Today, May 11, in the New York City borough of the Bronx, Dafa practitioners from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania celebrated our first of 3 days of events planned to commemorate the 10th anniversary of World Falun Dafa Day. This event, which was held in a local community center, featured a variety of speeches, videos and performances. About 150 people attended and everybody left happy and smiling. Before the event officially started, several practitioners demonstrated the exercises. We found this to be a great way to segue into the event, since some people arrived late and we also had some last minute preparations to take care of.

Once everybody was settled, the event officially began with a statement from the Falun Dafa Information Center that touched upon the significance of World Falun Day and how the teachings of Falun Dafa have guided the practitioners in Mainland China through the most vicious persecution in History. Next, Ms. Dona Drayton gave a short speech on behalf of New York State Senator Ruth Hassell - Thompson. She said that Senator Hassell - Thompson had issued a proclamation for World Falun Dafa Day, but unfortunately, the official document would not be available until next week.

Next, there were two Dafa performances that both received multiple applauses from the audience. The first was a renowned Chinese Opera singer who sang two beautiful songs. The second was a dance trio dressed in colorful costumes.

Then, 2 Dafa videos were shown on a large TV. The first was "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance" and then a short video about Falun Dafa in New York.

There were three more performances after the videos. The first was a beautiful lotus dance by 9 practitioners. Following that was a very energetic lion dance. This was the crowd's favorite and everybody was cheering and joyous afterwards. For the closing act, everybody sang "Falun Dafa Hao" together.

After the performances, Ms. Drayton and the Manager of the community center insisted on making closing remarks and they both expressed gratitude to the practitioners for bringing such a wonderful event to their community.

Channel 12, the local Bronx TV station, covered the entire event and afterwards interviewed several practitioners

Overall, we feel that the event was a large success since it gave many everyday people an opportunity to see how wonderful Dafa really is. We are looking forward to doing even better tomorrow at our 2nd day of events in Queens.