The Dragon's Head Blog

The International Centre in Orangeville, Ontario is pleased to be hosting this year’s Lantern Festival on Sunday, February 21st at 12 noon. Everyone is welcome to this event, which will feature a traditional jai banquet, chanting, entertainment, and of course lantern sales! The Lantern Festival is a Chinese tradition going back many centuries. Typically held […]

International Center Florida Construction Update for the week ending January 21, 2016 Building A Interior Framing and strapping continues throughout the first floor SE wing. Replacement of damaged floor joists continues on second floor NE wing. The elevator and restrooms support walls were constructed and cells filled with concrete. These walls will support floor joists […]

       During a 5-day International Workshop in Helmond, the Netherlands 164 people from 15 countries gathered to seek more quietness in the tor yu. ‘Gentle’, ‘softness’, ‘from the spine’, ‘balance’, ‘keep the connection’, are some of the words Jim Nicholson used to help us find a better understanding and feeling of the tor […]

More than 170 participants attended the Central Region Program lead by Tony Kwong. The weather was beautiful and cool. The group was divided with half of the participants in the practice hall and half under a tent in the north parking lot. One evening the group had an ice cream social and a set in the courtyard. Many participants […]

The FLK Archive Project is an initiative to identify, organize and preserve documents that are essential to the history of the organization. This includes photos, videos, pamphlets, newsletters, annual reports, correspondence and many other materials. Allison Hasselfield is a volunteer at the International Centre who is currently involved in getting this project off the ground; Tales […]

 

International Center Florida Construction Update Jan 12, 2016 Framing and strapping continues on the first and second floors. The SE wing framing is completed and strapping continues. On the second floor of the  NE wing above the kitchen, the sub-floor has been removed to expose potential termite damage to the floor joists.    Looking down […]

International Center Florida Construction Update for  Jan 5, 2016 The new windows for the International Center Florida were delivered today for building A from Marvin Integrity. The trucks originated in Fargo, North Dakota and arrived this morning at 8:30AM and 12:30PM. Windows were unloaded by hand and locked inside of building C north wing. The […]

The International Center Florida held its first Senior Trip to the Duncan McClellan Glass Gallery and Hot Shop on January 6, 2016. The Duncan McClellan Gallery, located in St. Petersberg Florida, features rotating exhibitions showcasing nationally and internationally recognized glass artists. With 3,000 square feet of gallery spaces and 5,000 square feet of outdoor courtyards, the […]

On January 9th and 10th the International Center Florida held its first Hsing-i Weekend. Nearly 100 participants took part in the workshop lead by Sean Dennison. The weekend precedes the Central Region Program January 13-17th.

The Resident Volunteers and Staff of the International Centre wish all a healthy and safe 2016! Volunteers Réal and Chris are enjoying putting the finishing touches to the sugar shack and educating young visitors on the maple syrup project. With the woodshed completed, Jesse is on a well deserved vacation.

It is a tradition in the Netherlands to eat ”oliebollen and appelflappen” on New Year’s ​Eve. People prepare them at home or buy them in special shops. Why ​not make them in our own centre in Helmond? So we did. A team of volunteers made hundreds of them. The quality was praised by those who […]

    It started with a good idea. We bought a lot of white socks, started knitting and collected some other things. We then invited the participants of the Haarlem location to come on Thursday afternoons to make a family of snowmen. We had a lot of fun making them while Christmas music was playing […]

On Friday evening at the European Centre in Colchester the weekend’s activities began with chanting the “Ten Thousand Bhuddas” sutra for the Autumn Moon Festival. This was followed on Saturday morning with over a hundred participants taking part in our last intensive of the year. Everyone joined in with the karaoke dan-yus singing “Jingle Bells” […]

Here are just a few of the generous people who contributed to the Colchester Food Bank this Christmas. The food bank support people in need in the local area. The local branch that organised the collection wish to thank everyone for their kind donations – we weighed in at 193.7 kg, which gave us a nice target for next […]

Coming to the International Centre in Orangeville as a volunteer, I didn’t know what to expect or what I would be doing for the next six months. It only took a couple weeks for me to be pulled into the FLK Archive Project. Since I’m currently living at the International Centre, Southern Ontario seemed like […]

The International Center Florida continues renovations.  Now renovations have begun on Building C. The terrazzo floor located on the main floor is in the process of being resurfaced. Building A work continues with framing crews working throughout and a portion of the patio wall was removed to make access for the new ADA (Americans with […]

During the week of Dec 7, 2015 the Ottawa Branch held their third annual Christmas Cookie Bake Fundraiser. The Cookie Bake has been a great success growing from 125 dozen orders for cookies the first year to 275 dozen orders the second and this year we had a huge demand for cookies with orders for […]

International Center Florida Construction Update for the week ending Dec 6, 2015 Roofing has begun! Photos below are of the NW wing of the International Center Florida. New window openings are being prepared to accommodate hurricane resistant windows. 1st floor structural repairs are continuing on the first floor. Three teams of carpenters are working in the […]