Gung Hay Fat Choy. Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous Chinese New Year to all as
we welcome the Year of the Golden Pig, 4705. The New
York Yee Fong Toy Association held its Chinese Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday,
March 10, 2007. Shortly after noon, our cousins from the Boston Chapter, Ma
and Tse Associations arrived at our hall and we began our celebrations. We started with the traditional ancestor
worship ceremony, followed by greetings from our President Kenneth. After the usual formalities, we all enjoyed
some time together and a buffet luncheon.
We then could not wait for the evening Spring Banquet to start at Jing
Fong Restaurant.
Our Master of
Ceremony was again Kennie, who is also our newly installed Women’s League
President. Kennie welcomed everyone and
introduced our President Kenneth.
President Kenneth then welcomed all the attendees and introduced our VIP
guests. He also announced that our newly
formed Women’s League is seeking more members to join and that we will be giving
out prizes during a free raffle drawing.
Congratulatory speeches were then given by Ambassador Andrew Hsia of the
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York and President of Chinese Consolidated
Benevolent Association Eric Ng. We were
also honored to have representatives of some public officials whom could not
attend. Bronx Borough President Adolfo
Carrion, Jr. had his General Counsel, Ms. Lai Sun Yee, presented our
Association with a Proclamation acknowledging that we “Promote the
Righteousness of our Past Generations and Nurture the Integrity of Our Future
Generation”. New York City Comptroller
William C. Thompson, Jr. had Legislative Assistant Ms. Sandra Ung presented us
with a Commendation for bringing together families, neighbors and communities. Assemblywoman Ms. Ellen Young, the first
Asian woman elected to NYS Assembly, sent Community Representative Gilbert Hoe
to present us a Citation for our dedication to the community. We were also grateful for City Councilman
John Liu taking time from his busy schedule to extend his good wishes to
all. Likewise was Federal Judge of
Eastern District of New York, the Honorable Dora Irizarry, who extended her
best wishes for the New Year. This was
truly remarkable that we had so many dignitaries who could attend our New Year
celebration. Deputy Inspector Gin Yuen
Yee, the new 5th Precinct Commander, also made time to attend. In recognition of his achievements, our
Association honored him with a special award.
Our new format this
year made our Spring Banquet that much more memorable. Besides
the Women’s League debut, we added a new level of excitement with 28 prizes
from our free raffle. Although most of
the gifts were from our Association, some were private donations. We want to thank Kathy Design, Ltd., Dragon
Palace Restaurant, Jing Fong Restaurant, Helen Yee, Mr. & Mrs. Frank Yee,
Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Yee, Mr. & Mrs. Gong Sum Yee, Mega/Merica School and
White Swan Bakery for their generous gifts.
The Women’s League did a great job conducting the free raffle drawing
and providing each attendee an info handout with a $30 discount to a spa salon
to attract new members. We also had
performers doing their dance routines and a DJ who sang and performed in a
unique style. We even had a small dance
floor available for guests to do their fancy footwork. A small group of women representing the
Women’s League also performed some Chinese Cultural dances. This was a thumb up evening and the food was
great too. It was encouraging to see that
most of the over 800 attendees stayed until 11pm. For
those who miss this event, we urge you get your tickets earlier next year. We want to again thank Kennie and her Women’s
League for their support. They took
charge of the raffle, keeping track of the prizes, wrapping, decorating, and
distributing all the tickets. Often many
of these little details go unnoticed.
They also helped as greeters. We
also want to give credit and thanks to Jim and Martin Yee from Vancouver for helping with the production of a
Special Issue of the Yee Family Global Village Voice e-newsletter for the New York’s Spring Banquet, distributed at each
table. Printing and collating were
courtesy of Andy Yu and me. Once again
thank you all for making this year another joyous event and hope to see
everyone next year.
Frank Yee