NEWS RELEASE                 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  February 23, 2006

CHILDREN CALL FOR CITIZEN ACTION IN SAVING AUTHOR’S THREATENED HOME

RICHMOND – Grades 3 and 4 children of Richmond’s Tomsett Elementary School will join principal Sabina Harpe and their teacher Joan Young in asking Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and members of the public for help to save author Joy Kogawa’s childhood home. The children will present drawings of the Kogawa house and letters of support to the Mayor during a visit at Vancouver City Hall on to be announced.

Prior to their trip to city hall, the children visited Kogawa’s childhood home at 1450 West 64th Avenue and toured it with the author. For months the students have studied Kogawa’s children’s novel Naomi’s Road and they understand the story of forgiveness in the face of prejudice that Kogawa tells in her work. During the tour, the children stood under the cherry tree or “friendship” tree that Kogawa spoke of in Naomi’s Road. At city hall they will also visit the “baby” cherry tree planted there on November 1, 2005.

“I am deeply moved that these young children, responding to a book and the opera Naomi’s Road, have gathered donations to save the house and the cherry tree in the backyard. I wish to thank them and so many others for their action,” says Kogawa. “These children are the future and it is important for them to understand our past to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

The children at Tomsett Elementary School represent many different ethnic groups yet they all understand the forgiveness themes of Naomi’s Road. “One of the greatest joys to date has been to hear that—after they have read Naomi’s Road and seen the opera—some Chinese Canadian children told some Japanese Canadian children, ‘I don’t hate you anymore’, ” says Kogawa. These are the lessons of healing that Kogawa hopes the house will continue to teach as other school children tour the house once it is saved.

Bill Turner, Executive Director of TLC The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, the non-profit land trust spearheading the fundraising drive, will be on hand at Vancouver City Hall to join the children in their appeal and to thank them for their action.

Donations can be made to TLC through their website at www.conservancy.bc.ca or by calling (604) 733-2313. Donation forms can also be picked up at select bookstores throughout Vancouver.

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Contacts: Tomsett Elementary School: Sabina Harpe (604) 668-6448; TLC The Land Conservancy: Bill Turner (250) 213-1090; Heather Skydt (604) 733-2313; Kogawa House Committee: Ann-Marie Metten (604) 263-6586