Relay For Life is one step closer

By Junelynn Tran
The Commonwealth Times

RICHMOND, Va. -– In a few weeks, nearly 40 teams at Virginia Commonwealth University will unite to fight one common enemy -– cancer.

VCU will host its fourth annual Relay For Life event. Relay For Life is the signature fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. The purpose of the relay is to celebrate the lives of people battling cancer, remember lost loved ones, increase cancer awareness in the community and raise money for ACS.

With more than 300 participants, VCU has raised more than $11,250. Its goal is to raise $30,000 at the relay. Relay teams will set up fundraising booths at the VCU Cary Street Track and Field grounds on April 17, 2010. Each team will conduct its own fundraiser in an effort to raise money for cancer. Representatives from each team will walk or run around the field throughout the event.

Currently, the team that has raised the most money is Rehabbin’ Rams. Its members are a part of the Pre-Physical Therapy Club at VCU. They have raised nearly $1,400, surpassing their team goal of $1,000. QuaShauna Smith, the team’s co-captain, said she “constantly reminds people about the relay” and encourages supporters for donations.

“I found out this year that my grandfather died of cancer, so actually, this fundraiser means a lot to me,” Smith said. “I pray that I am helping out someone with all the participants’ efforts of awareness.”

Rehabbin’ Rams has already completed a fundraiser with Tropical Smoothie Cafe and expects to have another fundraiser before the date of the relay. Smith said the team will have snacks and games at their fundraising booth.

One of the top participants, Nikki Johnson, has raised almost $500 for her team, Muevelo. Muevelo is a student dance organization committed to community service and teaching dance workshops. As president of her team, Johnson said she became involved after she heard her friend was diagnosed with brain cancer.

“Because Relay For Life is well known and well promoted, it’s easy to find people who support the cause,” Johnson said. “Everyone should come out. Do something good for the world.”

Muevelo has fundraised with Panera Bread, and recently, hosted a handcuff party to encourage guests to donate for cancer. They raised $280 in one night. Johnson plans to participate in another fundraising event, possibly a penny wars between her team members.

The day of Relay For Life will include an opening ceremony from a cancer survivor family, in addition to several guest speakers. The rest of the day will be dedicated to fundraising and special activities for everyone to participate. At night, there will be a Luminaria ceremony, a candlelight ceremony dedicated to honor those who have died or battled cancer.

Nadine Malpass, the Central Virginia area director for ACS, said the ceremony “is very moving, starting somber to very uplifting.”

Malpass also said she is “thankful to the college movement” because they are the next generation to keep fighting against cancer.

Rachel Prunier, the team recruitment and volunteer chair for Relay For Life, said this year’s event is different because there is more community involvement and more teams.

“Teams make the event. They help it grow and help find a cure,” Prunier said. “Cancer affects, more than just a cancer patient. It affects the caretaker, family and friends.”

For more information on how to get involved, visit www.relayforlife.org/vcu.

Original article

VCU-alum remembered by a younger generation

By Junelynn Tran



RICHMOND, Va. -- As one of the best underground pool players in Richmond, VCU-alum Mike Tran is at the top of his game. With nine years under his belt, he has never sought to become a professional pool player, but his name still resonates from Breakpoint of VCU to Murphy's Law Billiards in Midlothian.

"When I walked in a pool hall one day, I saw some good players playing pool, and I was just kind of interested in the way they were moving the ball," Tran said. "It just looked so neat, that I decided to pick up a pool stick and try it on my own."

Tran started playing pool at VCU in 2000. In 2003, he qualified to play at the Association of College Unions International, a collegiate organization that brings together different schools to compete in extracurricular activities, such as poker, bowling, billiards and spoken word.

Tran won third place in the regional tournament that year. With only three years of experience, nerves got the best of him at the national tournament at East Carolina University.

"My first draw was the defending champion and I hardly won," Tran chuckled. "I mean, I got him on the ropes, but then he came back. I had butterflies, I couldn't win -- but overall that year, I placed ninth in the nation."

Some of Tran's friends enjoy watching him play because they see it as a learning experience. Some also find it intimidating.

New friend Christopher Le said, "Watching him play... it's just like... kind of demoralizing, actually. You're like, 'How the hell can you ever be this good?'"

Tran's advice for potential pool players is persistence and practice. Practice makes perfect and so does a positive attitude.

VCU students in the lead at regional billiards tournament

By Junelynn Tran

RICHMOND, Va. -– Two students from Virginia Commonwealth University won the championship in a regional billiards tournament last month, making them eligible to participate in the national tournament.

First-place winner Mitch Trainham, 23, and second-place winner Mark Lacson, 25, both students from VCU, competed against each other twice in the Association of College Unions International championship round after beating 46 male college students from five states.

The regional tournament was held at the University of Tennessee from Feb. 19 to Feb. 20, where colleges from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina competed in recreational activities such as billiards, table tennis and poker. The top five billiards players qualified for positions in the national tournament, hosted by ACUI, a national organization that aims to connect universities through the idea of community.

VCU sent eight men and four women to UT to compete in separate divisions. The competition started with 10 tables of round robin, a small tournament in which each competitor played against every other competitor at their table. This method was used to eliminate 16 players, leaving 32 players to compete on the second day.
“It was hard,” Trainham said. “Once the brackets kept getting smaller and smaller, we had to play our own teammates and we eventually knocked each other out.”

Trainham has played pool since he was 6 years old. He learned how to play from his parents, and he owns a pool table in his home.

“Poolhalls aren’t place for kids,” Trainham said. “If I didn’t have a table in my house, I probably wouldn’t have ever picked up a stick.”

Trainham’s 17 years of experience helped him at the regional tournament when he won the championship to Lacson 11-4. It was Trainham’s first ACUI tournament.

“Mark was my biggest competition,” Trainham said. “I thought he was the one person who could beat me.”

Trainham disliked playing against his teammates because he wanted both he and his teammates to win, he said.

On the other hand, Lacson saw the competition as an opportunity to have fun. A pharmacy graduate student, Lacson will not be able to attend nationals because of rotations, where he will visit different practice sites to gain medical experience.

“I was just trying to have fun because I knew I wasn’t going to go to nationals,” Lacson said. “I didn’t have anything to lose. It was just for fun.”

Amy Anderson, the regional ACUI Leisure Programs Chair, says the date and location of the national tournament has not yet been released.

While Trainham’s only goal was to make it to nationals, and Lacson only wanted to have fun, their advice for practicing is as equal as their ambitions.

“Play everyday and dedicate your time,” Trainham said. “Add pressure and challenge yourself to help yourself get better.”

“Don’t take it too seriously,” Lacson said, with a grin. “It’s just a game.”

There's no price for determination

By Junelynn Tran

RICHMOND, Va. -– Before she landed in Virginia, native born Texan Jennie Lynn Price, 24, traveled across the country from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic on a quest to finish college. She hopes to pursue a career in print journalism, and currently works for the Gloucester-Matthews Gazette-Journal.

Price was born in Texas but raised in Duluth, Minn. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Superior and the University of Minnesota-Duluth before she was in an accident that sprained both her ankles. With no one to help her, Price had difficulty attending school full-time. Instead, she concentrated on her job as assistant manager to an independent record store called Electric Fetus.

Price met her husband, Joshua, while she worked in a small restaurant called Nutty Megs in Duluth, Minn. in 2004. They married on June 14, 2008. Her husband is in the Coast Guard, which led them to move to Gloucester, Va. They commute separately from Gloucester to Richmond every day to attend Virginia Commonwealth University.

“VCU is the closest four-year college that we’re willing to drive to that has the program we are interested in,” her husband said. Price is a print journalism major, while her husband is a broadcast journalism major.

Price’s business experience allowed her to create her own business – Olive Bunny Handmade – where she makes recycled journals and one-of-a-kind stuffed animals to sell through Electric Fetus stores and her online Etsy.com shop. Price enjoys real film photography and fixing old furniture from thrift stores. She also screen prints on a Japanese Gocco printing machine, on which she made her own wedding invitations.

“Mostly, I like to learn how to do hands-on things and be self-sufficient,” Price said.

Price said if she had her own show, she would name it “Parts on Hand,” where she and her dad would go out to a garage and build something entirely from the products in the garage.

Price’s husband describes her as “ambitious, motivated and willing to try anything.”

“She wants to be an expert in a lot of different things from sports to writing to sewing to cooking to working on cars,” her husband said. “She’s succeeded in most of the things she’s tried.”

Price works for the Gloucester-Matthews Gazette-Journal. She describes her position as “the one that does everything.” She has had experience making plates in the print room, copyediting, proofreading and writing small stories.

Price currently resides in Gloucester, Va. with her husband. They have a two-years-old dog named Mabelle that they rescued from the Humane Society, and a 10-year-old black housecat named Frances, who Price says is “extremely needy.”

Price has the ambition to try anything and everything like Wonder Woman. She might not have super-human strength like Wonder Woman, but she would not mind taking the role.

“I would have to be a superhero in the tradition of Wonder Woman, you know, snappy outfit and tall boots,” Price said. “No invisible airplanes though. That’s a little silly.”

The 'heroes' of Asian-American media share their journey

By Junelynn Tran

HARRISONBURG, Va. -– Hundreds of students from across Virginia stood in the cold outside James Madison University’s Grafton-Stovall Theater. Instead of waiting for a popular musician or actor, they were anticipating the members of Wong Fu Productions, an Asian-American filmmaking group that has become a hit online and on college campuses throughout the U.S.

Currently on their Autumn 2009 college tour, the members of Wong Fu Productions -– Philip Wang, Ted Fu and Wesley Chan -– spoke to their audience about their journey as filmmakers and showed new video clips exclusive to the tour.

“We didn’t set out to be the ‘heroes’ of Asian-Americans,” Fu said. "It just happened by accident. But now that we’re given this huge responsibility, I feel like it’s our duty to take it seriously.”

The tour has taken the group from Connecticut and Virginia to Indiana and Texas. The guys have hit some major cities along the East Coast:

• Boston
• New York
• Philadelphia
• Washington, DC

The group’s work has ranged from music videos for upcoming Asian-American musicians to a feature-length film called “A Moment With You.” They have a special Chinese series called “The One Days: HK” -– several short films set in Hong Kong, each shot in just one day. The group’s popularity arose in 2006 with a short film titled "Yellow Fever,” about interracial dating between Asian-Americans and whites.

Wong Fu’s films, known for the portrayal of events and emotions that can occur to anyone, have been featured in major film festivals like the Cannes Film Festival.

“I think they are the epitome of young Asians in the media,” Michael Urgel, a student at James Madison University, said. “They’re growing filmmakers and a lot of the students here really love what Wong Fu is doing.”

Wong Fu Productions originated at the University of California at San Diego in 2004. Since then, the filmmakers have become a YouTube sensation. By using the Internet as their resource, the trio gets thousands of hits every day and has millions of fans across the US and the globe.

But it has not always been easy.

Wong Fu was given an opportunity to shoot another feature length film called “The Sleep Shift” when complications with potential producers arose.

“There were some issues since our male lead was an Asian male,” Chan said. “The producers thought it wouldn’t be profitable, so the project was shelved.”

Fortunately, the setback did not disappoint the Wong Fu members for long. Instead, it made them more determined to make a difference. Wong Fu released a merchandise line pulling inspiration from the concepts of their videos. A percentage of their proceeds are donated to a different charity each month. October’s charity was the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Fund.

Recent videos feature collaborations with other popular Asian-American YouTube stars, such as KevJumba, Happyslip and David Choi. Fans can expect more work from Wong Fu Productions as they push for more Asian-Americans in mainstream media.

Original article

Flu vaccine in short supply

By Junelynn Tran
VCU Capital News Service

RICHMOND, Va. -– The number of swine flu cases in Virginia is rising, but the vaccine against the H1N1 flu virus is in short supply, the state’s top health official said Friday.

Health Commissioner Karen Remley said that fewer than 400,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine are available in Virginia, which has almost 8 million residents.

The limited supply of vaccines has been distributed or is in transit to health care providers throughout the state. The immediate goal is to provide doses to high-risk priority groups, such as pregnant women, health care providers and people with chronic medical problems.

“We have a state of 7.7 million people, so you’re looking at about over 3.5 million people who fit in those priority groups, and we have less than 400,000 doses,” Remley said in a telephone conference call with reporters Friday.

Emergency room treatment for suspected flu in Virginia reached an all-time high of 14.2 percent this week, Remley said. Previous seasonal flu cycles have peaked around 7 percent.

About 60 percent of the vaccine doses sent to Virginia health care providers are injectable, while 40 percent are in the nasal mist form.

With 2,800 vaccination sites statewide, not every location will receive its entire order of vaccines. Some sites have received as few as 100 doses.

Remley attributed the short supply of vaccines to production delays. It takes weeks to manufacture because the process requires recreating the H1N1 virus to create the vaccine. Then each batch of vaccine must be tested to make sure it is safe and effective.

The Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are working to distribute the vaccines in a timely fashion because the vaccines are perishable.

Remley said Virginia should expect to receive more of the H1N1 vaccine next week. She hopes the vaccine will be readily available to the general public in mid-November.

The Virginia Department of Health created a statewide media campaign and vaccination program against the H1N1 flu virus called “H1N1Get1. It’s up to you to fight the flu.” The campaign promotes awareness against the virus and encourages Virginians to get vaccinated.

Last week, at an event at Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical campus, Remley received one of the first vaccinations. Remley has asthma, a chronic health condition that puts her in a high-risk priority group.

The VDH’s media campaign strongly encourages people to protect themselves and their families by getting vaccinated to prevent the spread of the contagious flu virus.

Virginia has had 10 reported deaths associated with the H1N1 virus. That’s fewer deaths than most other states when compared with their population, Remley said.

Besides getting vaccinated, health officials are promoting other ways to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus:

• Wash hands frequently with soap and water
• Cover the mouth when sneezing and coughing
• Use hand sanitizers
• Avoid touching the eyes, nose and mouth
• Stay home if feeling unwell

For more information about swine flu, visit www.h1n1get1.com, a Web site created by Virginia Department of Health. The department also has a toll-free hot line -– 1-877-ASK-VDH3.

Original article