Early arrivers pose for the camera while registering for the KAPS Miniature Golf Challenge.

 

Around this time of year, many great events start to take place to connect our communities. Our first major event is the 7th Annual Golf Tournament for KCCC, which takes place in June. Last year, we had more than 100 players and raised close to $15,000.

 We also recently hosted a variety of social events such as the KAPS Extreme Bowling Night last April and a miniature golf challenge at NewCastle Golf Club in May.

Many thanks to social chairs Joe Cha and Bonnie Kim and to everyone else that made these last social events a blast. Pictures are posted online. It was great to see so much enthusiasm for new social ideas. We will continue this momentum by attending a Broadway show in June and hosting our 2nd annual BBQ and poker tournament in July.

In addition, we celebrated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month last month, which is a nationally recognized salute to all API cultures in the U.S. It was great to learn that Washington became the first state in the nation to add Korean American Day (Jan. 13) to state law on April 9. May 4 was also a proud moment for KAPS, as our founder Shari Song was recognized as Volunteer of the Year by the Korea Central Daily for her commitment and outstanding service to our community.

Last month we also experienced, as a nation, a terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. As a Korean American organization, we did receive quite a few inquiries from community leaders and the media about this senseless act of violence and our thoughts regarding a potential backlash. On behalf of KAPS, we express our most heartfelt sympathies for the victims and their families. We hope that the community will be brought closer together in this time of need. This was a random act of violence and the KA community should not feel any guilt or feel responsible in any way.

We have joined KAC in supporting the Virginia Tech Memorial Fund to help those who have been affected by the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

If you would like to contribute to the Virginia Tech Memorial Fund, please send checks to:

 

Korean American Coalition

Attn: VA Tech Memorial Fund

1001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 730

Washington, DC 20036

 

Best regards,

Jesse Adams

KAPS President

president@seattlekaps.org