This year marks the 20th anniversary of the OCEF. After the first celebration in Beijing last August, which also served as the 1st Annual Coordinator Conference (see https://china. ocef.org/bbs/thread-87098-1-1.html as well as the last issue of the newsflash), more commemorative events were organized in North America in late October and early November.
The New York celebration was held at the studio of renowned photographer Alex Cao in the afternoon of October 27, 2012. More than 100 guests attended the event, which enjoyed the support of a number of news media and many leading New Yorkers from all walks of life. Several celebrities sent their congratulatory messages, including pianist Lang Lang and former NBA player Mengke Bateer. Of particular note on the program was a charity auction featuring autographed celebrity memorabilia collected through months of painstaking effort by volunteers of the New York Chapter, which helped raise more than $6,600 for the OCEF. The event was co-sponsored by a well-known local business, and several major Chinese-language news media were represented at the celebration and released their reports within the day.
The Northern California Chapter of the OCEF held its 20th anniversary celebration in San Jose on November 4, 2012. The participants included volunteers, donors, and netizens who are actively involved in OCEF affairs. Brought together by a shared dedication to helping underprivileged rural children in their pursuit for a proper education, the participants enjoyed a moment of camaraderie away from the busy lives in the Silicon Valley, along with personal anecdotes from past OCEF work and photographs from a difficult journey by OCEF donor Tom to the remote areas in Guizhou Province.
The Houston celebration, featuring a photo exhibition, was held at Rice University on November 4, 2012. Nearly 300 Chinese-American community representatives, OCEF volunteers, donors, and special guests participated in this event, including volunteers from Shanghai and Hong Kong. Deputy Consul General Zhang Chuanbing, Alice Chen, and Peter D.L. Hwang attended and addressed the conference on behalf of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, Congressman Al Green, and Texas State Representative Angie Chen Button, respectively.
The photo exhibition, which also included short films shot in China, highlighted the OCEF's achievements in helping underprivileged schoolchildren in rural China over the past 20 years. The extraordinary efforts of the children under inconceivable hardship moved many guests into making more than $8,000 in donations on the spot. In addition to monetary contributions, the OCEF also received offers from a number of groups to cooperate in future growth in both the Chinese-American and the mainstream communities.
In her speech on the conference, OCEF President Qinghong Wei reviewed the growth of the Foundation over the past two decades, and thanked all of the charitable contributors to the cause of the Foundation for their efforts. As a representative of the OCEF donors, Allen Xi expressed his appreciation for the OCEF’s financial transparency and low operational costs, which assured him that the donations would be used properly. The conference in particular honored Gan Liang, co-founder and former president of the Foundation, whose dedication was crucial in the early growth of the OCEF.
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