User:Junmeisomerville/sandbox

Vancouver Beideng Society(VBS)

The Vancouver Beideng Society (hereinafter referred to as VBS or Beideng), formerly known as Vancouver North Shore Hiking Group, is a voluntary non-profit organisation established by Junmei Somerville in September 2014 which is mainly made up of many Chinese immigrants living in West Vancouver. With iPhone apps “WeChat” as the communication vehicle, the number of the participants quickly reached up more than 100 in early 2015, and the organisation successfully held the first Chinese Spring Festival celebration party.

Subsequently, the hiking group began to set up a variety of interests sub-groups such as dancing, yoga, photography, reading, English Studying, Tai Chi, painting and calligraphy, singing, poetry reciting, tea artery, Chinese opera, cooking, children's education, music appreciation, farming and gardening, travel, skiing, golf, soccer and tennis etc., as well as elder parents group for those who come as visitors for a certain period. There are group facilitators being responsible for organising weekly activities. There is also a secretariat, composed of several volunteers, responsible for the management of the daily work and coordinating the planning and implementation of big events, including weekly hiking, the Spring Festival celebration parties for three consecutive years, summer dancing ball, outdoor sports gathering, New Year's celebration with local winery, farm tours, photography competition, business meetings, seminars and symposiums on various cultural topics.

Rough statistics show that VBS has held more than two thousand activities free of charge from small, medium and large size in three years. The management team of Beideng consists of a group of volunteering members who are benevolent, full of abilities and talents. Through long-term of team work and communication, they have developed themselves into the core force of VBS with consensus and tacit, leading Beideng to pursue further on her journey of promoting cultural exchanges and cultural heritage.

In June 2015, VBS registered her own WeChat public platform, publishing daily her members’ original literature or news report of the activities. The first anniversary prize essay event was held in September 2016. Till now over 900 original articles have been published so far.

In April 2017, after one year preparation and theatre rehearsal, VBS launched a six-act stage play of “Monkey King Abroad” twice with her own members as playwright, director, actors and the whole crew, causing a sensation in the whole Vancouver area. In early June 2017, VBS participated in the community parade of West Vancouver city, and organised group donations for both the forest fires and the expansion of North Shore Lion Gate Hospital, which obtained very positive response from her team members.

In June 2017, Vancouver North shore Hiking Group was officially registered as a non-profit organisation in BC, renamed as Vancouver Beideng Society. It now has 300 registered members and more than 800 WeChat members. After the official registration, the hiking group continues to retain, and several major interests sub-groups have been expanded to dancing group, photography group, drama club and choir, other interest sub-groups remain unchanged.

The purpose of Beideng is to enrich the life of Chinese living in Greater Vancouver, to carry forward the atmosphere of health, unity and friendship. Beideng is committed to the promotion of traditional Chinese culture, to boost the cultural exchange with local multi-cultures, as well as being responsible for planning and implementing cultural exchange projects with Chinese domestic cultural groups and institutions in order to create a broad and far-reaching new immigrant culture in a long term which can benefit future generations.

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