CACO's first charity golf tournament to benefit the Cambodian-American Community Center. Why do we need a Community Center?

This is a letter requesting support from the community:

Greetings, fellow Cambodians, community members, and supporters:

On behalf of the CACO and its Community Center Committee (CCC), we would like to invite you to take part in supporting our Community Center Project. As a community member, your strong support will enable us to move a step closer toward our “collective dream” of building a community center to serve and benefit everyone in the State of Oregon . This will be YOUR community center!

Our immediate goal now is to gather a strong public support and also raising enough funds to start building a center that we all can be very proud of within the next five years. Without your kind generosity and strong support, it would be difficult for us to fulfill our dream of having a community center of our own. Therefore, we encourage you to join us in making this dream a reality for all of us. YOU can make a difference!

This community center will allow us to accomplish the following objectives:

•  An office, a meeting and gathering place for the community.

•  Cultural preservation by showcasing and sharing our rich Khmer heritage, culture and custom.

•  Annual Khmer Heritage Celebration, ceremonies, and other traditional festivals.

•  Classrooms for basic Khmer language and culture classes for our children (and some adults), as well as ESL and basic English literature classes for adults.

•  Authentic Khmer cooking classes.

•  Traditional folk and classical music, dance, and singing classes.

•  Traditional dress making, sewing, and other art and craft classes.

•  Folk tale and story telling classes where our elders and youth can interact and share experience.

•  US citizenship course.

•  Specialized training courses, such as basic and advanced computer courses and small business courses.

•  Conference and open public forum on issues affecting the community.

•  A Killing Fields Memorial to honor the victims and its survivors.

Thank you in advance for your kind consideration. We are looking forward to your enthusiastic contributions in terms of time, encouragement, ideas, and money toward this important project. To contribute, please contact us.

Sincerely,

CHANLY BOB (Chairman) & RONNIE YIMSUT (Vice Chairman)