Joy Kogawa House Committee Receives a Vancouver Heritage Award

[Anton Wagner]

The Land Conservancy of BC and the Joy Kogawa House Committee have been awarded
a Vancouver Heritage Award for their advocacy efforts in saving Joy Kogawa's
childhood home. Mayor Sam Sullivan presented the award to the TLC and the
Committee in Vancouver in February.

Thanks to the Canada-wide support from writers' organizations, the arts and
heritage communities, Kogawa House Committee members, TLC staff, volunteers,
and the 550 donors to the fundraising campaign, the "Obasan House" has been
preserved as a writers-in-residence and as an educational site recalling the
forced evacuations and internments of Japanese-Canadians during World War II.

Todd Wong's remarks of thanks presented at the awards ceremony on behalf of the
Joy Kogawa House Committee are posted on the http://www.kogawahouse.com
website, as is a photo of the certificate.

Joy Kogawa House Committee members in Vancouver will be meeting with the TLC
shortly to discuss the writers-in-residence program of the House and will also
liaise with writers’ associations over the next few months to gather ideas about
how to administer the writers-in-residence program.

Further donations for the Joy Kogawa House writers-in-residence program are
still needed and can be made by calling The Land Conservancy at (604) 733-2313
or via the TLC website
http://www.conservancy.bc.ca/content.asp?sectionid=179&regionack=LM

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to saving Joy Kogawa's
childhood home. Best wishes, Anton Wagner for the Joy Kogawa House Committee.