Dragon boat races, lotus blossoms, fireworks, people selling scents, clothes, and jewelry. Smells of exotic foods in the air. Where are you” In the Far East” No, it”s in your own backyard ” here in Echo Park where, for one weekend in July, the Lotus Festival is held. And this year, as in many other years, EPIA participated with a booth of their own.
For this year”s festival, held on July 10 and 11, we didn”t just have a booth. Thanks to the artistic skills of Suzy Rogers, we had beads and butterflies, silks and satins to decorate out booth. After Suzy Rogers, aided by Steven Arthur decorated the booth on Saturday morning, the volunteers to man the booth starting arriving.
Most people sign up for an hour or two each day. Some volunteer for both days. What do volunteers do while they”re at the booth” They tell people about our neighborhood. Everyone has a favorite topic. Some like the garden, some talk about how safe Echo Park is, some talk about our tree plantings. We must have done at least an OK job because 60 people signed up to hear more about our organization. Hopefully we”ll see them at future meetings, in fact we sent them postcard invitations to our August meeting.
Booths must be torn down and set up each day. Steven Arthur, who coordinated the event, and Lynn Barbé, his faithful sidekick, helped with that task. They claim its well worth it as they get to watch a fantastic fireworks show on Saturday show from a prime seat in the EPIA booth.
Congratulations and many thanks to all volunteers who included Greg Altunian, Steven Arthur, Lynn Barbé, Steve Batte, Susan Borden, Maxine Cummings, Carmla Emanuele, Ron Emler, Alicia Francis, Chie Iseri, Helen Kano, Suzanne Kimbrough, Sophie Lewis, Elizabeth Maier, Isa-Kae Meksin, Barbara Neal, Becky Orona, Judy Oroshnik, Barbara Rausch, Jesus Sanchez. While an exhaustive survey of volunteers was not made, it seems that everyone had a good time and is ready for next years event,
