Staff Reports
World T'ai Chi/QiGong Day is observed in a free event, 10 a.m. to noon April 24, in Minden Park. Saturday's event is co-sponsored by the Carson Valley T'ai Chi Club and Douglas County Parks & Recreation Department event in coordination with the 12th annual World T'ai Chi Day. Gov. Jim Gibbons has declared April 24 to be World Tai Chi Day in Nevada.
About 75 people in Minden will join with T'ai Chi practitioners from Shanghai to Chattanooga to Kansas City to exhibit the series of T'ai Chi Chuan movements in Minden Town Park. Nearly 150 attended the local inaugural event in 2003 in spite of inclement weather. Routines will be led by Douglas County and Reno instructors, joined by Syena Sowden of Fallon, who demonstrates her MoTiYoGaChi routine. A new series of TaiJi Qigong movements will also be presented.
T'ai chi and QiGong are believed to boost the immune system, slow the aging process, lower high blood pressure, reduce the incidence of anxiety, depression and overall mood disturbance, and be the most effective balance and coordination conditioner in the world.
T'ai Chi and QiGong have been used to treat diabetics, cancer survivors, persons with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer disease symptoms, and shingles. Articles about the benefits of T'ai Chi and QiGong have appeared in Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal.
This year World T'ai Chi/QiGong Day founder Bill Douglas and his wife Angela Wong Douglas will go to Brazil to be a part of the nation's 50th anniversary celebration of the inauguration of the capital at Brasilia. The president of Brazil has proclaimed April 24 to be observed as World Tai Chi/Qigong Day.
The annual world event began in 1999, and there are now more than 1,500 events worldwide, including more than 700 in the United States. The celebration begins at 10 a.m. in New Zealand, and continues around the world at 10 a.m. in each time zone.
Information, Earl Mussett, 782-6603.
