Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

When Australia Gold Coast City Mayor, Tom Tate, visited Tzu Chi Foundation for the Year-End Ceremony, he was impressed by Tzu Chi’s humanism spirit and vegetarian promotion on February 2nd, 2014. To carry on such relationship, Tzu Chi volunteer invited Mayor Tom to join the July Blessing Ceremony of the Lunar Calendar. This event was derived from the traditional Chinese culture, and thus, was hard to communicate the meaning at first with the City Hall staff. However, with strong sense of mission to promote environmental protection and vegetarianism, Tzu Chi volunteer did not give up, and eventually the Gold Coast City Hall agreed to have them conduct the event in their office building during 1.5 hour of lunch break on July 14th.

To make sure the event is punctual, 43 Gold Coast Tzu Chi volunteers started preparation work since 7:30am on the day, and with the kind support from 5 of the City Hall staff, the room was ready to start by 10:30am. The event started with video of Tzu Chi’s footprint of 2013, and led by the song of sincere prayer, wishing the world to be without disaster, and Great Love to spread to every corner. Then the story of Tzu Chi’s bamboo bank era made an impression on 27 City Hall staff’s heart, while each of them took home a bamboo bank to collect their daily donation of good thoughts. The vegetarian rice pizza demonstration also brought everyone’s attention and recognition that vegetarian cuisine can be as delicious, if not better than, as their normal meal.

The DA.AI Technology exhibition was also one of the main attractions of the event, although the product wasn’t new to Australian due to Gold Coast Tzu Chi’s consistent promotion over the past years, it still amazed the crowd that plastic bottles can be turned into such designful and elegant eco-friendly textile products, and more important, with all the love and caring for the Earth included from the environmental promoters and co-operating partners supporting DA.AI. The warm and comfortable DA.AI Eco Scarf had everyone’s attention during the cold winter of July in Australia, and everyone applauded and thanked Tzu Chi volunteers for their practical actions of saving the planet.

The July Blessing Ceremony ended with happiness, and seeing the contributions of Gold Coast Tzu Chi volunteers, the City Hall sent out an official thank-you letter to show the appreciation towards the event presentation:

“Thank you so much for the beautiful banquet you provided to us yesterday.  I enjoyed your beautiful food again today for my lunch!  Our staff are full of praise for the tasty food and your volunteers’ kindness.  One officer commented ‘it was like taking a holiday in the middle of my work day for an hour’.  Please pass on our gratitude to all who were involved.”

Hope with such great experience working together, the relationship between GC Tzu Chi and the city will be stronger, and eventually Tzu Chi humanism spirit will bring positive influence to the mainstream society of Australia.

Tzu Chi Media Volunteer, Peng Tzu Han, Gold Coast, Australia