“So here is my mom's crazy collection of panda bears…You cannot move through her house without seeing something that represents her collection. The glass hutch is also a visual reminder of how much she loves pandas as well as how she has been given the gift of a panda by her friends a family for more than 3 decades.” Jolina Cadilli.
“My other favorite item is probably the golden panda coin. It was also given as a gift from my husband.” Joanna Vifquain.
The Lego panda made by Joanna’s grandson, Roman
Taylor, Joanna’s granddaughter, brought this glass panda back from Italy as a gift
This painting was made as a gift by one of Joanna’s friends
The gold-rimmed panda plate that was given to Joanna by her best friend of 60-years
PANDA BEARS
Joanna Vifquain with Jolina Cadilli
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When Joanna Vifquain began collecting panda-themed items in the 1980s, only about 1100-actual pandas lived in the wild.[1] Fast-forward thirty-seven years, and both the world’s panda population and Joanna’s collection have grown.
“I have so many panda bear things that I have lost count,” said Joanna. “They include paintings, plates, a tea set, wind chimes, coaster sets, candles, over 200 figurines, and many [made of] cloth.” Her daughter, Cypress math instructor Jolina Cadilli added: “Her photos do not do justice to what she truly has on display.”
The collection began when Joanna’s husband found a blue-eyed ceramic panda at a Laguna Beach pottery shop and brought it home to his new wife. “That started me off,” she explained, “but most of the bears were given to me as gifts by family and friends."
Among her treasured items are a “Lego panda figurine made by my grandson, Roman, and…one made by a glassblower when my granddaughter, Taylor, visited Italy…My other favorite item is the golden panda coin.”
As the US Mint makes the Gold Eagle, so China has issued its Gold Pandas annually since 1982. Every year, the coin features a new image of its national symbol on the reverse. Joanna’s coin, which has been formed into a necklace, carries the 1982 design of a seated panda holding a branch of bamboo, the species primary food source.
“The joy I get from seeing all these bears is in knowing how many people love and care for me when they took the time to seek out or make the pandas,” said Joanna. In parallel, some love and care has caused the status of the giant panda to shift from “endangered” to “vulnerable,” and there are now 1,864 giant pandas alive in the Chinese wild.[2]
NOTES
[1]. Amina Kahn, Los Angeles Times, 06/28/2018, “Preserving more habitat for China’s giant pandas is having a giant payoff, study says.” www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-panda-conservation-costs-20180628-story.html. Accessed 12/21/2020.
[2].https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/endangered_species/giant_panda/panda/how_many_are_left_in_the_wild_population/