Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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The 2007 Local Colors Festival will take place May 19 in Roanoke's Elmwood Park, and as usual, its founder, Pearl Fu, will be on stage the entire time.

She promises.

Neither her April 23 surgery for colon cancer nor the prospect of chemotherapy treatments after the festival will keep her from her customary place.

Or from writing the entire script for the emceed portions of the international cultural celebration.

Or from calling and e-mailing everyone who might be willing or able to donate money or lend a hand to make the festival better than it has ever been.

She insists.

Roanoke's Local Colors group began in 1991 with four countries.

This year's festival will include at least 82 countries, and possibly more, if Fu can find some newcomers who want to participate.

Don't put it past her.

Whirlwind

Fu is a Roanoke landmark, though not a stationary one. She is often on the move, running workshops, mediating disputes, networking among business people, appearing here and there, all on behalf of Roanoke's international community, all on behalf of the nonprofit organization she heads.

She is a Roanoke tourism ambassador, a civic designation that others have received, although it's doubtful that many people can name one.

She is a native of China, but does not fit the antique stereotype of the inscrutable Asian.

She is relentlessly cheerful and gracious. She is just plain relentless about her mission.

She assures you that she won't change.

For her surgery, Fu spent eight days in Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem.

She returned home Tuesday, and immediately started moving around her house, dispatching and receiving messages and taking the occasional nap.

"I've never had so much rest in my life," she said on the phone, laughing.

The festival is, as always, foremost in her mind.

"My worry is me having it ready," she said.

A glitch

Fu said that this year, some sponsors have reduced their financial contributions, and with the surgery, "I didn't have enough time and energy to convince them" to give more.

She needs volunteers to help May 19, too.

(To join up, call Fu at 904-2234 or e-mail her at pearlfu@aol.com.)

Fu recalls a day when a downpour drove festival crowds away, but she persisted in following her script before an audience of almost no one.

Her cancer prompts a tactless question about a succession plan for future festivals.

"That's really my biggest worry," she said. "If I drop dead now, it's all inside my head. It's like nonstop, 24 hours per day. I can't see another person who'd be willing to do it."

Certainly a committee could be assembled to perform the planning and preparations, if she would write them down.

"We do have a steering committee and a board," she noted.

There may be some people in the Roanoke Valley who don't know who Pearl Fu is -- she often jokes about those who confuse her with real estate agent Spring Cho -- but there is no questioning what she is about: creating good will among people from all nations, of all backgrounds and creeds and ethnicities.

Her manner is as comforting as a mountain stream. Streams shape rocks.

Fu has shaped this region's cultural sensibilities.

The May 19 festival will begin with a Parade of Nations in Elmwood Park at 11 a.m.

Closing ceremonies will begin at 4:40 p.m., and the festival will end at 5.

There is no admission charge.

Ethnic singers, dancers, fashions, foods and displays, including an American Indian village and a Norwegian Viking ship, will be featured.

Anh-Tuan "Cao Boi" Bui, the Christiansburg man who became famous for his participation in "Survivor," will be a guest emcee.

Fu, who won't reveal her age, plans to participate as fully as ever.

"Nothing stops me," she said.

She means it.