It has been part of Chinese culture for a long time. Every year during the lunar new year, families gather around the television and watch different performances and acts. This year, the Great Roslyn Association for Chinese Enrichment organization (GRACE) hosted Roslyn’s version of Lunar New Year celebration.
On Saturday 1/28/23 from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm, the AYLUS Roslyn Branch members along with Asian Cultural Exchange club members helped out with the event. Events like this is very enjoyable but people often neglect how much work needs to be done in the background for it to run smoothly. As volunteers, we experienced that and now are very appreciative of the things we normally take for granted. The volunteers divided into different groups: food servers, registration, stage crew, ushers, etc.
As food servers, we helped prepare the dining hall for the guests, lining up the snack table with mushroom chips and water bottles. We also open cans of blue gel that when lit with a match, it procured a blue fire that warmed up the food in tinfoil plates. After we finished setting things up, we had to find the right utensils for each of the different dishes and wait for the guests to arrive.
Once they did, we distributed the different food to the guests. We lined up at a long table and each person was in charge of two trays. There was another long table across the dining hall that was manned by ACE members. We ran into a problem where we gave too much to each person at first and there was too much guests, resulting in us running out. Both us and the ACE members ran out about an hour into the dining portion of the event and pizza was ordered to placate the guests who arrived late. We got creative and used a pizza cutter to divide the large slices into two so there was more food for more people.
Members who participated includes:
Yang Amy Wu (5 hours), Serena Wu (5 hours), Ethan Lin (5 hours), and Ryan Lin (5 hours).
Reporter: Yang Amy Wu
