Become a Member of The Naperville Cultural Center and get your tickets for half price or free! (offer available only through the Naperville Cultural Center) You can join at The China Kids Club Event, Sunday March 26th from 1-3pm at The Naperville Cultural Center (directions)!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Xilin Asian Community Center in partnership with Samahang Kapatid, The Naperville Cultural Center, Northern Illinois Chinese Association, The Samskriti Foundation, and Cheng Da Percussion Ensemble will be hosting the 2006 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration for Naperville and the surrounding communities on May 6th at 7pm at Naperville North High School's Main Stage. Tickets for this event can be purchased online at The Naperville Cultural Center's online store or with any partnering institution. Seating capacity for NCHS Auditorium is 800+.

Last year's attendance for the 90 minute multicultural event held the attention of over 600 audience members. Performance groups included the Filipino Association of Elgin, Indonesian Dance Troupe, Korean Cultural Ensemble, Northern Illinois Chinese Association, Rentak Asia Cultural Dance, Samskriti Foundation, Thai Cultural and Fine Arts Institute
Vietnamese Association, and YWCA of Elgin Southeast Asian Youth Program.

Sponsorship packages are available as follows and can be purchased online:
Honorable Sponsor - $1000+
Golden Sponsor - $600-$999
Banner - $600

Ad space in the Program is available as follows and can be purchased online:
Back cover - $400
Full page inside - $200
Half page - $125
Quarter page - $75

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To raise money for the Study Skills Academy, the Naperville Educatin Foundation held a comedy night fund raiser called Yuks For Youth featuring the Chicago Comedy Company. Chris Brown of the Tennessee Titans...

...donated a signed jersey which his family framed in a beautiful case for an impromptu auction that raised $1500 on the spot.

The Study Skills Academy is an after school program that is designed to help children find strategies to make learning easy, to improve knowledge and understanding, and to provide multiple ways for a child to approach school based on their own learning style. It's the extra personal time they need. I haven't seen it in action, but I certainly will be keeping an eye out for it. At first glance this seems like exactly the kind of program our kids need that addresses the issue of the multiple intelligences and learning styles. Hopefully it will help carry the focus away from the tests and standards, and bring the focus back to the individual child. WIth the physical, social, and emotional health issues that surround our families today and the pressure to let medical or psychiatric advice through the sale of pharmaceuticals for ADD, ADHD rather than address the issues we give up our children's right and ability to try to learn self control and understand how they work on their own. There must be a more natural way...

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The Naperville Cultural Center, NFP
Slogan: “Center Yourself”
Mission: “Peace through Understanding”

The Naperville Cultural Center concept is all about people. It is about who we are as Americans or visitors of America today. We are a mixed bag, a handmade quilt, a collage of sorts with great potential for identity crisis as well as enormous creativity. It’s interesting. It’s a unique headspace to be in and explore....

...From this the cultural center develops programs and classes that do just that: explore, discover, create, and identify. Our classes and exhibits focus on self understanding as well as understanding the world around us. We offer classes in foreign language, art, yoga, chess, music, and dance. We offer “Club Days” too which are days when we have in house celebrations and immerse ourselves in another culture for a few hours. It is a fact that as we begin to understand who we are, we are able to be more generous and more gracious with others. And when we are able to be in a enriching or beautiful environment and learn that some part of that is from a foreign country, we either find we can identify with that because perhaps a grandparent was from that part of the world, or we make a positive association with it. It creates a peaceful environment.

In today’s world, which is becoming smaller and smaller, it is so important to develop a more diverse set of social skills that will better enable effective interpersonal communications. Many Americans travel. We travel with our families, and we travel for business. Chances are that our next generation will be much savvier than we because they traveled or learned a foreign language when they were young. They will have a richer understanding of their world. As we as adults also deepen our understanding of the world, our business skills improve as well. It all has to do with developing that innate ability to communicate well and build relationships.

I have been an on again off again resident of Naperville for about 25 years. This city is a model city and I have enjoyed very much seeing what it has grown into. Naperville is full to the brim with caring, creative, dedicated, and driven individuals and families. How could I not want to open my business in such a wonderful place.

-by Michelle LeBlanc, President and Founder
Written for The Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce/Downtown Naperville Alliance April News

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Baba Marta will be celebrated here at the Naperville Cultural Center, 55 South Main Street on the second floor of the Main Street Promenade. Proceeds benefit the Razgrad Orphange in Bulgaria where Dr. Anelya...

...spent many years caring for the children where there is a constant shortage of medical supplies. Coming to America, where her son Piotr lives, was a new hope for she and her husband to start a business, and create a stable lifestyle for themselves. It is their mission to spread awareness about the hardships that occurs in other areas around the world.

Renee Meschi, Piotr's fiance', says that people in Bulgaria are at a loss because of the changing politaical climate. Under Communism the people were forced to work.... police would come to the houses to get people out and to work. Now under the new system the people stay home and a general apathy and unawareness has developed. People are not going to work. The results are devastating.

Hope. Faith. Dream and Work.

The Baba Marta Festival will be March 4th from 3-7pm. It will be hosted by Renee Meschi at The Naperville Cultural Center. It will exemplify all the beauty of a rich culture in this Welcoming of the Spring!

Refreshments will be served, Dancing, Crafts and other activities including a video of the orphanage itself where the proceeds will benefit!

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