjacent to its property, renovated  and converted it to a beautiful community centre and start serving its residents.

Mayor of Markham & Councilor Present a Certificate to Rev. Harding Ng

Lat Saturday was a proud day indeed when almost eight hundred people gathered together to witness the opening of the 105 Gibson Centre located on 105 Gibson Drive, Markham, Ontario.

105 Gibson Centre has been a vision that became reality under the strong leadership of Rev. Harding Ng, his team of dedicated pastoral staff and the Deacon Board of the Toronto Chinese Community Church, along with great support from church members and the Markham community at large.

A Modern Spacious Gymnasium for Sports Activities & Social Events

105 Gibson Centre is a huge space with an area of about 45,000 square feet. 

It has a gymnasium that can easily seat about five hundred people comfortably and where three volley ball games can take place simultaneously. 

A Great Place for Youths to Hang Out 

The church believes in serving its residents from diverse ethnic background, with an emphasis on youths, seniors and community education programs as well as serving  the needy and the hungry.

Youths Have Their Own Performing Space

Programs such as Food Bank, counselling,

community classrooms, arts, sports, music  tutoring, drop in, wellness and health workshops have been planned and will be offered to the community at a cost recovery base and some public events even at no cost.

  A Fish Market - Miniature Arts on Display on Opening Day

On Opening Day, there were a lot of activities that took place at 105 Gibson starting from 10a.m. till late afternoon giving the public a sample of what the Centre will offer.

These yummy looking chocolates are not edible! They are made of fabric not chocolate

The miniature clay and fabric art displays attracted a lot of attention and admiration. The miniatures depicted various scenes and were amazingly realistic, detail and cute!

A Miniature BBQ Food Store

The program which 105 Gibson pioneers and I personally like a lot is the Cultural Cafe run by the VIPs - Visually Impaired Persons. 

On their first day of operation, the VIP's did a fine job selling beverages and refreshments. I was so surprised that I did not even realize it was a visually impaired person who collected my $20.00 bill and handed me back the exact change without a fuss or assistance from anyone!

Arts Display on Opening Day

It was a glorious day for the congregation of the Toronto Chinese Community Church!  

The congregation's faith in God, resolve, collaboration  and generosity have all contributed to their dream of turning an old warehouse into a gorgeous community centre serving the residents of Markham.

Community Classroom - A Wellness Class Demonstration

105 Gibsn Centre needs a lot of volunteers and other resources to run and maintain its multifaceted programs.

Our family plans to be a part of the Gibson Team and will do our part to help!

R.T.
Toronto

Nuit Blanche 2013

We attended the Nuit Blanche - 2013 in the downtown area.

Ai Wei Wei's Forever Bicycles Sculpture

We had a couple of other events to attend to

during the day. By the time we got to the Nuit Blanch on Saturday, it was after 10:30pm. Our first stop was at Dundas Square where was packed with lots and lots lots of people. 

Sculpture made of Colourful Paper

Who would think that you could create such nice art work with toilet paper?

The exhibits were all over the downtown area. We caught one walking over to the City Hall.

An installation made up of socks!!!

Some sculptures were made out of wooden picnic tables such as these ones:

When it comes to play, adults could be just like kids, wanting to explore and experiment with new toys and structures.

Music and entertainment abound at various venues and it was a fun night to walk around. We were glad that the weather held out and we did not have a drop of rain when we were walking around to and from the various exhibits. We did not have time to catch too many exhibits and it was well past 3a.m. by the time we got home. Way past our normal bedtime but it was worthy it!

R.T. 

Toronto

Nuit Blanche 2013 - Sculpture by Ai Wei Wei

Ai Wei Wei's Forever Bicycles at Nathan Philips Square

Toronto is a city of festivals!  There are festivals throughout the year and at certain times of the year, there are so many concerts and special events taking place that one cannot keep track or attend them all.

Forever Bicycles at night!

Last year was our first time attending the Nuit Blanche in downtown Toronto - an all night arts event featuring artists from around the world. Free admission for the entire night for everyone!

We had such good time that we are now hooked.







The 2013 Nuit Blanche took place this weekend, Oct. 6 from sun down to sunrise. We were there!

I was in downtown Toronto this afternoon and I took a sneak preview at some of the exhibitions at both the Nathan Philip Square and Dundas Square.

I like  Ai Wei Wei's (  a Chinese dissident artist)  Forever bicycles, a huge piece of work made up of 3,144 bicycles  and  turned into a 3-dimensional structure. I always marvel at the creativity and imagination of artists who can use simple everyday objects and turned them into some awesome spectacular art work.  In this piece, the artist wanted to convey the rapid change in the social environment both in China and around the globe.

Another art display I saw was a poem written with fluorescent lights called The Rose is Without Why. The sculpture was done by Boris Achour - Paris, France. It will be very nice to see this at night when the lights are on.

The Holy Trinity Church, Downtown Toronto

As I strolled over to the Dundas Square, I came across this beautiful  building just across from City Hall.

I look forward to the 2013 Nuit Blanche exhibitions this Saturday. It will be a nice change for a couch potato like me to walk around downtown Toronto, get some exercises and admire all those wonderful art pieces at the same time.

Can't wait! Just hope that the weather will hold out for the night.

R.T.
Toronto

Squirrels Change their coat to get ready for winter!

One of the enjoyment of living in a house with many trees is the opportunity  provided to observe some of the wildlife in its habitat. Every morning, I wake up, coffee or tea in my hand, have my breakfast and watch the little animals scurrying around in the backyard.

Since we are very close to a ravine, we are frequented by many visitors to our backyard. One of our little visitors are the squirrels.

Normally these little fellows are agile, fast runner with dark brown fur. They can climb up and down trees with lightning speed and it is not easy to get a clear good shots of them.They are also very sensitive and cautious to their environment.

I was observing them from my kitchen window for a long time and I wanted to get a closer look at these cute little animals.

 As soon as I opened the patio door leading to the backyard ( despite my cautious efforts in trying to be extremely quiet), these little guys ran away swiftly.

I noticed that some of the dark furry squirrels have started to change their colour to adapt to the coming winter season. Their colour has changed to a grayish white especially at the tails

Coffee mug in hand, I was enjoying my squirrel watching activity and taking pictures from my kitchen. This little guy's sat on the fence for a little while and something seemed to have caught its attention.

All of a sudden, it started wagging its tail very fast!

It continued to wag its tail like crazy for a little while and appeared very excited and seemed to have discovered something!

Finally, the excited squirrel jumped off the fence disappeared into the leave pile on the ground.

The same squirrel reappeared in a few seconds and jumped back onto the fence with something in his hands.

The reason for his excitement - he found himself a delicious treat!



R.T.
Toronto

Good Bye to Our 140 Years Old Ash Tree!

We love these trees !

Our Beloved Tree

We love trees! This was the reason we fell in love with the current house where we live. Over thirty years ago, when we were young and starting a family, we decided to buy this house because we loved the trees in our backyard and in our neighbourhood.

These beautiful  old trees have been providing us with shade, and beautiful foliage while making our house cool and comfortable in the heat of summer.

However, good thing cannot last forever. Slowly, some of these majestic trees started dying and a couple of them were downed by either wind storms or severe weather a couple of years ago.








There was one tree in particular that we loved the most - a 140 year old Ash tree sitting at the back corner of our yard and gracing our property.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be an ash tree epidemic in Toronto and many ash tree have been infected with diseases.  The ash tree in our backyard was no exception, infected with diseases and started dying a couple of years ago. Last summer, lots of branches broke and fell off the trunk into the next yard.















Our neighbour kept complaining to us fearing that the tree would fall soon and land on his house while the family slept. We resisted the notion of cutting our beloved tree.

However, upon the relentless complaints expressed by our neighbour, we had no choice but applied to have permission to have the tree removed.

Andy - our tree cutter

In Toronto, we cannot cut down any trees we want once when the tree is over a certain size. Since this tree was a huge tree, we must applied at City Hall and obtain permission to have it removed.


Andy, our tree cutter came with his team of assistants and started cutting the tree down.











My heart ached as I watched each branch being hacked away and dropped to the ground.

Using a gigantic chainsaw with a blade about a meter long, Andy skillfully cut the huge trunk into pieces.

As each piece of wood was carted away, a part of me was taken with it.

This huge tree has stood in our backyard long before we moved into the house and it has been a part of our lives:

It witnessed the birth of our younger son;
it accompanied our two sons grown from infants to teens,
and the branches waved them goodbye when they left home for university.

This same tree has been with us for more than three decades and saw us through life's ups and downs along with the changing seasons:

Every spring, it gave me much joy when I puddled around under its leaves and did my planting.
In the summer, its abundant  foliage served us well and protected us from the scorching sun while we enjoyed many of the family barbecues and gatherings.
When autumn arrived the fallen leaves from the tree formed huge piles where our young sons played hide and seek rolling in them and had so much fun.
Every winter, the trunk covered with glistening snow welcome our grown sons home each Christmas for our family reunion.








Whenever our friends came to visit, they gazed in amazement at the beauty of this magnificent tree and marveled at the much needed shade and cooling effect it had on our house.

How could I bear to see this faithful tree gone forever from my life?

As the tree started to disappear in front of my eyes, my eyes started to tear and I wanted to hold onto this tree forever.

Wood - Nature's Gift to Us

I wanted to be reminded of the fond memory hidden in this tree. Instead of letting all the wood pieces taken away and burned for fuel in someone's homes, I wanted to keep some pieces of the tree. Though our children are grown men now, I would like other kids to enjoy this tree and have a great experience playing outside when they come to visit at our house.

Keeping some of the wood from our tree

I asked the tree cutter, if he could ( for an extra charge)  cut the wood pieces and create a special woodsy area for us and for the little ones. He did!

Kids and adults will have fun and quiet time here

Andy did a great job and we are pleased with our Flintstones style outdoor seats. Can't wait until the kids are here at Thanksgiving and have fun playing outside!

R.T.
Toronto

Celebration Dinner - Teens Shared What They Have Learned as Volunteers in Summer Camp

The summer camp was successfully concluded near the end of August!

This year we made history as the teens officially and capably assumed the leadership and running of the camp for the later half of the camp while I was away.






The fun time and fond memories of the summer camp were still fresh on our minds and we were glad that we had the opportunity to serve the Waterloo community again.

At the end of our Children's Summer Camp, we usually hold a Celebration/ Thank You dinner for our volunteers.







This year was no exception. Since I flew to Japan before the end of our summer camp, we decided to have that celebratory dinner upon my return to Canada.

Celebrated we did!!!    We had a reunion of all the camp volunteers including two parents who gave a lot of assistance to us. Jean, one of the three leaders who looked after the camp while I was away, made the arrangement of booking a restaurant and inviting all the volunteers for a dinner in Waterloo on the first Saturday in September.

The teens were happy to see each other again catching up with the friends they have made

We had a delicious dinner at a all you could eat buffet Sushi restaurant and the teens had a blast ordering their favorite dishes.

I always feel that if we want to see our teens returning to volunteer in the next VBS, we need to make sure they have learned something in the camp as well as recognizing their contributions as volunteers.

After the teens finished eating all they wanted from the Sushi bar, the BBQ and desserts, we gave out a small token of our appreciation to each of them and asked them about what they had learned from their volunteer experience.

Thomas shared what he learned from volunteersing

Thomas's hand shot up and answered immediately without hesitation.

" I  learned three things:

a.  Not to make hasty decision. At the beginning, I thought of quitting because we got no pay. But I was so glad that I stuck with it because I really enjoyed working with the kids and the camp experience.

b. I was not working too hard sometime and I was playing games with my cell phone and other volunteers were also doing the same thing. R. T. was very upset and she gave us a big talk. I had never seen her being so upset before. I learned that we cannot get distracted and play with our cells because the children's safety depended on us. We have to watch them all the time.

Thomas working with one of the campers

c. We have to teach kids being independent and let them do things and take responsibility for themselves. I wished I came to this camp when I was younger so that I could learn to do things on my own and be more independent."

Wow!!! I was absolutely blown away by what Thomas said. Other volunteers talked about what they had learned as well, But what Thomas said stood out for me because he was a brand new volunteer coming  from nowhere. Nobody knew him. He came because he heard about our camp and needed his 40 hour volunteer hours for his secondary school graduation diploma.

I was happy to hear from the young people what they learned from the summer camp. This made my volunteer work with them all worthwhile.

R.T.
Director - TECA
Toronto Education &
Communications Associates
Celebrating with Youth Leaders
Waterloo, Ontario
Sept. 7, 2013