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Jen-Ai Hospital Bilingual Volunteers Help Out With Compass Event 2008
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2008/05/24
BY MARK K. CHAN
TAICHUNG, JEN-AI HOSPITAL - DALI
¡@¡@This is the 5th consecutive year that Jen-Ai Hospital Bilingual Volunteers have helped out with Compass Magazine's "Taichung International Food & Music Festival". This year, instead of the usual venue of Sogo Department Store's outdoor plaza like the previous 4 years, the 5th Annual Event took place at the Art Museum Parkway on Saturday, May 24, 2008 to much fervor and anticipation from Taichung's growing international community.
¡@¡@A week before the event, Mark Chan, the Program Director of Jen-Ai Hospital International Patient Center, was contacted by Douglas Habecker, the Co-Publisher of Compass Magazine, about the possibility of finding several volunteers to help out with the much larger venue, as the Festival has literally doubled in size with 52 vendor booths, this year. Having quite a reputation in Taichung for being able to provide bilingual volunteers at a moment's notice, 17 volunteers were recruited to help out with the event on Saturday, with the help of Ms. Crystal Huang, Jen-Ai Hospital Bilingual Volunteer Leader, and Ms. Hana Lin, Assistant from Jen-Ai Hospital's Project Department.
¡@¡@On the day of the event, the bilingual volunteers, working in 2~3 hour shifts, came in promptly at 9:30 am and started setting up the booths and the stage, as the Food & Music Festival got off to a slow start at around 10:30 am. The 52 vendor booths showcased broad diversity of international cuisine, which included Taichung's restaurants, hotels, pubs and cafe selling American, French, German, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Mexican, Argentinean, Cantonese and Taiwanese food / drinks; and for the first time, the Festival included booths featuring local businesses, such as galleries, charity booths, a veterinary hospital booth, etc.
¡@¡@At around 3 pm, Taichung City Mayor, Jason Hu, joined the festivities and addressed the growing crowd. This marks the 5th time that Mayor Jason Hu has participated in this event and remarked that Compass Magazine's "Taichung International Food & Music Festival" has become bigger and better, each year, just like Taichung City's development. And as the sun set and the temperature outside got cooler, the crowd started to flow into the streets. Another highlight of the event was the live music entertainment that was played non-stop by 11 of Taichung's top foreigner bands, from the beginning of the event until the close of the Festival at around 9:00 pm.
¡@¡@The 5th Annual Event proved to be a huge success for all of the participants involved and simply whet the appetite for next year's "International Food & Music Festival", which promises to be the biggest one yet. Jen-Ai Hospital International Patient Center hopes that Compass Magazine will once again ask for help with recruiting bilingual volunteers for next year's event, which will mark Compass Magazine's 15th Anniversary of providing most current news about dining & entertainment scene in Taichung.
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Photos courtesy of: Compass Magazine |
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