Getting Ready for Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2006 – the morning of…

This is going to be the most exciting Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner yet.
We have people travelling from Seattle, Vernon, Victoria, and Kelowna, specifically to attend.  We have people who are in town from Toronto, Edmonton, and Scotland and specifically want to be at our dinner.

For the first time – we are going to integrate video with the dinner's events…
From the CBC Gung Haggis Fat Choy tv performance special, and the Jeff Chiba Stearns animated film What Are You Anyways?

The program is jam-packed… 

I am so excited the performers Rick Scott and Harry Wong are here….
Their East meets West children's cd 5 Elements is incredible.
Wait until you hear The Shirleys sing acapella.  And LaLa has a song about fortune cookies…
Joe McDonald and Brave Waves are going to put some multicultural takes on traditional singalong songs.   And then… Sean Gunn has a surprise for Gim Wong – the octogenarian WW2 vet motorcycle rider who rode from Victoria to Ottawa this summer.

We have TWO mayors who are ready to read some poetry.

It's the eve of a major federal election… What could be more of a photo op, than pictures with a haggis?  The Chinese head tax has been the sleeper issue of the election.  We have invited some candidates from the local parties to come read some Burns poetry.  What would Robbie Burns have to say about Head Tax and politicians?  Hmmm… be thankit hums…

And somewhere amongst all the excitement is the simple fact that we are raising funds for Kogawa House, Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop/Ricepaper magazine and the Gung Haggis dragon boat team.