On October 2nd, OCBC President, Rumi Nakatani, and Reverend Harada hosted a Sangha-wide meeting following the regular Sunday service reporting on the current status of the project. Rumi formally reported to the Sangha that construction start would be delayed one year, until July 2013. She reported that while we've already received donations and pledges totaling over $4.6M, we hadn't collected enough to fully fund all the anticipated construction costs of the originally planned social hall and patio. She noted the one year delay would give us time to hopefully collect those needed funds. Rumi added that the Development Committee has set a very short term goal of $1M in new donations and pledges by February 2012. That will be the date for a go-ahead decision on the original design, if we raise enough funds, or a reduced scope design, if we don't.

Reverend Harada then made a strong appeal to the Sangha to raise the needed funds. He described how the original 75 founding families had sacrificed much and even mortgaged their own homes and farms to pay for our current facilities, recognizing how important OCBC was to become for their families and the growing Sangha. He noted how numerous families' children had grown up at OCBC, participating in not only religious activities, but the many youth, sports, and social organizations OCBC provides. Now they are married and are raising their children in that same family-oriented OCBC environment. Reverend Harada said that we all should feel that same sense of Dana that our founding families exhibited and take this opportunity to pay back to OCBC for all we have received. He urged families to pass on his message to others who were not at the meeting and encourage them to help. He noted that there are many young adults who benefitted from their involvement in OCBC organizations and activities and urged them to also participate in this campaign. He emphasized we needed everyone's help to reach our goal.

Both Rumi and Reverend Harada made appeals to the roughly 50% of the Sangha who have not yet become involved, to make a contribution, noting even a small amount will help. Development Committee members, adorned with yellow "100%" construction caps. fully supported that 100% participation goal They also urged previous donors to add to their pledges and donations if their circumstances permitted.

At this writing, two weeks after the meeting, we've noted a definite increase in interest and response to Reverend Harada's appeal. Since then, we've received 23 donations with nine repeat donors. We've gotten three pledges, two new and one previous pledge that was doubled. This is a good start to our Fall and Winter campaign. Let's keep the momentum going!

MAKE YOUR DONATIONS OR PLEDGES NOW!!!

OCBC acknowledges the following new and repeat donations received in late September through mid-October.