Hello, Sister City Association! My name is Sarah and I had the pleasure of going on this amazing trip in 2012. Going on this trip made me fall in love not only with just Korea, but also my ancestral land Vietnam as well. Since going on this trip, I started college at UCLA and have become involved in something truly special called Vietnamese Culture Night (VCN for short). At UCLA, VCN is a chance for us-- the Vietnamese American youth-- to showcase ourselves. This is our chance for us to remind our community that we exist and that our community faces problems that we need to address. It is also a night for us to show how proud we are of our culture. Our language, our traditions, our struggle-- all of this makes us unique. Last year-- my first year in the production-- changed my life. It was a play that explored the life of those suffering a mental illness, of what it means to be a brother, a mother, a father. It changed the way I communicated with my parents. It changed the way I viewed my world. Not since my Korea trip has a single event changed my views on my familys culture in such a profound way. And I believe it has changed many others views as well. This year, I decided to become part of the executive staff for VCN. I wanted to create something like that-- something that could change lives, something magical. Something truly inspiring. Our production tells the story of my parents generation. It tells the story of a family displaced and torn apart by the Vietnam war, a family forced to abandon everything they know for a new home of which they know nothing. It tells the story of loss, and hope, and love. What it means to have a family. If last years production changed views, then I believe this years theme can change lives. It can change the way we talk to our parents, the way we perceive our immigrant populations, the way we interact with our siblings. I believe that this is a culture night unlike any other. However, this culture night is not easy. Our production costs $30,000 a year to produce, and we only perform once-- on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, where we feel cultural acknowledgement is at its height. We fill the seats of Royce Hall, UCLAs most famous building, without asking for a single charge. We believe that this night, which stakes our presence in not only the UCLA community but the Vietnamese community as a whole, should be accessible to anyone willing to learn. With a $30,000 budget and no revenue, we always struggle to find money. As people involved in an organization dedicated to spreading cultural awareness, I hope you can find enough room in your heart and budget to donate to our cause. We are not asking for much-- $5, $10; any small sum helps, especially when we have so much money to fundraise with less than a month until show day. So please-- if you have a few dollars to spare or would love to help this production, please consider donating to us. And if you can, please consider coming to our show-- January 19, 2015, at 7:00 PM. Admission and parking are free, though we generally fill the entire auditorium. Thank you all so much for your time and dedication to this organization, and I hope to see you at my culture night! -------------------------- For donations less than $100, please use our GoFundMe: gofundme/UCLAVCN2015 For donations more than $100, please consider becoming an official sponsor to advertise your business: vcn.vsubruins/sponsorship/ -------------------------- January 19, 2015 Royce Hall, UCLA Please visit vcn.vsubruins for more info about us and our cause!
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 19:40:18 +0000
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