It has been an honor and a great pleasure to serve a president of the NY Chapter for 2003-2004. We were blessed with a dedicated Board in pursuit of PPSEAWA’s goals.
Our speakers have included the Ambassadors of Taiwan, Brunei, and Sri Lanka; a representative from Scalamandre Silk, a famous company in the international picture for over 100 years; UNIFEM; Deborah Goldbery, advisor to the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Modern and International Art. Our annual International Dinner was held at the Japanese American Association and the Christmas luncheon at the prestigious Academy of Science.
Guests at our meetings have come from Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Japan, Laos, Tonga, Singapore and Fiji. We continue to maintain contact with and arrange for speakers with Missions of Southeast Asia. Our membership now totals 125. We are actively pursuing new members with an emphasis on younger members. We continue our donations to the Fiji Street Child Empowerment through Art and Doctors without Borders, two worthwhile charities.
We lost valued members Li Ling-Ai, whose mother helped start PPSEAWA in Hawaii, Grace Ijima, who faithfully served on the NY Board and as representative to the UN for many years and Rhoda Klein and Marjorie Asche.