In July four fabulous Chinese American tweens and teens converged at Pearl Bergad’s house for three days of volunteering.  Zoe, Lydia and Anna Suiter, adopted from different regions of China by Bunny and Pat Suiter, were joined by Summer Ahern, a veteran CHF volunteer, to get CHF
caught up on a lot of loose responsibilities, as well as honing their cooking skills.

Lydia and Anna, tweens, were enthralled with making bookmarks for the Calligraphy Team.  Given precut multicolored paper bookmarks, they punched holes and then tied different colored ribbons on them.  Seemingly endless combinations of paper and ribbon colors kept them pre-occupied, while Zoe and Summer, teenagers and budding computer nerds, took charge of the CHF mailing list.  They combined various lists accumulated over the last several years and produced a master list that had been needed for some time.

In between their volunteering duties, the girls learned to cook Chinese lunches and dinners.  Hong Lin, a master dumpling maker, took charge one noon and guided them through the secrets of making a perfect dumping.  Catherine Wong, a superb Cantonese cook, took everyone through the making of 6 different dishes.  The best part was, of course, the eating afterwards, which everyone did with gusto!

The lazy afternoons were best for the beaches.  The girls went over to the nearby Nokomis Beach and dipped their toes in the water.  They also enjoyed a nature walk at Minnehaha Falls with expert guide Bob Bergad.

For one of the three days, the girls were joined by Chris Li, nephew of Bingwen Yan.  Only 10 years old, he was already a veteran Passage volunteer.

Everyone had a great time and was energized to volunteer for Passage the next year!