(Clearwisdom.net) To celebrate Canadian Heritage Day, a Center Fest was held in the city of Red Deer for two days. Falun Gong practitioners from Calgary and Edmonton participated in the event. We demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises, clarified the truth to the people, and gained many people's support as well as the commendation of the event organizer.
 Young adults from Calgary listening to the facts of Falun Gong carefully |
 A Falun Gong practitioner clarifying the facts |
 A Falun Gong practitioner introducing the book, Zhuan Falun |
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The city of Red Deer is the third largest city in Alberta, Canada. It is located between Edmonton, the Capital, and Calgary. This is the second year of the Center Fest, which took its name from the location--the center of the city at the intersection of Ross Street and Gaetz Ave.
On the morning of Sunday, August 1, 2004, heavy clouds covered the sky and it started to rain. The thick and dark clouds seemed to say that it would be a rainy day. Although it was in the middle of the summer, the weather was chilly, and it seemed as if it was trying to separate us from the people, by discouraging people from coming to the festival. Practitioners realized that nothing could shake our determination to clarify the truth and save sentient beings. As soon as we had breakfast, we started putting up our booth and practicing the exercises as a group.
Before long, the clouds started to disperse and the sky became clear; then it became very sunny. People walked outside and came to Ross Street. As many Fest vendors had not arrived yet, Falun Gong practitioners' exercise demonstration and posters were very eye-catching. People came to our booth one after another. Practitioners gave out flyers while explaining to the crowd the contents of the posters, from the wonderfulness and spread of Falun Dafa throughout the world, to the unreasonable persecution in China, from bringing Jiang to justice, to the recent shooting incident in South Africa.
Many people heard the truth of Falun Gong for the first time. They were shocked by the brutal persecution launched by Jiang's group and condemned it. Some people were very interested in learning Falun Gong, and asked if there was any practice site in the city of Red Deer. When they learned that we came from Calgary just for this event, they wanted to learn the exercises right away. Some western young adults had some knowledge about Taichi, Qigong and Yoga. When they heard the introduction of Falun Gong, they asked many questions and expressed great interest.
The most touching story is about an elderly couple who came to our booth after watching others' performances. Because we were wearing bright yellow practice suits, they mistakenly thought we were going to put on a performance. Seeing the elderly lady having difficulty standing, a practitioner went to her immediately to support her, and helped her walk over to our booth. Through the conversation, the gentleman came to understand that we were Falun Gong practitioners, and he wanted to read the book and learn the exercises immediately. His wife held the practitioners hands tightly throughout the conversation and listened to the introduction wholeheartedly.
After lunch, the performers started to take the stage one after another. The audience would circle around the performers and watch closely. Several performances took place right next to our booth, so the audience circled us around too. In order not to disturb their entertainment, we moved our booth away a little, lowered the music, and continued to practice the exercises quietly. We waited quietly until the performances ended before we resumed distributing flyers and clarifying the truth again. Our behavior not only impressed the audience, but also gained the commendation of the organizers. The Executive Director of the Fest told us after the event, "Thank you! You did great!"
