Thank you for your interest in the California Japanese American Alumni Association. With your help, we continue to work hard to ensure the legacy of Euclid Hall through our programs and activities. When I first came on board in 1997, after receiving the Noguchi Award the previous year, CJAAA received 4-8 scholarship applications on average per year and occasionally none for the internship program. Now, thanks to the launch of our website, plus an aggressive outreach campaign to the financial aid fellowship and Asian American communities at UC campuses, we have increased the number of scholarship applications almost ten-fold. We have sponsored interns and contributed to community efforts for the JCCNC, Japanese American National Museum, California Japanese American Community Leadership Council, Cal Nikkei Student Union, Tomodachi, National Japanese Historical Society, Japanese Community Youth Council, and two Ties That Bind conferences. I am excited to report this year CJAAA will begin our merger with the Classes of 1939-1945 Reunion Committee. We had our first meeting in March 2001 and believe this combined effort will now strengthen our programs by consolidating databases and contact lists to improve participation in Big Game Dinners, scholarship luncheons, and our latest project "In memory of Issei and Nisei". The latter is the brainchild of George Matsumoto of the Reunion Committee. George's dream is to designate a location on the UC Berkeley campus for cherry blossom trees and a pond with an inscription that honors the memory of the Issei and Nisei who paved the way for integration of Japanese Americans at UC Berkeley. (See the fundraising section for more information.) This is an ambitious project and we will soon embark on a campaign asking for your support. We are continuing our effort to build a historical archive, create an alumni locator service, and regularly publish the Bear Roots newsletter. If you are interested in helping with these projects, please contact us. We also currently seek anyone interested in becoming an active member of the Board of Trustees to fill positions of those recently retired. Most of our current board members are relatively young, although many active members are well into their seventies. Therefore, it is necessary for Sansei, Yonsei and Gosei to continue carrying the torch into the future. Many of our parents or grandparents benefited directly and indirectly from the grassroots experience of Euclid Hall, during a time when discriminatory practices against Japanese Americans was prevalent. We'd now like to inspire the latest generations to lead our mission, planting commemorative cherry blossom trees on campus or creating an endowment for a chair in Asian-American Studies, as examples. Finally, I am happy to report the success of our Big Game Dinner 2002. Not only did Cal finally win, but we had the chance to meet our scholarship recipients, plus honor some of our retired Trustees. Retirees included Hatsuro Aizawa, Bill Fujita, Akio Mochizuki, John Tateishi, and George Yasukochi. We thank them deeply for their many years of service and are delighted they will continue to serve in an advisory capacity. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we look forward to serving you in the future. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. Sincerely yours, Trevor H. Nakagawa President CJAAA, Board of Trustees