ROARING GOOD TIME: A traditional Chinese lion performs a celebratory dance for good luck in Thornhill Sunday. The festival marked the launch of the First Canadian Chinese Seniors Association of Vaughan, as well as the Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of the Rat. Photo by Philip Alves/Vaughan Today

The crowd continued to swell past the party’s advertised 2 p.m. start time.

The delay was a good thing, too. Organizers needed those few extra minutes to add chairs for the impressive and ever-growing throng.

And none of the hundreds filling the gym at Dufferin Clark Community Centre seemed to mind, anyway. Everyone was in a celebratory sort of mood.

Organized by the First Canadian Chinese Seniors Association of Vaughan, the Sunday event both helped ring in the Chinese New Year and mark the launch of the new association.

Dignitaries from the realms of business and government congratulated association founder Dominic Lee on the creation of the group, the first for Chinese seniors in the city.

Helping usher in the Year of the Rat were councillors Sandra Yeung Racco, Alan Shefman, Peter Meffe, Mario Ferri and Gino Rosati, Mayor Linda Jackson, former Thornhill MPP Mario Racco, and Thornhill MP Susan Kadis, who presented Lee with a certificate commemorating the event.

“It was great,” Kadis said the following day from Parliament Hill in Ottawa. “It was highly inspiring.

“What they’re basically trying to do with this is to help other seniors. It was a great privilege for me to support this new, exciting initiative.”

Lion dancers and drummers entertained the roomful of revellers, who were given the chance to pose for photos with the two gold and red lions.

Partygoers also enjoyed kung fu, tai chi and tango demonstrations.

Vaughan Today
Online: March 6, 2008 [link]