I just got back from the 2002
jean lumb awards dinner, hosted at the bright pearl seafood restaurant (a block north of dundas/spadina in chinatown).
short bio on Jean Lumb :
was a prominent community leader in the chinese canadian community, who grew up amongst, and fought against, many unjust/ racist laws against minorities like chinese, and this lifetime of community work, civic activism got her many awards such as the Order of Canada in 1976 and gave us many of the rights and privilidges in the canada we generally take for granted today . She was also an entrepreneur, starting a fruit store, florist and then at age 18 started the KwongChow restaurant. (
read more in her bio) She passed away recently this year =(.
The jean lumb awards, in her honour, is a sort of recognition of excellence for canadian high school students of chinese descent, and I was awarded back in the first jean lumb awards in 1998 for the Arts category (see me with longer hair and
thumbs up) , was invited back in 1999 and again this year to attend the awards dinner for this year's winners. And the list of accomplishments of these high school achievers.. just get more and more.. amazing each year. I wont go too much into the winner's achievements because.. it might frighten off you potential future jean lumb applicants, but lets just say more and more I see the winners are not only great academically, but are very very well rounded. Some of this year's winners could almost interchange awards categories, for example the girl who won the Arts category was also a female athlete of the year for 3 years among her achievements so she might have also been able to go for the Athletics category. Very amazing people.
This was a somewhat formal dinner, everyone dressed up in business suits, $50/ticket payable to the multicultural historical society of ontario, if you werent given a complimentary ticket, $5/raffle ticket, pyrotechnics-with-your-food, around12 but felt like 50 very delicious dishes were served, a long lineup of community supporters from the Chinese Freemason Society to the YMCA, representatives from government, community and businesses- aside from meeting/exchanging contact info with the winners, winners from previous jean lumb awards (where'd the other people go??) , what I also greatly enjoyed this evening was that I got a chance to see Ed Mirvish speak.
From my limited knowledge, Ed Mirvish, who is in his 80's now, is a local toronto enterpreneur, started and owns successful retail stores, a theatre, many of these are considered a part of the heritage of toronto. I pass by his historic 3 storey retail store when I buy my art history textbooks near bloor/bathurst, and buy from his or his son's Mirvish Books on Art store, and who knows maybe I have eaten at one of his restaurants or pubs. What he did in his lifetime, is kinda similar to what I aspire to do in my lifetime.. creating multiple businesses in multiple industries and contributing to the vitality of the local community and the overall city or place of business. Despite being in his 80's he spoke very clearly in his speech, recalling his association with Jean Lumb. There was no raspy old voice, it was very clear, full of energy. A very good speaker, and I think he received the longest applause.
The evening was concluded shortly after raffle prizes were distributed and the last few dishes of lobster, fish were finished.. and after we students finished doing our inter-networking and photo ops =) . I'll post some generic group shots later.
