Source: The Seattle Times
On November 20, 1999, The Seattle Times published an article on the opening of a new Cambodian Buddhist center in Lynnwood, Washington in a building that was formerly a business plant. The new center, which is to be dedicated on November 20th, will primarily serve the Cambodian Buddhist community in Puget Sound and throughout Northwest Washington, providing support services and cultural education to its members. Thoeuy Kong, a bilingual-education instructor who bought the abandoned business plant with his own savings and headed the center project, stated: "This is the first center of its kind in the North Puget Sound area...a place of our own...It is so important for Cambodian people to have contact with their community...their culture and Buddhist religion." Kong is president of the Cambodian Association of Northwest Washington, a community-based organization that includes about 700 members. Since the building housing the new center was rezoned as residential after the business closed, center events will be limited to small gatherings and ceremonies. It does plan to offer transitional housing for needy families, Cambodian language and dance instruction, and a task force to help parents of troubled youth. Kong is also trying to recruit a Buddhist monk from one of the Cambodian temples in Seattle to live at the center and oversee religious worship.