Portland Lodge Biennial Report - 2003/2005
Grand President Foo, Grand Board, and Members of the delegation to the 48th Biennial Convention:
During the past two years, our lodge has retained many traditional activities as well as trying new activities to promote new and younger members.
- For Chinese New Years, we held a pot-luck and promoted bringing "traditional family recipes".
- Our basketball program that has been in existence for over thirty years has been well received by our local community. This program is totally handled by younger members of our lodge. Many of the students participating are S. E. Asian families that would not have the opportunity to participate in school programs. The highlight is when Seattle teams come to Portland for their annual tournament and Portland goes up to Seattle.
- We have had good turn out for the annual Essay Contest. Each year approximately 25 or more 3.5 GPA students participate in the $4,000 Fred G. Lee Memorial Scholarship. We collaborate with the Asian American Journalists Associate to select the winners. For the past 25 years, we have given out over $150,000 to Oregon graduating seniors. Portland Lodge honors these applicants and essay participants at a award banquet with family and friends. In conjunction with the Portland school district,
- we help sponsor a "leadership workshop" for Asian high school students. There are approximately 250-300 students who come to hear motivational speakers relating to "leadership".
- The last two years, we have held a summer retreat at the beach to discuss the future of our lodge.
- Summer always brings "picnics". We generally have one inviting friends and family.
- In the fall, we honor the WWII veterans at a luncheon, sharing memories.
- We solicit funds from members to purchase gift cards for the needy Asian families for the holidays. The Asian Health and Service Center helps us distribute to families.
- Portland's Asian community has grown tremendously these past five years. Our city has recognized this and has awarded "Chinatown" 5.5 million dollars to renovate the "streetscape". There will be new trees, festival streets , artwork, new sidewalks, and historic bronze plaques. One of our members is on the design team and has donated many hours to make this a Chinatown that we can be proud to bring friends.
- However, as in many large cities, there are two Chinatowns. With the increase in population, many businesses are moving to S.E. One that we are proud of is Wong's King. They have been voted as one of 100 best Chinese restaurants in the United States. Since they have won so many honors, we held a fund-raising dinner there that brought many praises.
- Recently, we worked with the City and volunteered to clean up graffiti. We hope to continue this project and enlarge the program to include cleaning up Asian businesses.
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