We wish to thank:
Joy Kogawa
Nancy Ruth, our wonderful once-anonymous donor who came to the rescue when TLC was prepared to purchase the house with a mortgage.
Gerry McGeough and Hugh McLean of the City’s Heritage Planning department, who first communicated with Anton Wagner about the demolition. Hugh was responding to an Attention Read Note that former heritage planner Terry Brunette had placed on the Kogawa House property listing in the City’s planning department. Gerry was very helpful in drafting an unprecedented motion to delay approval of a demolition permit for 120 days.
Heather Redfern of the Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture, Marion Quednau of the Writers Union of Canada, and Diane Switzer of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation for speaking on our behalf to Vancouver City Council on November 3, 2005.
Diane Switzer of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, Roy Miki, and a representative from the Marpole Museum and Historical Society for coming to Vancouver City Hall to meet with Terry Brunette in October 2003.
Yosef Wosk for responding to Diane Switzer’s appeal for funding.
Jim Green and Senator Larry Campbell for declaring Joy Kogawa Obasan Day at Vancouver City Hall, for making the first public announcment and telling the audience at Vancouver Arts Awards about the need to save the house.
Chris Kurata in Toronto for organizing to stop the demolition and creating the first Kogawa House website.
Margaret Atwood and Paul Yee for their valued quotes.
James Johnston for his early genealogy of 1450 West 64th Avenue.
Ellen Woodsworth for her early help prepping us for the City Hall Council meeting on November 3, 2005.
City Councillors Suzanne Anton and Heather Deal, whom we first contacted as Park Commissioners.
City Councillor Elizabeth Ball for her ongoing support of the arts.
Raymond Chow for creating a painting of Joy as a child at the house circa 1941.
The 2005 Vancouver Mayor and City Council for passing a unamimous decision to delay processing of the demolition permit and making donations out of their pocket that day to launch fundraising.
Literary and writing assocations across Canada for their early and continuing support, including the following:
Writers Union of Canada
Federation of BC Writers
Playwrights Guild of Canada
Canadian Authors Association
Periodical Writers Association of Canada
PEN Canada
Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival
Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers
League of Canadian Poets
Writers’ Trust of Canada
Asian Canadian Writers Workshop
The project was also endorsed by the Vancouver Public Library Board, Vancouver Opera, the Alliance for Arts and Culture, Heritage Vancouver, The Land Conservancy, the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, the National Association of Japanese Canadians, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Association of Book Publishers of BC.
VPL’s One Book One Vancouver Program which selected Obasan as its 2005 reading choice and Vancouver Opera’s Naomi’s Road for really raising the awareness of Joy Kogawa and her work.
James Wright, then general director of Vancouver Opera for commissioning the Vancouver Opera in Schools production of Naomi’s Road.
Ramona Luengen, Ann Hodges, and Leslie Uyeda for their beautiful music, libretto, and production of Naomi’s Road.
The cast of the 2005–2006 Vancouver Opera in Schools production of Naomi’s Road, including Jessica Cheung, Gina Oh, Sam Chung, and Gene Wu.
Joan Young and her Grades 3 and 4 class at Tomsett Elementary in Richmond, and her principal Sabina Harpe, for motivating the children to take part in the campaign. They created their own initiatives to save the house by writing letters to Vancouver City Council and meeting with Councillor Kim Capri.
The Reverend Val Anderson, then MLA for Vancouver-Langara, who took a special interest in the project because of his connections to the Japanese Canadian community in Marpole.
The Honorable Ujjal Dosanjh, who spoke on behalf of Kogawa House in Parliament on April 6, 2006.
The Nikkei Voice and the National Association of Japanese Canadians, who were supportive from the beginning of the campaign.
Don Luxton, then executive director of Heritage Vancouver, who listed Kogawa House as one of Vancouver’s Top 10 Endangered Heritage Sites in 2006 and then discussed our campaign during a guided tour aboard a vintage Transit Museum Society bus.
TLC, The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, for stepping into the project to take over the fundraising and the nitty-gritty details that we had no experience handling. Bill Turner, executive director, their team of Tamsin Baker, Heather Skydt, and Rich Kenny, and the many board members.
Dedicated members and volunteers of the Save Kogawa House Committee:
Anton Wagner, Chris Kurata, Margaret Steffler, Tomoko Makabe, and Kathy Chung in Ontario.
Ann-Marie Metten, David Kogawa, Ellen Crowe-Swords, Richard Hopkins, Jen Kato, Joan Young, Sabina Harpe, Deb Martin, and Harry Aoki in Vancouver.
Also… journalists who covered the story, including Alexandra Gill and Rod Mickleburgh of the Globe and Mail, Sandra Thomas of the Vancouver Courier; Kate Taylor and Michael Posner of the Globe and Mail; Barbara Wickens of Macleans magazine; CBC Radio’s Paul Grant and Sheryl Mackay for their stories; Radio Canada for covering our November 10 awareness event, and to Kathryn Gretsinger and her producer Rosemary Allenbach, who broadcast Joy’s appeal to rescue her home on a Boxing Day 2005 broadcast of “Sounds Like Canada.”