Chinese New Year Party in Cranbury on February 28, 2015

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Christine Tu and her family and friends want a new public library to be
built in Cranbury. They had already contributed with personal donations,
but realized they could do more as a group than they could individually. So,
in late 2014, Christine and 20 other local families conceived the idea of a
Chinese New Year Party for the community to help kick-start the final phase
of the new public library facility campaign.

“It all started with a casual conversion about getting together and what’s
happening in town,” Christine said. “Many new families in town don’t know
about the new public library project.” (Since the late 1960s, the Public
Library has shared a small space with the Cranbury School Library, an
arrangement that worked 40 years ago, but no longer meets the needs of the
community or the school.) Christine Tu and her friends Jessie Yin, Shaolin
Liu, Fei Tian, Sean Yang and Theresa Zhang formed a planning committee and
rallied 20 other local families to arrange the upcoming Chinese New Year
Party for the community.

In partnership with the Cranbury Public Library and the Foundation
Committee, their vision is coming alive on February 28 at St. David’s
Episcopal Church in Cranbury. On that day, the community of Cranbury is
invited to enjoy homemade Chinese food, martial arts demonstrations, music
performances, tai chi, calligraphy, mahjong, games and prizes, all while
supporting a central part of the community.

“We are so excited that the library foundation is partnering with us on this
important project,” Christine explained. “There are many Chinese families
in Cranbury, and we hope this event shares our cultural heritage with the
widest set of our neighbors as possible, and equally important, we’d like to
give back to our lovely community.” Michael Ferrante, 2015 President of the
Cranbury Public Library Foundation, is pleased at how this event fits into
the fundraising campaign. “We are approaching the last third of the campaign
to raise the $3.2 million to build this community library that will also
have meeting rooms, will serve as a home for Cranbury’s historical archive,
and will provide space for programming to serve the citizens and community
groups in town. This event is a great way to raise awareness about the
project, beyond the 400+ families and organizations who have already
contributed.” While a stand-alone public library has been on the master
plan for over 20 years, it took a small group of committed individuals to
start the program to raise the capital funds for the new building from the
members of the Cranbury community.

The Chinese New Year event will take place from noon to 3:00 on February 28.
Tickets for the event can be purchased at the Cranbury Public Library.
Adults are $20 each and children 6 and over are $10. For more information,
contact the Cranbury Public Library (609-655-0555).