On July 14th, members of our group attended the Lotus Festival at Echo Park in Los Angeles. This event is held every year free to the public to bring entertainment and public awareness of many community services that are available to them.

There were vendors situated around the lake with all kinds of food, music, jumpers for the kids, even paddle boats and dragon races. Even the Starbucks vendor was handing out free samplings of one of their cold frappaccino drinks. The day was hot but the area was packed with people, young and old. We walked passed the community services and headed towards our booth for the health fair portion of the festival. We settled in and started handing out educational pamphlets, answering questions about Thalassemia, and free pencils to the kids.

This was a great opportunity for us to reach out to the public since many of these people had not heard of Thalassemia and its genetic complications. We ended the day with plans to come back next year.

Left to Right: Thomas Cheng (Cooley's Anemia - California Chapter), Carmen DiLorenzo (Fundraising Chair), Vincie DiLorenzo (Volunteer), Paul DiLorenzo (President)