one young person who described this program as a place of solace for their development. the program has an alumni program that continues to serve the youth who participated in the program. and who also provide opportunities for current youth to do job shadowing and provide mentorship to those folks. the program was founded in 1993. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> sandra davis, john, william, patrick, eva gomez, jackson. tiffany jackson, jacqueline

jones. >> i am spencer with boys and girls club. i would like to read a letter. deer chair. i write to urge the committee to support increased fund egfor the services in the 2018-19 budget. one of our cities largest and most influential youth organizations. the city's funding is far too low based on need and high cost of doing business in our city. as you know, the department of children youth and families recently competed competitive process for funding for services over the next five years. it is flawed in three main ways. one, not enough money allocated to out of school time funding. this is for both poor and working class families.

two, the funding in several categories with no relationship with families especially public housing. three, too little money to teenagers. the dollars targeted at teens are exclusively for youth's work force development. we believe in the development and provide a lot of services. there is more that teens need than just youth work force development. they have made the boys and girls club looking at a significant reduction in services across the city and one site closing. it has meant a lot of things to kids and families through comprehensive one stop programs and services, strong extended day learning, partnering with sf police department to provide

positive engagement with youth. we support working families by providing nine week in the summertime. thank you. beverly, shawn, kelly, tony and theresa land rich. >> good evening you called me earlier. i am the program director for the coalition. it is for justice and accountability. the coalition was founded in february of 2015 in response to the brutal murder of a transwoman in the bay area district of san francisco. basically take community mobilized and started an initiative to end the genocide against transgender women. a key part was to design media

materials that will be distributed through the city. basically what we did is a media campaign in november. it was 100 buses and it ran for 30-days in november, which is like for trans people in terms of public awareness. the 2015lgbq violence prevention provided the transgender women are seven times more likely to feel unsafe. lack of access of housing, basic health and safe space esto gather and socialize. our response is to have a program for financial support and providing stable housing for the transgender women as well as

providing legal documentation clinic to provide 100 women access to transport and gender changes on their document. we have this and i don't want to take that much time and hopefully i can send out a follow up. thank you. >> all right. thank you for staying so we can all speak about our asks. i am the executive director of next village we serve seniors and disabilities in the northeast part of the city. we use volunteers to help people age in place and host over 200 social culltural and educational activities for the seniors with disabilities. our ask is $50,000. it will allow us to add back services to 140 income

challenged people who aren't able to pay a new annual membership fee that they are requiring of village members. our village provides services using volunteers. if we can find a volunteer to help make someone's day better we would like to do that. >> next speaker, please. >> i am employment case manager at hospitality house. i want to thank you all for listening to us this evening. i would ask you prioritize employment services for homeless job seekers. you know, i work in employment and we used to help people, you know, get guard cards because

most of our clients are homeless, but not all of them. this last month in april i helped place at least 17 people in jobs, and two of them got housed. then before that, one of my clients was homeless with two jobs. then he stopped doing one job and got housed. he is housed now. when they get jobs we do everything. we don't only do employment. i tell them send me your check stub. they send it to me and i put them on the housing waiting list, in the lotteries, we do everything because the budget cuts, you know, we still help them with clipper cards, work

clothes, thank you. >> so real quick. john are you here or not here? william? patrick? eva gomez. tiffany jackson is gone. johnson is gone. beverly anne kelly and brooks. do you want to go first? >> i am speaking to you as the legislative director for the california lions for retired of americans.

disabilities caucus of the party chair. i want to talk about you listening to people who truly need help to live in your city. this is extremely important. for the past 10 years i have been working on legislation to make it possible for seniors and those with disabilities to live in their community. here in san francisco in their community. i am just going to talk about pedestrian safety. we have worked on three bills and we have gotten some things done. one is to get signs in senior neighborhoods for people to slow down to 25 miles per hour. the other we went and could not get the legislation so we went

to caltrans and we got them to change all the rules about the timing on red lights so that you could change that timing and do it in the city. we hope you can do that so we can get across the street. i do want to tell you the man who worked on all of these did not live to fruition of what he worked on. his name was david grant. he was a senior living in the city. he was on the board of cara. he worked on pedestrian safety.

>> thank you. i have beverly upton, shawn brooks around tony and anyone else that needs to come down, you are more than welcome. we are not leaving until everyone has a chance. >> good evening and thank you. pardon my voice i am getting over a cold. beverly upton, executive director of the domestic violence consortium. we gather all of the programs that receive funding in the violence against women grant pool. i am trying to represent them today. one of the reasons you don't see violence against women as anybody's priority is because every community says it doesn't happen. we don't have it here. we know that is not true. every community, my community and all of yours has it, and it is important. we heard a youth today talk

about her experience, their experience with trauma and domestic violence. so many of our youth and immigrant families in san francisco are suffering from the exposure to domestic violence as children and in their own homes. the san francisco domestic violence consortium is around since 1982. we do not receive funding. we are asking you prioritize the funding through the department of status on women through direct services not to department build. in this national political atmosphere, more and more people are coming to the community for their issues. 22000 called the crisis lines for domestic livens only that is not stalks or sexual assault. that is 50,000. how many went to the police

department? 1500. to the special victims unit half. da's office half. 500 cases going through the criminal justice system. that is super-pour because people -- superimportant because people's lives were at stake. thank you. shawn brooks and tony. come on. >> shawn brooks. good afternoon. i am the chief programs officer for the sf marin food bank and long time resident of san francisco. i believe hunger is able to be solved. it should not be a talk of life that parents and seniors skip meals to pay represent. not acceptable low income

immigrants avoid the programs for fear of being deported and separated from families. the frail elders and adults with disabilities don't have enough to eat because they can't access the food assistance programs. i would add my voice to end hunger by asking for support of farmers market file food pantries where they distribute the free pro dos every week. we need your help to ensure the grocery programs can deliver to isolated and vulnerable neighbors who cannot access the services. we are asking for funding to expand the congregate meals. we need you to speak out to ensure that all of your constituents are accessing the cal fresh program because they aren't and we can't end hunger without full utilization of that

vital program. thank you for your support of the hunger program to improve the health and well-being of our neighbors and save money by reducing the burden on costly services. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, i am okay trivia scott. with plow shares a veteran organization in the san francisco bay area. i am a former member of the collaborative. i am here to speak about an issue deer to myself. i am a post 9/11 veteran and iraqi freedom veteran. 80% of the veterans left the military without a job. two in five reported being homeless in the past year. more than half of the san

francisco veterans are at risk of ptsd. 46% of those in san francisco were considered at risk of suicide. reallocation of the funds for heck has had a direct impact on my program. i haven't had to make playoffs, i haven't been age to actually hire for two positions because of the funding. with my community partners in the san francisco area who had to make layoffs, those individuals were individuals who were doing outreach for us and individuals who were locating and identifying veteran on the streets for us. without their partnership we can't identify those at risk for homelessness or those who are at risk of ptsd and those other things. thank you very much for your

time. >> next speaker. >> i am becky. i work at the san francisco food bank and member of the food security task force. i want to commend the board of supervisors for commitment to end hunger by 2020. i also want to remind you one in four people in this county are still at risk of hunger. it is a huge number. our food bank does a missing meals study where we look at the gap of meals provided versus those missing. we estimate 29 million meals missing every year. we have a long way to go. i wouldn't express support for the food security task force funding request this year. especially i want to call out home delivered groceries funding. we are grateful to provide home delivered groceries to 5,000 folks right now there. are 7,000 more who need support. with your help we can get there.

thank you for your support. >> next speaker. >> good afternoon. alateen notice cultural -- latio district. it is important to get the culture districts up and running. there are issues with displacements. some including lgbq, transgender, filipinos and others. this process was long. we hired a consultant, three meetings, focus groups with youth and nonprofits, interviews and reached out to 4,000. it is important that the support is there to properly assess the community to best serve the community long-term to make sure we keep san francisco diverse. thank you very much for your support. >> thank you. next speaker, please.

>> good afternoon. i am executive director of library users. i want to thank those for being here to the better end. >> being hard core. >> here to the bitter end. with respect to priorities at the library they went to spend $3 million on implements a drive see threatening technology radio use frequency stamp sized inserts into every material, books and so on. they lay people open to having what they are reading be revealed by anyone with access to the technology. they also have a privacy threat which electronic frontier has called the tracking threat.

i may want to know where you went or did you go to that suspicious location and if i know you have an i seem 12345, i may not care what that is, what the title is, i don't need the libraries database. if i know you are associated. at the selectioned locations where i may be concerned with tracking who is going and coming. i can say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 that is one of you entering or leaving the place. the electronic frontier and aclu sent the city librarian a letter strongly opposing the implementation of r.f.p. from the budget which they improved in february with primitive or no

recognition of privacy threats. thank you. >> any other members of the public to speak. public comment is closed. colleagues, five hours in. supervisor yee, fewer. >> i want to comment the three of us. >> let's gavel down. >> the last speaker whose stuck it out. >> thank you. i want to recognize my legislative aids in your respective offices that support this committee. thank you. department heads and staff that committed to the slides, thank you for your presentation. it is the community that came out, controller, budget, city attorney and our clerk. with all of that said this hearing going to be filed. supervisor yee?

>> did you want us to take one minute? >> sure, give your one minute summation. i would love to hear your thoughts. what is one more minute? it is helpful to drafts the resolution. >> i will write it up. as i was listening to the presentations there are many departments. it might sound like a lot, in terms of what floated up to the top for me. here are some. i am interested in the group van ask. one of the first presentations i forgot who it was for the group vans to buy new ones so the paratransit. they are not getting around to bring people in isolation.

employment i am interested in employment pathways for youth in general. i also want to put something in there that there should be emphasis on helping seniors and people with disabilities if they want to be employed. make sure there is a pathway for them. i would be supporting increased food security, and that one i guess goal of sustainable funding to eliminate the wait list. i would be supportive in getting us closer. the pedestrian safety piece is always there to me. the neighborhood was mentioned several times to my surprise. i am supportive of trying to give funding to make sure this

is implemented. the senior strategy campaign i would be supportive of that. families for safe streets, that is important that it is hopefully supported. if it is not i see urge we continue to support their efforts. they are the voice we need for pedestrian safety. the last thing that floated up for me was joe wilson's group that mentioned employment for homeless 1.$4 million that was used for something else. i would be very supportive to see that happen. >> thank you very much. you can't remember what i heard a lot of it. but i just want to echo about the homeless employment

collaborative and $1.4 million redirected to hsa. i am interested in all of the work force stuff. how can we bring that to scale? they have good results. food security, of course, but i will send you a document in writing because right now i am getting everything mixed up with public testimony and what we heard today. i will send you that. off the top of my head, i think i am looking for pathways for people to have independence and bring them from dependency to independence. work force development is key on my list. thank you. >> thank you very much, colleagues. i will take that as a motion. >> is there a second to the motion to file? >> yes.

there it is. we will file this hearing as heard. thank you. all right. any other business before this body? >> no further business. >> we are adjourned. thank you. 8:00 my time

>> good morning. my name is claudine cheng, and thank you so much for coming to

the asian pacific american heritage month press conference. we do this every year before the month of may or at the outset of the month of may so that we can bring our communities together. so this year, 2018, we are very excited because we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of asian pacific american heritage month. it is a created federal law of this country that every year we get to celebrate our culture and our heritage in the month of may because of a law that was adopted by the congress of the united states and siphgnedt that time by president jimmy carter that designate the month of may for our celebration. so we are actually happy that we are here for the 40th in san francisco. i remember about a year back, in -- in a sister city trip that i had the pleasure of taking with our former mayor, ed lee, we were talking at that

time -- i think the trip was in march. we were in the ho chi minh sister city. we were talking about oh, the 40th anniversary was coming up, and mayor lee said, how can we make it a greater celebration? we should get all the major agencies in the city involved. we could make it very big. i said great idea. it was very unfortunate that mayor lee would not be with us here this year, however, i think following his vision, we are very happy for the 40th anniversary. we now have four additional -- in addition to the asian heritage foundation, we have four additional partners in the city. the representatives are here today, the asian pacific fund. audrey yamamoto, the san francisco public library with the 27 branchs, and director michaels is here.

and my favorite cam fest, stephen gaung anasazi. this is the year that they have moved from march to may, and we are so excited for the two weeks the fest is going on, they are really gung ho for our apa heritage fest this year, so we are very happy that you made the move. so we are very happy to be here, and with the information you can take when you leave here. i think cam fest have the book here. the san francisco library have a lovely publication also that will be in all the 27 branchs, and the asian art museum, and they are also one of our celebration partners. for the 40th anniversary, we are very excited. for the first time, we are able to put banners around the civic

center plaza, so you will see our apa banner proudly displayed including one in front of the asian art museum. so with these five organizations together, i think we are having the best celebration that we ever had, and we want to thank the mayor's office of neighborhood services because with ashley cheng and her team, and jason here, we are able for the first time to compile a whole month of calendar of events that happen in the city for the whole month, so their copies of the master calendar there, so please take a copy, and they're also available on our website. we are very honored to have mayor mark farrell with us today. mayor farrell, since becoming mayor, have been all over the place, and he has joined us for the lunan new year's celebration parade. last week, he was at the cherry blossom parade, and he was really an example of embracing the diversity in this city, and so with that, i give you mayor

farrell. [applause] >> thank you, claudine. it is -- it's an honor to be here. good morning, everyone. you know, san francisco is, of course, very proud and pleased to be part of this 40th celebration of our apa heritage month here in san francisco. you know, it does make -- mark a very special year in this anniversary. as claudine mentioned, the federal legislation that really enabled this legislation, obviously something that we honor here inside of city hall. i was to give special recognition to our assess or ermen chu and supervisor katey tang who have been respected and amazing officials here in city hall for a long time. this is particularly an honor of being here, but particularly in following in our foot steps, our late mayor ed lee. it's moments like this where you really take a pause to --

to both remember him but also know that he continues to look down on us. you know, our san francisco culture is -- it's -- we are one-third of our asian culture here in san francisco. you think about our chinese, our korean communities, our japanese community, or pill pon owe, our vietnam he's, and the other pacific islanders, really, a huge part of who we are in san francisco and really part of our dna and why i think it's so parn that we take the time, because we ol-will, but we honor this moment in time and honor this moment here in san francisco. so i do want to say a lot of thank yous to the people that are putting this on. the asian american heritage foundation. how about a big round of applause for them. i know they're coordinating

this here and many events. i do want to say to the public library, michael thank you for putting together this brochure, thank you for putting this together. really, thank you to them. i also want to recognize all of our sister city committees who are here. i've seen a number of them, those i saw a second ago, manila, osaka, our sister city community is awesome here in san francisco. we are very lucky to have them, and certainly our apa ones in particular are quite frankly huge parts of our program here in our city. you know, this year, we're fortunate that we have a number of partners and four official ones. i want to thank the asian art museum for their partnership. i don't know if jay is here, but regardless, thank you inform jto jay and the entire team. thank you to the asian pacific

fund. thank you celebrating asian american film and food fest here in san francisco as well as again, michael, the public library, for all that you do. thank you. we are in really good hands for having you here, so thank you, michael lambert. can i have a round of applause for our library here. [applause] >> the hon. mark farrell: we all love it. i want to mention our department of neighborhood services. thank you, ashley, and your team for putting on the master calendar and for doing what you do for the city of san francisco. and really happy to announce that today was going to be the presentation, the awarding of the san francisco annual award from the mayor's office of neighborhood services, the edwin mah lee public service award today, which is incredible, not only for the announcement of it, but i will say, not to preview it, but also for the winner of it. i just think it's an amazing way to honor the legacy of mayor lee here in san francisco

or just another way we can do that here in our city, and i also want to congratulate the four organizations that are being honored for all their service and hard work on behalf of our entire city. so look forward to seeing everyone at the awards event, at the herbst theater next week, and i just want to say thank you everyone for being here today to come together as a city. i just think this is such an important part of not only what we do in san francisco, but this is who we are. we celebrate our diversity, we honor it, we recognize it, and we honor the heros that really make it work here in san francisco. so thank you all for being here. congratulations, again, thank you to all of the participants and the partners here, and really, again, in advance, really, really excited and think it's such a special tribute that we have the first ed lee public service award today and to the winner to be, congratulations in advance. so thank you, everybody, and with that, ashley, i have a certificate of honor for you. so i'm seeing claudine -- ashley, you can come up to.

claudine, come on up. [inaudibl [inaudible] >> the hon. mark farrell: yeah, any foundation members, come on up. [applause] >> thank you, thank you, mayor farrell. i'm wondering if everybody that has a press packet is actually over there, so if you don't have one, pick one up because we have good information in here. the next item on agenda is board of supervisors greetings, but i know that the members of

the board might want to congratulate the winner of the first annual edwin mah lee public service award, so i feel that maybe we'll just do it now. so at the end of the last year, when the committee met to think about our next program, we really felt that the best way to honor the legacy of our mayorly w mayor lee was to remember the examples that he had kped pers identified, being humble in the people without seeking recognition, but being very effective. so we setup this edwin mah lee public service award, which is up for public nomination. we received really quite a few wonderful nominations. a lot of people in this city have been doing so many m

magnifice magnificent things that represent san francisco. so after all this, we get to score on the voting cut, and this year, after we counted all the votes, there was no question that one person's vote had really risen up above all the others, and we are very, very excited to announce that our assessor, carmen chu, is that person. [applause] >> so i know carmen will be giving her acceptance speech next wednesday, but you're welcome to say a couple of words if you -- [applause] >> i think that was claudine's code speak for say something very short. i will just simply say that i am incredibly honored, and i'm very humble to receive the first ever edwin m. lee award. to me, there was no greater

public servant, someone who dedicated his entire life to public service, in ways that were public, i think behind the scenes where many of us didn't even know he was working on things. so you know, i just simply want to say for many of us in public service, katey, myself, our commissioners, the men and women who work for the city and county of san francisco, we do this because we love the city, and we do that because we care about san francisco. so i couldn't be more honored to receive this award and recognition, and i do that on behalf of all of the public servants who work alongside me. thank you. [applause] >> so back to greetings from the board of supervisors, supervisor katy tang. >> supervisor tang: well, good morning, everyone. it's so nice to see everyone here, and of course it's a start by saying let's all give claudine cheng a round of

applause. [applause] >> supervisor tang: and of course everyone she works with, the different volunteers, from the different city departments, the different companies that partner with us. i know that this year, she was really focused on trying to make this a really special 40th celebration. heard her at the beginning to trying to make the cam fest at the same time, working with the department to make sure that everybody knows in san francisco what's going on in the month of may, and to see it all being pulled together, i know a lot of hard work went into it. i want to thank all of the volunteers for all the work that you've done. i want to say growing up in san francisco in the sunset district, i really took it fore granted. growing up in a heavily asian district where there were a lot of immigrant families, grew up in a very diverse city. i don't think i realized until our current president who was in place got elected how fortunate i was in san francisco. when there's a lot of politics

going on in terms of our communities and diversity, these kinds of celebrations are important. lastly, i want to thank carmen chu for being a wonderful mentor of mine. bringing me up in public office. she set a great example of both publicly and privately, most importantly, so i think she's incredibly deserving of the new edwin m. lee ard with -- awar congratulations, carmen, and thank you all. >> are there any other members of the board here? i think i understand that a couple may be on their way. so moving forward, before we announce our -- our community milestone honorees, i just wanted to say that this celebration would not have happened without the support of a wide range of organizations. i'm -- we are so proud that this year of the sponsoring organizations with us. we actually have 21 businesses

and 22 nonprofits. it's amazing the support that we have from the community, and we really appreciate. this is our sponsorship board here. we wanted to thank first and foremost, alaska airlines. they're this year our heritage champion sponsor. we want to thank kikkoman, uber, wells fargo, and these are a list of businesses year after year after year that come in because they feel that the asian american community is really important, and as i said all the nonprofit organizations, there's nothing more important to us than having the support from the grassroots, and it means a lot to us when the nonprofits are supporting us as equal number as the businesses. it's really, really wonderful. so thank you so much, and all of our sponsors are listed on our website, so go visit.

now comes the time -- so every year, we -- of honoring organizations at least 25 years and up and has been around 25 years and have been promoting and involved in the education, promotion and preservation of asian american culture and heritage. this year we have four such organizations that have been brought to our attention and after reviewing their mission and how much impact that they have been having in the city, we are very, very happy to be honoring these four organizations. so i would like to at this time ask the members of our awards committee to join me, marian, dennis and jeanette. each one of them will be introducing one organization. [applause] >> hi, everyone. good morning, and i am -- my name is dennis yee, and i am the cochair of the awards committee. and i'll be introducing the

chinese historical society of america that is celebrating their 55th milestone -- anniversary milestone. this is the oldest organization in the country dedicated to the promotion and preservation of historical and -- history and contributions of chinese in america through expositions, publication and educational and public programs. one of the major exhibitions was remembering 1882 because it was significant in its impact in leading the apologies by congress for the chinese exclusion act, and i am here to introduce the board president of chinese historical society of america. [applause] >> thank you, dennis. the chinese historical society of america was founded 55 years ago for the spisk purpose of promoting, honor -- specific purpose of promoting, honoring

and sharing the his of san francisco's chinatown and its chinese american community. which is why now it's particularly graduate identifying to be recognized with this honor on this 40th anniversary of the asian pacific heritage month celebrations and by san francisco's asian pacific american heritage foundation. i particularly want to thank the foundation and claudine as president in particular for thinking of us. i also want to take a moment to thank mayor farrell, who came to our gala four weeks ago and spoke and honored us with his presence. also, supervisor katy tang gave us the opportunity to do our last exhibit just this past fall of chinese americans in sunset. any way, i just wanted to say that the -- this kind of recognition will give us the inspiration, encouragement to move on into our next 55 years, where we hope to expand the

presence of chinese history outside of san francisco and share what we have here with the region, with the state, and the rest of the country. any way, thank you very much. [applause] >> bring this back down to my level here. good morning. my name is marry nicely, and i'm a cochair of the awards committee, and i am pleased to recognize the milestone honoree, the nihomachi street fair, on their 45th anniversary. so formerly founded to provide mentorship and leadership to japanese youth and honor japanese culture, it has grown into an event celebrating the entire apa community. so i am pleased to announce and have join me, please welcome executive director grace

horakiti who has been leading the street fair for almost 20 years. >> thank you, mary, for the great introduction. we are so pleased to receive this milestone recognition by the asian pa tisk american heritage foundation. street fair, you know, as mary said, started out as a four booth operation. now there's over 100 participants participating. our mission has always been to encourage young people and provide them with leadership skills so that one day they can go out and being kpach wills in approximate our society. i am an example. i started out as a kid. they told me to volunteer selling t-shirts, and now executive director, so we look forward to hitting that 50 years, which is not too far away, and also, a huge congratulations to the asian

pacific american heritage month. you know, for 40 years, that's a huge milestone in itself. so thank you very much, and hope to see you all august 4th and 5th. thank you. [applause] >> hello, and good morning. my name is jeanette addy, and i am here to provide the award committee. the featured the pill peen owe culture, various type of -- filipino dances, food, and exhibits, so i'm here to introduce to you the president of a.p.e., al perez.

>> thank you, jeannie. good morning, everyone. my name is al perez, and i'm so proud to be here to represent the pistahan parade and festival. i'm here joined by genevieve, who is the festival director, and john who is the parade director. the pistahan is definitely a labor of love, and i cannot do it alone, so i really thank them for their support. for 25 years, the annual pistahan parade and festival has showcased the best in art, dance, and food in yerba buena gardens in the heart of san francisco. this year, the pistahan parade kicks off the event on may 11th. it marchs along from civic center to yerba buena gardens. the two day celebration of

food, culture and cuisine will be held on may 11 and 12. the festival will feature the popular balut eating contest, artists and merchandise from local antre e pinoys. the pistahan was founded by the filipino arts exposition -- the pistahan parade and festival continues to be held at the yerba buena gardens since its inception 25 years ago out of the communities activism to honor, preserve and celebrate the enduring legacy of the

filipino community's struggles, t triumphs and community in the heart of san francisco. again, thank you for this honor, and i invite you all to join us for the pistahan conference, may 11th and 12. >> thank you, commissioner perez. so the last and fourth organization that we are going to honor actually is not one of our typical asian american organizations. the san francisco similymphony youth orchestra has been around 55 years. we think about them, and the fact is we look and always think and talking about opportunities for young asian pacific americans, and the youth orchestra has given so

much opportunity for young asian american musicians to be part of that is really immense, contributions from the symphony, so that's why we feel it's really right for us to honor the san francisco symphony orchestra. with us today is the director of education and diversity with the symphony. >> good morning. thank you. we are so honored to be included among the organizations recognized by the apa. we believe music is a wonderful way to bring together or diverse communities. the san francisco symphony is celebrating the 5th anniversary of its internationally acclaimed youth orchestra this year which commits itself to providing preprofessional orchestraal training to the most talented young musicians across the greater bay area. founded in 1981, it brings students to davies symphony

haul each week for hours of rehearsals, mentors and coaching from our own san francisco symphony musicians and even the occasional opportunity to work with distinguished guest artists like yo-yo ma, and all of this is provided tuition free so that there is no economic barrier to any young musician who is committed to working hard and dedicating him or herself to the r igors of working and playing in an orchestra. many of them have gone onto careers in national symphonies, and even those who have not chosen to pursue a career have benefited greatly from the high demands necessary to play an instrument. the youth orchestra also serves our community by providing free open rehearsals to our seniors, many free tickets to our

students and affordable ticket prices to the general public, so if you would like to see your faith in the future restored, i would invite you to all to hear one of the great gems of our city and come to the final concert of the season, may 7th at davies hall. we hope to see all of you there. thank you so much. proximate cause. [applause] >> we actually have the opportunity to hear some of the youth orchestra at our celebration next wednesday. so again, thank you to the four organizations and thank you for your good work. at this time, we are ready to unveil our 40th anniversary commemorative heritage poster. this year, we are very happy that it's been signed by our cochair, thomas lee, who is our

resident designer, our own designer. and i'd like to invite annabell to join us, and thomas. [applause] >> thank you. i will be remiss if any introduce thomas lee and al perez. thank you for your hard work, al and thomas. so in closing, i would like to

invite thomas and angela pang, head of our public relations and media relations to come up and talk about our event next wednesday, which i'm very happy to let you know, actually, our rsvp is over capacity right now. >> that's amazing. >> thomas. >> so we have over 1,000 people rsvp' rsvp'ed to our event. angela, would you like to tell us a little about our entertainment? skbl yeah. we're going to have an amazing lineup for you. we have straight jacket. they're going to be performing. we also have members of our san francisco youth orchestra in attendance. they'll be performing, as well. we'll have an amazing cultural progression highlighting the diversion of the asian community. >> we would like