President's Corner
In the seasons of my Presidency of this wonderful Society, I have to say that last year (2007) was the most significant. Most significant in a number of ways. Not only were we busy practically each month of the term, but never have we experienced the overwhelming support and dedicated volunteerism of our members! I stand here proud of our members, members who have truly left an indelible mark in this Society and in the community in general.

Last term began with our very successful “Globalization” conference held at the Lethbridge Public Library. We not only had a terrific response from the community, our panel of guests presented a stellar perspective of their personal experiences. From gut wrenching funny as Daniel Zoopula told us about his first visit to a Canadian washroom being fresh out of the jungles of Buruka Facia, to the tear jerking expressions uttered by our own Lucy Fedorets as she shared about the loneliness she experienced as a Russian Immigrant in her new Country and home in Lethbridge.

Shortly after, we had a good response as we traveled down to Great Falls, Montana to participate in the Ice Breaker Road Race!

Then we had our committee struck to follow up on the Sign Project that Carol Kensley brought to our attention as a potential project! Our design expert Joseph, along with our committee members came up with a proto-type......It is incredible and actually amazing as the proto type, that Joseph devised, became almost exactly what we see before us today as the sign sits at the corner of 6th street and 4th Ave. We were never supposed to have had such a high exposure area, and the first selected site was going to just fine, however structure placement made that site unsuitable......next thing you know a second site was chosen, not by us, but by City Hall..... they moved the sign location to within inches of where Joseph had mocked up the original sign position!....Not only that, the exact colors Joseph chose are todays sign features!

We again had a float in the Whoop up Days Parade, and this year we again featured, Kaze No Rhythm – Taiko! Karl Campa rode shot-gun on the semi to the cheers and clapping of the patrons watching the parade along the route……..sorry to disappoint you Karl, but all the cheers and clapping was for the taiko players on the trailer behind, and not for you!

Then there were a few bingo fund-raises, and Bar B Ques and next we were into our AJTMA conference. Our tireless Director, Carol Kensley worked hard and long, funds came in from community organizations and businesses and what seemed was going to be a huge drain on Society funds actually turned out to be a income generator!

Weather and an excellent turn out of our members and unheard of representation at the conference made the conference a huge success. To have representation from all levels of Government, including Mr. Casson, Mr, Dunford, Senator Fairbairn, officials from the Alberta Japan office in Tokyo and Japanese Counsel General Hori and of course, Mayor Tarleck, in attendance and in participation........ what are the chances of any organization achieving that? Hat’s off and kudos Carol! As always, there were a core group of volunteers from the Society who dedicated way too much time and effort: Jennifer Spanbaurer, Betty Reimer, Glen and Johann Siggelkow, Karl Marten, Joseph Palate, Tom Crowell and Cathleen Crowell, Dan Speakman, and Olga Lukiyanova who from a distance prepared a CD Disk to introduce the web site for the AJTMA that she designed. She could not attend to show the CD her self so Konstantin Pyryaev came all the way from Vancouver to assist! (and I can not forget the ever present support of my wife Cheryl!) Then we had our entertainment, the Japanese Dancers, Pipe band, more Japanese dancers and our very own Kaze No Rhtymn rocked the conference at the Lethbridge Lodge.

We had a delegation of ten who visited our Sister City, Towada City, Japan. Bryan led the group as they toured in Tokyo and in the Towada City area. Some of the group participated in the Towada City Fall Festival and even had the opportunity of exhibiting their taiko talents!

In October a delegation of students arrived from Towada City and were home stayed by the Wilson Junior High School community. Members of our Society however greeted the students and later entertained the chaperones with a most memorable visit to the Haunted House. You see it was Halloween and we traveled to Stirling where the unique Haunted House exists. This attraction is owned by Richard and Glory Reimer and they offered free admission to our group and made our visit extra “scary special”. The Japanese guests were totally surprised and they never had seen anything like that in their lives! I bet that they are still shaking from the scares that they received that night!

We had a novel idea of selling very large size coloring books, and in November we set up a booth at the Lethbridge Center Mall where we sold in earnest. The fund raiser was a success!

Our Director for our Russian Twin City, Timashevsk, Steve von Matt was instrumental in introducing us to Natalie Friesen. Natalie held Russian conversational classes for our members and then hosted a celebration “Russian Party” fun and education was truly had by all!

Then there was the extremely brief visit of Tatiana Ponomarev from Timashevsk, Russia. She had traveled form Timashevsk by train to Rostov on Don for 3 hours, then another 10 hours to Moscow to catch an 11 hour flight to New York City ! Then on to Seattle where she obtained a Canadian Visa that permitted her to continue on to Calgary. We met her in Calgary and after a short 21/2 hour car ride she had arrived in Lethbridge! She was with us less than 48 hours and then returned to Timashevsk via the same routing she had for her arrival! Although short, Director von Matt ensured that her visit was packed with sights and adventure here in Lethbridge, and ended in a very pleasant dinner reception!

Aside of all the excitement and positive news, we did have some sad news come to us with the passing of Mr. John Ratzke. John a dear friend and strong supported of Society. We were all deeply saddened by the news we received at the end of the year.

Our Chrismas/New Years gala was well attended. Special thanks goes to Maisie who again paved the way for us to use the Park Bridge Community Hall.

The Board of Executives had to deal with the issue of disbanding the Kaze No Rhythm. We were advised of the establishment of the new Lethbridge Community Taiko Association. We felt that the initial goal of our Society, being to introduce Japanese Taiko Drumming to the Community had been reached and it was now time pass the torch. The newly established group are all members of our Society and we certainly wish them well. The Board agreed to donate some of the taiko assets to the new group and the remainder is to be donated to the University of Lethbridge, Music Department.

We lost our Public Relations Director this year due to his work schedule that took him out of Lethbridge , and even out of Canada for most of the year. Mike will be moving to Salt Lake City, soon and we want to thank him for his support and we do wish him well as he moves to the USA.

Finally, we are excited about this years trip to Culver City! We have a delegation of 25 all primed and ready to shine as Ambassadors for our Community! Mayor Bob has advised that he will be joining us in Culver City!

We foresee the year ahead as a FRESH START in a number of ways. We see continued opportunity for the Society and as your seasoned President, (one of only 4 the Society has ever had since 1989) I am asking that someone come on board to lead this fantastic organization. The new President will have my full support and I will encourage him/her in every way I know how.

I thank you all for your membership in the Society, because of you we have achieved so much in the past few years, and because of you we will continue to be a positive and respected organization in our wonderful community.

Thank you!
Harold Pereverseff
President

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." [Margaret Mead (1901-1978)]