On Saturday 7^th, July 2012, the Health and Body Expo was held at the SS&A Club, Albury. Donna Carroll, the main co-ordinator of the Expo said that she was very excited about this as it was the first time for this kind of event in this area. The event received a lot of support from many related local businesses.

The Buddha Shop Albury was one of the exhibitors with a fair size space for its exhibition. It also allocated a table space to the local Buddhist temple to display their information in this expo as well. This gave the visitors the opportunity to talk to the Buddhist monk and get to know their local Buddhist temple.

The opening was remarked by the Buddhist blessing by Most Venerable Sudhammo, the president of Buddhist Federation of Australia and Ajahn Satit of Albury Buddhist temple. The exhibitors and participants were so pleased of their presence. 

Ajhan Satit would like to thank the local Buddhist community for their continuous and great support and also to the people who came with the open minded. He also revealed to our reporter that this expo had helped him to better understand the perception of the public here toward Buddhism, “I think it is still a big challenge for our local Buddhist community to educate the public about the Buddhist practice and the Buddhist value. I can see some people look at the Buddhist monk as a religious figure who is trying to convert them and they try to keep away. It is not like that at all. Buddhist practice and value is something that anyone can put into practice in their everyday live without having to call themselves a Buddhist.”

Never the less, there were many people who collected some info on the day and perhaps find some time to visit the temple.