Celebration and Fundraising Festivities for Yijun Feng

Courtesy of USA Table Tennis / by Jie Chang

The first one, and the only such celebration and fundraising festivities for our local Olympic table tennis athlete Yijun (Tom) Feng in US was held in Atlanta on July 16, 2016 at Atlanta International Table Tennis Academy. Over a hundred of his supporters flocked into Atlanta International Table Tennis Academy for the event. VIPs include Michael Bodker, city mayor of Johns Creek, Wendell Dillion, USATT hall of famer, Sachi Koto, former CNN Headline News anchor, community and business leaders from many influential associations, such as International Leadership Foundation, National Association of Chinese Americans, etc.

At 2015 Nationals, Yijun clinched four national champion titles, include Men’s single, Men’s U21, Men’s doubles, and mixed doubles. What a marvelous achievements! But they are not enough. April 9, 2016, in Markham, Ontario, U.S. men’s champion Yijun Feng won the first singles spot and team spot on the Olympic table tennis team. As Wendell said at the event, “Yijun Feng is the first Georgian qualifies for Olympic Games in this 40 years involvement in table tennis”.

The two hours long celebration was packed with fun and colorful activities. Yijun Feng first expressed his appreciation for his coaches, parents and all his supporters. Also he shared his Olympic dream with audiences, the ups and downs of his 12 year journey how he got here today. He said he will fight hard and make us proud of him at Rio Olympic Games. Then, Many Gold level donors and VIPs made very nice complementary speeches and presented him many very BIG CHECKS and awards. Thereafter, Chinese Folk Songs from his hometown Jiangsu, China, dedicated to him, were performed by Atlanta Chinese Folk Music Orchestra. The peak of the celebration came in the last part: table tennis challenges and raffle drawing. Yijun gave away $800 worth of table tennis products including Butterfly pro racket, USATT team jerseys. The last highlight of the event many people said is the super delicious Asian refreshments.

Yijun gives us a reason to celebrate and watch Olympic Table Tennis. We are the only community in US particularly hosted a celebration and fundraising event only for one table tennis athlete, because he is the No. 1 table tennis icon; he is a hero of our wonderful local Chinese community.

Special thanks to three hosting organizations: Atlanta International Table Tennis Academy, Atlanta Jiangsu Fellowship Association, and Atlanta Chinese Business Association, and to the outstanding organizational committee of volunteers. Last but not least, thanks go to our generous donors. We raised $15k for Tom.

Yijun, go fight for USA at Rio, we stand behind you each step of the way!

Written by Jie Chang, event proposer and chair of organizational committee.