Our annual Chinese New Year Banquet will be held on Saturday, February 4,2012 at Diamond Banquet Hall in Markham. To download a registration form, click here.

WHEN:Saturday, February 4, 2012 (seating starting at 5:00 p.m.; dinner  commences around 6 p.m.)

WHERE: Diamond Banquet Hall, 3225 Hightwy #7 East,  Unit 1A, Markham (same location as last year)
 
The registrar for this event is, Karen  Hamilton at david-karen@sympatico.ca, in case you have any questions.
 
Seating is LIMITED and is by ADVANCE REGISTRATION ONLY by MONDAY JANUARY 30, 2012.

Your admission includes:
- a Chinese  buffet dinner
- entertainment by the Chinese Canadian Folk Dance  Group
- special entertaiment by some of our young FCC Toronto members
- of course, the lion dancers
AND
- raffle and door prizes along with the opportunity to purchase FCC merchandise, including the 2012 Calendar and our brand new 2012 T-shirt!

WE HOPE you will be able to join us to welcome in the Year of the Dragon!

Please note that there are special rates for FCC Toronto members so if you your membership expired in 2011, you can send in a membership renewal form at the same time to take advantage of member rates.  If you need to renew your membership, there will be a membership renewal form in  the next newsletter mailing (which will come in a week or so), or you can  contact Cindy Boates at cboates@yahoo.com and check when your membership is expiring.  We really appreciate your continued support by keeping your membership up to date.
 
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS about the event,  please email Karen Hamilton at david-karen@sympatico.ca
 
Look forward  to seeing you there!

FCC Toronto Board

Every year  FCC Toronto is proud to offer members a new t-shirt design commemorating
our  families and China (and often, Chinese New Year in particular).  The  t-shirts have always been designed by one of our Board members.This year we would like to turn the design of the next t-shirt over to  the members. 

Beginning January 23, 2012, we will be celebrating the Year of the Dragon. 
 
We’d like to invite you to submit a t-shirt design that we will use on our 2012 t-shirt.

If you would like to participate in our  contest, please take the following design parameters into consideration: 
  
Design:
·  be creative and use your  imagination; but the design must include a Chinese dragon; the dragon
design  should be dramatic, iconic and auspicious, rich in visual potential 
 ·include an explanation  for your design, if you require.
·simpler is often better  and generally cheaper
·avoid tiny details; they print poorly on t-shirts, if at all
  
Colours:
·two colours works well – the colour of the  ink and the colour of the tshirt; should not exceed three colours including the  t-shirt colour
·use the t-shiirt itself as the background to the design; solid colour backgrounds that form part of the design are usually too thick when printed and do not wear well

Location of  Design:
 ·front, centre of  t-shirt 
 
Size:
·dependant on  design 
 
Affordability:
·more colours means more  inks, more printing steps and therefore, greater expense 
 
For inspiration, there are many great  resources and references available. A quick overview of Chinese dragons is  available on the internet at "Chinese New Year 2012 - Year of the Dragon" at  guy-sports.com. There are also
many good books explaining the creation of the  Chinese zodiac. One such example is "The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese  Zodiac" by Dawn Casey. 
 
Submit your design by Friday, November 11,  2011 to Johan Vink at  jtmvink@yahoo.com. 
  
 If you have any questions about the  process, contact Johan. 
 
Submissions will be reviewed and selected by the Board members. Please note that we necessarily reserve the  right to make slight modifications to the design to accommodate printing  requirements. We also reserve the right to not use any of the  submissions, if we, or the printer, feel that none of the designs will be  suitable or cost-effective. 
 
Prizes? Yes, there will be  something, but we haven’t decided on those yet. For sure, a couple  of free
t-shirts! 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Have you ever wanted to learn how to play mahjong?

The Chinese Cultural Center of Greater Toronto has organized mahjong lessons for FCC families and would like to welcome adults and children to sign up starting Saturday, October 15. Lessons will be held every Saturday from 1:30 - 3:30 pm for ten weeks. The cost per person is $60 and registered children have the option to join the CCCGT Chinese school (which is held at the exact same time) or play mahjong with parents.
 
This has been organized for FCC families but you do not have to be an FCC member to attend.

The Chinese Cultural Center is located at 5183 Sheppard Avenue East, at the southeast corner of Sheppard and Progress Avenue, one block east of Markham road. Parking is free.
To register or to find out more details about the mahjong  classes or the Chinese school, please contact Joshua at 416-292-9293, extension  232 or by email at Joshua.Lio@cccgt.org. 
 
FCC Toronto Board

Last call for the FCC Toronto Autumn Moon banquet. Plus we wanted to advise everyone that Emerald Chinese Restaurant allows you to bring along your own bottle of wine and they do not charge a corkage fee.
 
If you are interested in attending but haven't signed up yet, it's not too late. The dinner is on Sunday, September 18, 2011 at Emerald Chinese Restaurant in Mississauga. A registration form can be downloaded from:

 Autumn Moon Banquet Registration
  
If you are planning on attending but have not registered yet, please email Karen Hamilton to let her know by Monday if you are sending in a registration.
 
FCC Toronto Board

The Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto has invited all FCC families to their Autumn Moon festival party on Sunday, September 11 from 1 to 3 p.m.  Come and join in the festivities and taste some moon cake!
 
The Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto is located at 5183 Sheppard Avenue East, one block east of Markham Road.   www.cccgt.org

FCC Toronto Board

There is still room in some of the Playshops for the Jane Brown Playshops weekend (September 30 to October 2, 2011).

The Playshop A for children ages 5-6 is full but there are still a few spots in the Playshops B for children ages 7 to 10.  Playshop B1 on Saturday morning and B3 on Sunday afternoon have the best availability.  There are also a very small number of spots open for the Adoptshop for ages 11 and up on Friday night. 

Plus, there is still room in the parent session on Saturday night.

Visit our Jane Brown Toronto site for more details about the Playshops and a registration form.

FCC Toronto's 2011 Autumn Moon banquet is on Sunday, September 18, 2011 at
Emerald Chinese Restaurant in Mississauga.

For more details and to download a registration form, click here.

A reminder that if you haven't sent in your photos for the 2012 FCC Toronto Year of the Dragon calendar, there is still time.  We have lots of great photos but WE STILL NEED MORE!  So if you haven't had a chance to submit a photo yet and thought it was too late, it's not.  We'll use ALL photos submitted up to September 15, 2011.  
 
You can find a photo submission form here.

If you haven't submitted a photo, please consider sending one in.  We would like to be able to keep producing this beautiful calendar every year but we need  enough photos of our amazing children to make it cost effective.

If you are planning on submitting a photo (either by e-mail or mailed in), please let us know (send us quick email to cboates@yahoo.com) and we'll watch for the photo and the submission form. 

FCC Toronto Board

FCC Toronto's 2011 Autumn Moon banquet is on Sunday, September 18, 2011 at Emerald Chinese Restaurant in Mississauga.

For more details and to download a registration form, click here.
 

Jane Brown is returning for her 8th visit to Toronto for her adoption playshops.  She’ll be here the weekend of September 30 to October 2, 2011.  Registration opens June 30, 2011.  If you anticipate that you will want to attend, please make sure that we have your correct email address, as we will not be snail mailing the registration form.  

Visit our Jane Brown Toronto site for more details about the Playshops and a registration form.