September 8, 2005

Mark your calendars:

Every year since 2001, a group of Chinese-American parents hold an annual fund-raising event for Leland High School around the Chinese New Year. Most parent organizers are immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and, in recent years, Mainland China. This year the event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 3.

It all started at the end of the year 2000 after a small group of Chinese parents solicited donations among their fellow parents for the media center at Leland High School. This unprecedented fund-raising endeavor uncovered a couple of things about their fellow immigrants in Almaden. First, they can contribute to the local schools substantially if there is a channel reaching out to them; about $30,000 was collected within a month. Secondly, because of the cultural and language barriers, these Chinese parents were not well informed about school events. To fill this information gap and invite more community contributions to the school, the Leland Bridge Parents group was founded in 2001. The group’s activities include supporting school activities with volunteers, actively participating with other parent organizations such as Parent’s Club and Leland Foundation, publishing a biannual Chinese newsletter about the school, and holding a Leland Bridge Night fund-raiser each year. While all these activities involve the Leland high school community, Bridge Night has also been reaching out to the parents of
Leland alumni and the general Chinese population in Almaden.

About $10,000 raised last year was donated to Leland for stage renovations, motion detector lights, and school programs such as the Speech and Debate team and the Robotics club. This year, Leland Bridge Night will be held on Saturday, Feb 3 from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Leland High School cafeteria. For a $25 ticket you can enjoy a dinner and shows performed by Leland Chinese students and parents and there will be many raffle prizes. The grand prizes are a Nintendo Wii (yes, that’s right, a Wii!), an iPod Video, and an iPod Nano. You can purchase tickets at the door or contact Chun-min Su at 997-8986. For further information about Leland Bridge, visit the site at www.lelandbridge.org.