On 27 February 2015, ACCA celebrated its Chinese New Year banquet (Year of the Goat) at the Eight Restaurant. The banquet was a sold-out event with over 500 guests in attendance.

The night was particularly important because it was also a celebration to mark ACCA’s 40th Anniversary.

Our distinguished guests for the night included:

• The Hon Mike Baird MP, Premier of New South Wales (ACCA’s  Special Guest of Honour for the night)
• The Hon Scott Morrison MP, Minister for Social Services and Federal Member for Cook (representing the Prime Minister, the Hon Tony Abbott MP)
• His Excellency Mr Li Huaxin, Consul-General (Ambassadorial Rank) of the People’s Republic of China in Sydney
• The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Federal Member for Sydney (representing the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Bill Shorten MP)
• The Hon Linda Burney MP, Deputy Leader of the NSW Opposition (representing the Hon Luke Foley MLC, Leader of the NSW Opposition)

Other distinguished guests who attended included Clr Robyn Kemmis, Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney; the Hon Philip Ruddock MP; Mr Laurie Ferguson MP; Mr Nickolas Varvaris MP; the Hon Gladys Berejiklian; the Hon Victor Dominello MP; Mr John Sidoti MP; Mr Charles Casuscelli RFD MP; Mr Mark Coure MP; Dr Geoff Lee MP; Mr Jonathan O’Dea MP; the Hon Ernest Wong MLC; Mrs Wang Yun, Consul of the People’s Republic of China in Sydney; the Hon Dr Helen Sham-Ho; and the Hon John Dowd AO QC.

In attendance were also many Councillors from the various local Councils, community and organisational group leaders, ACCA Council members, past and present ACCA directors, ACCA staff and senior members from the Central, Western and Northern senior groups.

The night kicked off with soft jazz music provided by students from the Cherrybrook Technology High School (CTHS). It was was soon replaced by the noisy cymbal and gong with the entrance of the lion dance. Speeches from the VIPs followed soon after. Towards the latter part of the night, ACCA’s cultural dancers swung into action with their traditional Chinese dancing to the delight of the guests, and then more jazz music from CTHS!

A memorable night it was indeed! To mark ACCA’s 40 Anniversary, the ACCA City Centre Seniors Group presented ACCA with a Chinese calligraphy scroll featuring deep and inspirational meanings. The Northern Centre Seniors Group presented ACCA with a Chinese painting and from the Western Centre Seniors Group a 40th Anniversary birthday cake! Both the calligraphy scroll and the Chinese painting are now hung up in the ‘Clubhouse’.

Five ACCA senior members were honoured on the night for dedicated services to ACCA - Mr Ching Ho (Group Leader City Centre), Mr Wong Sai Tack and Mr Henry Chiu (both Group Leaders from Northern Centre), Mr Alex Kwok Hung Chan (Group Leader Western Centre) and Professor Tang Danyuan. Behind the Group leaders are also the unsung heroes and dedicated workers for which we salute them!

The auction and raffle takings for the night were a nice boost to the bottom line figure for ACCA. Many thanks to the donors and organisers as funding of this nature, including donations from sponsors, can help make a difference in the provision of improved services to our clients and where appropriate funding of membership activities.

In closing, many thanks to those who have worked so hard over the past months in making ACCA’s CNY celebration and ACCA’s 40th Anniversary celebration such a big success.