Not Just for Kids!

It's not just the kids that had fun today. Seniors at the North Bellevue Community Center also celebrated Halloween by dressing up, making crafts, and generally having a great time! Check out these photos!

Trick or Treat!

This morning our pre-K kids got all dressed up and went trick-or-treating through our offices.

What luck! All the staff had prepared lots of treats and goodies for the kids.


Funny thing is, most of them didn't care to get candy. They'd rather get stickers instead! One girl even told her teacher that she thought chocolate tasted bad! Imagine!

Raising a Dragon

Saturday, CISC held a conference on parenting challenges commonly faced by Chinese families at Tyee Middle School in Bellevue. Over 65 families participated and learned about common themes, issues and how to address them.

These workshops were hosted by the Seattle Chinese School 西雅圖華文學校 and sponsored by FACES East, SOAR, and United Way .

Beehive Worldwide

As we continue our work with One Economy to bring information and resources from TheBeehive.org website to our Chinese speaking community, we realize that we are just part of a world wide effort across many countries and in many languages.

One Economy recently announced the launching of their site in Istanbul in Turkish! So if any of you are interested in checking it out, just click on this link!

Pretty cool, huh? And don't forget to check out the stories on new Americans, Yanna Fang and Auntie Jie!

Are You Prepared?

Yesterday, Sunshine Garden and the Family Caregiver Program teamed up to present information on disaster preparedness, especially for those caring for loved ones in their home.

Increasing awareness of what we all can do in times of disaster is critical in our community. Ironically, attendance was less than expected due to the high wind warnings yesterday afternoon. Better safe than sorry!

For more information on anthrax, earthquakes, droughts, small pox, snow storms, ice storms, civil disorder, and more, click here to go to

Happy, Healthy and Active

Sunshine Garden seniors have a new activity to keep them busy! A new ping pong table, donated by Fred Yee in memory of the 7th anniversary of his wife Amy's passing.





Fred is an avid ping pong player and wanted to share his passion with the seniors at CISC. Not only do these octogenarians exercise their minds every day through workshops, seminars and classes, they keep their bodies active and healthy with exercise, dance, and now ping pong!

What a difference it makes in our seniors' lives! If you have time, come on down and play a set. You just might be surprised at how good they are!

API Health Fair

Last month, in conjunction with International Community Health Services and the WA State API Hepatitis B Task Force, CISC hosted the annual API Health Fair at the International Family Center-Seattle.


Many exhibitors participated, offering workshops on hepatitis, breast health, childrens' dental health, and Chinese medicine. Also offered were blood pressure checks, dental screenings, and mammograms too.


Raffle prizes, free massages and tai chi lent a fun and festive atmosphere!

Some more pics

Just thought we'd share some more photos from the CISANI conference. These were mostly taken by CISC resident photographer/office manager/HR specialist Nelson Tang. He is also available for weddings, birthdays and bar mitzvahs...

CISANI

Last week, CISC hosted the 28th annual conference of the Chinese Immigrant Service Agency Network-International. Delegates from across the US, Canada and Hong Kong. We spent 3 days sharing information, resources and learning from each other and local experts.

We also visited local partners, including International Community Health Services, Asian Counseling and Referral Service, Seattle Public Library (and got to see the cool automated book return system), Kin On Nursing Home, Crossroads Mall, and Microsoft, where we learned about community giving and using technology to further our missions.

If you think that sounds like a lot - it was! But all the participants felt that is was a rich and rewarding 3 days in Seattle. And we even got a bit of sunshine!

For more pictures, click this link to see the photo journal of the entire 3 day event!

Nankai Middle School

Tuesday, a group of students from Nankai Middle School in Chongqing came to visit CISC as part of their exchange program with Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle.

They learned about the local Chinese community, immigration to the Seattle area, and services provided to immigrant families.They also had a chance to visit with the seniors at Sunshine Garden and were delighted to find that one of the members is originally from Chongqing, though she hasn't been back in 50+ years!

What a great time they all had chatting in local Chongqing dialect while the rest of us tried to make sense of what they were saying!