Community Outreach

Over the past weekend, on May 11th and 12th, our group of PUYOers flexed their muscles and ran two booths at the Markham Expo at Markham Civic Center organized by Mayor’s Youth Task Force.  The group joins together our E3 Challenge alumni and Paint-a-thon organizers! Patrons enjoyed a fun game of Ping Pong Toss and painted to their hearts content on our PAT canvases! Check out photos on our Facebook!

Big thanks to: Doly, Jason, Heng-Kiu, Donna, Jutara, Sunny, Kester, Rosana, Ling, Kevin, Tian, Jenny, Alex, Yitong, Nick, Angela, Billy and everyone else who came to support! GO PUYO GO!

Our PAT team will also be at the Unionville Festival early June – keep an eye out for details later!

Sedan Chair Challenge!

We are TWO volunteers away to securing a booth to fundraise at the Sedan Chair Challenge 2012. Sign up here now! If you have any questions, please contact Tian Hu at tianhaohu@gmail.com. Let’s race!

PUYO Workshop Series: PRESS CYCLE

PUYO brings to you a special workshop to learn about press releases, print and online media promotion. Here’s some information about our guest speaker featured at our workshop! Anita Li is no stranger to Power Unit Youth Organization. She is a long-time community enthusiast and former organizer of E3 Challenge in its inaugural year. More recently, Anita wrote a special feature on Night It Up! during her time with The Globe and Mail in 2011. Anita is currently a staff reporter at The Toronto Star, and has extensive experience in broadcast, print and online media. We are honoured to have Anita guest speak at our Press Cycle Workshop on May 26, 2012. At this workshop, she will talk about news angles that appeal to journalists. Learn how to position your media pitches and how to avoid common errors when dealing with reporters.

Date: May 26th, 2012
Time: 2pm-4pm
Location: Markham Civic Center

Space is limited! RSVP today with Doly Begum at doly.begum@power-unit.org.

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Our Paint-a-thon outreach poster is ready! Be proud of the youngest project of PUYO. It’s our second year running and we’ve got big plans! Our goal is to have 26 canvases on site at Night It Up! With your help in spreading the word, we can reach this goal!! Let your friends know about this collaborative experience in art and join with your friends! Post the poster & tag your friends!

Varley Art Gallery of Markham: “Da Bao”

The Varley Art Gallery of Markham is one of our proud partners for Paint-a-thon this year! Please join the PAT chairpersons at Varley in celebrating the exhibition opening and catalogue launch on Thursday May 24th at 7pm.

The Varley is pleased to present (Da bao)(Takeout) curated by Shannon Anderson and Doug Lewis with assistance from Selena Yang. (Da bao)(Takeout) is an attempt to locate a cross-cultural and social dynamic between China and the West, specifically Canada, by focusing on artists who investigate, adapt and instill ideas from abroad into their practices, while appreciating the palpable slippages that occur in the transference of ideas from one ethnicity to another. The selected artists explore ironic, metaphoric, humorous and even cynical perspectives on the import and export of people, cultures and ideas.

For more info, visit their website here.

DESIFEST 2012

Remember K*WHY firing up our Christmas Wish event with their amazing rapping and singing? They are now onto their next big adventure as Triple Or Nothing. UEC, the soul of the group, has always been a supporter of PUYO. Support him back at DESIFEST 2012 on May 26, 4:30pm, at Yonge and Dundas Square. (Click here for more details!)

CRE8FEST2012

If you are interested in marketing and advertising, then CRE8FEST2012 is perfect for you! Hosted by the Chinese Canadian Advertising, Marketing & Media Association, you get to see the making and success behind brand names such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Johnnie Walker and General Motors in Hong Kong and China.

Come out and mingle with Canadian and Asian marketing professionals and be inspired by creative trends beyond the Canadian frontier!

When: Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Where: Royal Ontario Museum
Purchase your tickets here: cre8fest.eventbrite.ca.

For more information: (647) 868 -1168 or www.ccamma.com

PUYO Social Networks

PUYO regularly updates community news on our Facebook and Twitter! Like & follow us if you haven’t to stay tuned to the community events!

PUYO Retreat 2012!

It was a blast and a huge success!  With 42 energetic PUYOers (existing and new members), we spent the weekend at YMCA Camp Kitchikewana on Beausoleil Island bonding with one another through team building activities and games.  We hope you all had an amazing time, formed some new friendships and created memories that will last!  A BIG shout-out goes to Jennifer Chien, Steven Tong, Doly Begum, Cherry Cheng, Kester Ng, Ling Chung and the drivers for making this event happen, and of course, the members who came out to the retreat!  Remember: To believe, To Care, To Act. Y.E.P.!

Stay tuned to our Facebook for photo updates!  Share your favourite photo or moment from the retreat on our Facebook wall too!  We’re also on Twitter, so follow us!

Here’s what some of our PUYOers had to say about the Retreat:

@jsu_: HAD A BLAST AWAY FROM THE CITY FOR 2 DAYS @powerunityo TEAMBONDING<3

@cherrychengsk: THANK YOU @powerunityo for the biggest & best retreat ever! You guys r such a pleasant bunch! Stay tuned to newsletter!

@francastein: I’m normally not a fan of camping but this one was unreal and fun. Thanks @powerunityo for an amazing retreat! #PUYORetreat

@shurleysunshine: Wow major bonding with so many AMAZING PEOPLE this weekend! I hope everyday is like this and sun burnt with no regrets!@powerunityo

@lingchung: Amazing to see so many +ve tweets after our @powerunityo retreat! Thanks to our retreat team! #PUYORetreat

@jennyyjiang: Home, napped and recovered from @powerunityo retreat. Such a refreshing weekend away from the city to remind me what really matters.

@dolybegum: Missing my fellow puyoers :(… and trying to get as much@powerunityo feel as I can after the awesome weekend..so back on Twitter :)

Markham Expo!

On Friday, May 11th and Sat, May 12th, PUYO will be having two booths at Mayor’s Youth Task Force’s Markham Expo. The first booth would be a games booth created by our PUYOers and past E3ers and our second booth would be to promote our Paint-a-thon project! If you have any prizes and toys for our games booth, please email Jason Sekiguchi at j_seki@live.com! Come check us out next Fri (6-10pm) and Sat (12-10pm) at Markham Civic Center!

Sedan Chair

Last year, a team of PUYOers participated in the sedan chair challenge, where we collectively ran a 1.5km race carrying a fellow PUYOer on a sedan chair! This year, we are doing it again! PUYO is been invited to assist with running the race and volunteer at the event! If we have 20 volunteers going, we can have our own booth to fundraise!! This is an event organized by Councillor Alex Chiu and TCCSA happening on May 19th-21st weekend at Markham Civic Center!

Sign up here now!  If you have any questions, please contact Tian Hu at tianhaohu@gmail.com. Ready, Set … Let’s race!

HOT OFF THE PRESS!

May and June are very exciting months as our execution of our projects slowly unfold.  E3 Challenge has begun recruiting; NIU! stage auditions is soon to happen; and NIU! is calling for volunteers! Be proud of your projects! Put these posters up on your facebook, tag your friends and spread the word, because our projects are going to be the best yet! Coming soon: Paint-a-thon poster!

If you are a past E3 participant, the current E3 project wants YOU! Send in your favourite E3 moments, memories, challenges by writing a short testimonial of your experience with E3.  Submit these to Christina Spinelli at christina.spinelli@power-unit.org.    If you are available in the months of July and August to be a peer advisor for our E3ers this year, please let Christina know!

If you are a photographer or a videographer or if you know of someone who are, the current E3 project wants YOU! Please send an email to Cherry atcherry.cheng@power-unit.org if you are interested in capturing all our special E3 moments.

Did you know that Power Unit Youth Organization utilizes our Night It Up! and Paint-a-Thon projects to help fund-raise for a different beneficiary every year?  This year we are working with Make-A-Wish Foundation to help Justin, a 9-year-old boy, make his wish of going to Disneyland come true.  Make-A-Wish’s mission is to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.

On Thursday, April 26, the anniversary of the first wish ever granted, Make-A-Wish Canada celebrate World Wish Day at Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto.  PUYO Members and Executives were invited to enjoy this lovely evening with Make-A-Wish wish recipients, families, volunteers and key supporters.

The night was hosted by Madison, who was a wish child diagnosed with Leukaemia, and Michael Murphy, one of the stars of the show Life With Boys.  Madison was a wonderful host of the night and mentioned that her wish of meeting the cast of Glee was what kept her going through her chemo treatment.  Her wish was granted in November 2010 and Make-A-Wish Canada flew her and her family to L.A. with all expenses covered.

The evening was filled with entertainment and the sounds of laughter from all the children.  Activities such as face painting, airbrushed tattoos and balloon animals kept everyone busy having fun.  Some of the Power Unit Members enjoyed meeting and interacting with the children whose wishes have been granted by Make-A-Wish Canada.  The program also included a lovely glee performance by the group called the Aces and an interactive magic show.  For pictures from that night, please visit our PUYO Facebook page here and our Night It Up! Facebook page here.

Through the generosity of the supportors of Make-A-Wish all over the world, millions of wishes have been granted to this day.  As an organization that values youth development, empowerment and philanthropy, Power Unit Youth Organization is proud to have Make-A-Wish as our beneficiary for this year.  We hope that our hard work will help make Justin’s wish come true, and also help give him the strength to fight through his medical treatments.