EID EL-ADHA (12-14-2008)

 WASHINGTON, May 2  - The U.S. Senate approved President Bush's nomination of Dr. Elias Zerhouni, an Algerian-born physician, to lead the National Institute of Health. Dr. Zerhouni a well-known member of our community, left Algeria in 1975, where he received his education, to further his education in the the United States to pursue his dreams as an expert in biomedical engineering.  Medical studies are in his family:  his wife Nadia is also a pediatrician.  Dr. Zerhouni was in recent years a member of the Board of Directors of AAAGW. 

 Dear Algerian-American friends,

I would like to thank all members and guests who attended the Eid el Adha celebration and Nov. 1st commemoration yesterday.

Thanks to you, the event was a huge success, with over 200 people socializing, reconnecting with friends from the same background and culture, sharing traditional pastries over coffee while enjoying Wisseme's sweet songs and beautiful music.

The AAAGW board members were delighted to see such a large, unexpected turnout of our community to celebrate Eid together.

SamB was the the surprise guest, and he indeed surprised all of us, but the kids and teenagers went wild when he performed his break dance! Djaoued Bedjaoui, thank you for inviting him!

The other surprise guest was Houria who sang about Algeria in honor of November 1st. Her powerful voice while singing traditional songs brought up many good memories and people couldn't resist dancing to the lively rythm.

We were honored to have Algerian representatives attend the celebration, namely his excellency ambassador Baali and our deputy Mohamed Gahch, and many members who created this association 20 years ago.

The kids had fun with the drawings, the games, the pizza and the goodie bags they received for Eid. They also enjoyed having their own table and their entertainment program planned by our
Youth outreach coordinator, Habiba Belguedj.

The couscous from Casablanca restaurant was so good that many people went for seconds! As usual, Dahmane spoiled us with his wonderful bread and a huge cake. The fresh dates from Algeria were a bigger hit than the baklawa! Too bad we didn't bring some L'ben!

The former board members assisted us along with many other volunteers, and everybody left happy and feeling as if they went to a wedding celebration, according to a few guests. Thank you Nacer, Naim and Yassine for helping us at our first event by sharing your experience and giving us a hand.

We would like to apologize for the room size. We were not expecting such a big crowd! Thank God the attendant opened the adjacent room for us to serve dinner and seat more guests.

I would like to thank Hassina Amrane and Rekia Belkhodja for taking care of the coffee station, helping guests display all the sweets and making sure that everybody could get their coffee and cookies.

Djaoued was a great host, welcoming members and new guests, making them confortable.

The Tshirts were quite a hit due to the beautiful logo designed by Azzedine Stambouli and his family. Thank you Azzedine for all the work during the event, helping with the dinner and other tasks.

Walid Mediouni not only helped setting up the room and preparing the cold drinks station, involving his sister Wisseme and other guests, but he planned the entire music program and set-up of the sono. Thank you Walid! Thank you Wisseme and friends!

Sarah Mazouz and Nadira Boumechal had one of the hardest job to make sure and get members and guests to sign up or renew their memberships, to accept the $6 donations from non members, and to offer the memorabilia for a fee.

Ahmed Malti, among other tasks, managed to raise funds selling raffle tickets to many members. Thank you for participating at this fund raising. We still have some AAAGW Tshirts for $12 each, some Algerian-American flags pins for $7, a few Algerian flag key rings for $5. Please contact us if interested.

Of course, the task manager of the event was the busiest before and during the event. A big thank you to Smail Farid for getting us a free venue, a great price for the dinner, and getting a discount on the T-shirts, saving the association lots of money!

A stand-up appreciation to all the volunteers who helped us in so many ways!

The photos of the event are posted on the Aaagw facebook page and will be shortly added to the aaagw website. Please feel free to send us your photos to add.

Dear members, please let us know what you liked about this event and how we can improve. Also, suggestions on future events are most welcome from the Algerian-American Community.

Please keep in mind that this association is yours. It is thanks to your continued support that we'll be able to celebrate the AAAGW's 20th anniversary in a few months.

Thank you again for making this get-together such a hit!

Samia