From the Jasmine Board.
2016 was very meaningful to Jasmine. Jasmine had two great accomplishments.
First, Jasmine received a-45-minute performance opportunity in the Auditorium of Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on its China Day, and Jasmine has done a great job with the show. Second, Jasmine successfully reorganized after ZJS Cultures Connection returned the management of dance classes to Jasmine.
Jasmine Giving Heart Youth Program was another bright point too. Under the leadership of Youth Director Amanda Cheng, the Jasmine Giving Heart Program continued to strive to uphold the mission of the Jasmine Chinese Dance Group: to share Chinese culture through dance performances and to build friendships through community service. Besides continually performing at local senior homes, youth members performed to the children at Operation Breakthrough in December, a great holiday gift to those children during the holiday season. Located in downtown Kansas City, Operation Breakthrough is a non-profit organization, whose mission is to help children who are living in poverty develop to their fullest potential by providing them a safe, loving and educational environment. On the other hand, the bamboo dance, a Chinese folk dance combined with dance, exercise, creativity and teamwork spirit, was introduced within the Jasmine youth members and will be shared with others on Jan. 29th at the China Day of Nelson-Atkins Art Museum. We are really looking forward to it.
Each year, Jasmine selects top 6 youth members out as Jasmine Star based on their community service hours done with Jasmine. We proudly to announce that 6 Jasmine Youth Stars in 2016 are Amanda Cheng (30 hrs), Audrey Che (21 hrs), Elaine Zhu (19 hrs), Daphne Valenta (18 hrs), Rylie Zhang (14 hrs), and April Ma (14 hrs). Congratulations to those girls and their supportive parents!
We would like to thank you, both members and parents, in helping Jasmine impact our community in such a positive way. Jasmine has grown so much since it was established in 2008, and please know that none of that growth would be possible without all of your support. Each of you is an important and irreplaceable part of our team. Jasmine is lucky to have each of you.
Looking forward to your continuous support in 2017! We together will achieve more!