On Nov 20, NCCC hold the virtual festival named Praise of Canada which celebrated the 19th Toronto International Senior Festival. There were over thousands of people watching the virtual festival. The party was produced and hosted by Mr. Harry Teng who has professional media qualifications.
President Bruce Yang gave a speech: He expressed his concerns to the elderly living at home under the epidemic, and sent the gratitude to the city councilor, MPP and MP who followed the virtual festival with video speeches or congratulatory letters. Also he said that in the future, with the strong support of the government, NCCC will further carry out a variety of actions, care for the elderly more, and serve the elderly Chinese better.
The host first read out the congratulatory letter sent by Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau to NCCC, and after that was video speeches and congratulatory letters from Ontario Minster Ford, MP, MPP, Mayors and city councilor. In their speeches, the guests fully affirmed the great work that NCCC has done for the elderly. They pointed out that it is Government of Canada cares to about the elderly. NCCC will serve the elderly and help the government solve problems. They thank NCCC and hope that NCCC will continue to serve the elderly under the epidemic and work with the government to overcome difficulties.
At the party, there were 18 performances including singing and dancing, Allegro, Peking opera, Hulusi solo, and Tai Chi sword martial arts, which lasted one and a half hours. After the video of the party was played, we received a lot of the praises. People were saying that it was a amazing festival and the performances enriched their life during the pandemic and they felt so happy.
Since the beginning of the year, NCCC has arranged various online activities such as yoga fitness, Traditional Chinese medicine epidemic prevention lectures, learning smart phone and digital skills knowledge, and learning painting, so that members can still exercise at home, learn knowledge, and no longer be lonely. Also, NCCC had a lot of activities that care of elderly such as anti-epidemic supplies (masks, gloves, hand sanitizer) and rice, noodle, cooking oil. There are more than a thousand elderly, and the materials and food were weighed more than 30 tons, and there were hundreds of volunteers joined and helped.
The elderly were appreciated that President Bruce was worrying about arranging online activities. He personally led a group of volunteers to carry rice bags, arrange the delivery, etc. The elderly also know that those materials and food were from funds of government. They expressed their gratitude to the Government of Canada. Therefore NCCC decided the theme of the virtual festival called “Praise of Canada”.
A total of 19 guests sent video speeches and congratulatory letters to NCCC. They are:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Minister of Ontario Doug Ford
Minister of Sennior Deb Schulte,
Minister of International Trade Mary Ng,
MP Majid Jowhari, Shaun Chen, Jean Yip
Toronto Mayor John Tory
Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti
Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua
MPP Vincent Ke, Billy Pang, Daisy Wai
City councilors Shelley Carroll, Isa Lee, Cynthia Lai, Alan Ho, Sandra Yeung Racco, Godwin Chan.
Nineteen government officials led by the prime minister to celebrate our virtual festival organized by NCCC is a miracle we have never seen before, and it is also another highlight of the party. The speeches of the 19 guests, especially the first time we saw MP Jean Yip, delivered a complete speech in Mandarin. The elderly understand the speech of guests were caring about the elderly, and also affirming and supporting the work of NCCC. We believe that all ethnic groups in Canada will be more united and live in harmony under the care of Government of Canada.
