I
pleased to report on the past year of the activities of the Frankston Susono
Friendship Association. A small group of us continue to look after the sister
city relationship on behalf of the Frankston Council. Thank you to all the
Executive members and others who have joined us during the year. Chris Hodgins
continues her sterling effort with admin support to the Association.
In
November a handful of us ran a sausage sizzle at the Frankston Festival of
lights. It was a great fundraising effort for the Association and thanks to
those who helped out on the night.
Simon
Hast was the champion of our Japanese Garden at the Frankston High School. He
organised several working bees during the year to get the plants under control
particularly the bamboo. New plantings were made to freshen up the garden and
cleaning of the stones was amongst other tasks undertaken during the year. The garden
is starting to make a comeback after being a little unloved for a period of
time.
The
Frankston Council are gradually replacing the city entrance signs and I am
pleased to report that the Susono City Logo is proudly part of the next signage
in recognition of the long standing sister city relationship.
On
5 May we held a Japanese Festival at the Derinya Primary School. A great
turnout of people and lots of new friends were made. Thanks to all those who
helped organise the event and worked all day to present the best of Japanese
culture. We were supported some terrific people who came along and displayed
and demonstrated other aspects of Japan. These include Model Railways, Martial
Arts, Music and Calligraphy. Given the success of this event we are planning to
hold a regular Festival to connect with the local community and encourage
interest in the Japanese Culture and Language.
Our
other promotional avenue for the Japanese Language is our annual Speech Contest
at Monash University. The event continues to develop and evolve and is well
supported by local schools. We have this year’s contest on this Friday.
This
year we again were visited by a small group of students and 2 teachers from our
sister city of Susono. Thanks to Derinya Primary school and Therese Sakamoto
for looking after the group during their visit.
I
would like to thank the Frankston Council for their ongoing support of our work
and allocation of funding for our activities each year.
I
thank you all for your attendance tonight and thank you again to all the
Executive members and supporters of our sister city relationship.
