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Issue: 1040 Date: 7/29/2010
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OCA-St. Louis Chapter Attended OCA National Convention in Houston
Unsung Heroes Award: Grace Wai-Yin Lee
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| OCA-STL Board Members with OCA National President, Ken Lee and OCA First Lady, Ashley Lee |
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On June 17 to 20, 2010 OCA-St. Louis Chapter President Eling Lam and Board Members, Grace Lee and Thong Tarm attended the OCA National Convention in Houston, Texas. The annual convention is a way for members across the country to retreat and focus on discussing causes that are critical to OCA and Asian Pacific Americans in United States. It's also a great time for chapter leaders to exchange ideas, success stories and learn from our national partners the skills to improve their chapters. This year's participants were given the opportunity to discuss issues such as health care, immigration, and civil rights. There were multiple tracks to enroll. Some examples of the workshops were chapter development, global business strategy, and economic development tools for the local communities, and secret meaning of body languages.
This year, OCA-St. Louis's own Grace Wai-Yin Lee is selected as one of the recipients of the Unsung Heroes Award. This award is given in recognition of the many OCA members who are the “unsung heroes?working behind the scenes in their respective chapters dedicating their time and efforts to advancing the many causes of OCA and their local community. Nominees are individuals who are always willing to give his/her time no matter how insignificant the task. They are also individuals who have not received any public recognition for his/her contributions to the chapter and is one who does not purposely and actively seek public recognition for his/her work. Grace has been a member of OCA-STL for over 10 years and is currently serving on the board as Treasurer. Formerly, she served as Vice President of Finance beginning in 2006. She has consistently helped out in every chapter hosted event and goes above and beyond to make sure every event runs smoothly. Working behind the scenes, Grace has helped to run successful events like the OCA Annual Banquet and Lunar New Year Celebration as well as OCA's Senior Citizen Luncheon. We are very happy for Grace on this well-deserved overdue recognition.
Other awards given were Outstanding Citizen Achievement and the Pioneer Award. Dr. Nguyen D. Thang was the recipient for the Outstanding Citizen Achievement. He arrived at the United States in 1979, as a boat refugee from Vietnam. After receiving his Ph.D in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, he worked as an engineer and a quality control manager for a research lab in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2001, he left his high-paying engineering position to lead the Boat People S.O.S organization as its Executive Director. BPSOS was founded in 1980, they operated voluntary missions to rescue the boat people at sea and protect their refugee rights in asylum camps. He built it from a small volunteer based organization into a national one that operates multiple programs in 18 different locations. Through those activities, they successfully brought to freedom some 25,000 Vietnamese boat people.
Mr. Wat Misaka and Dr. Leroy Chiao are the Pioneer Award recipients. Mr. Misaka made history by becoming the first Asian Pacific American to play professional basketball. He was drafted by the New York Knicks in 1947 and was the first player in the Basketball Association of America, the precursor to the NBA (National Basketball Association). In 1999, Misaka was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame and at the 2009 NBA all-star game; he was welcomed as a NBA legend.
Dr. Leroy Chiao is the first Asian Pacific American astronaut commander of the International Space Station. He started his career as an astronaut when he was selected by NASA in 1990. Over the years, he has been involved in four space flights and has logged over 299 days in space. Dr. Chiao retired after 15 years from the agency in 2005. Currently he is the Chairman of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and Executive VP of a private manned spaceflight company, Excalibur Almaz. OCA got a special treatment when visiting the Johnson Space Center. Dr. Chiao, dressed in his astronaut outfit, debriefed the group before the tour start. He shared with the group his experience and some personal pictures he took while in space. It was an amazing and proud moment for all who participated.
OCA-St. Louis board members enjoyed their time and learned a lot at the convention. We urge all who have not attended an OCA convention to look forward to participate in 2011 at the Big Apple - New York.
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| OCA-STL Board Members posting with OCA Executive Director, George Wu and Chapter Presidents from Centeral Illinois, Chicago and Colorado |
Unsung Hero - Grace Lee |
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| Chapter Advancement Track - Class of 2010 |
Unsung Heroes with OCA National President, Ken Lee and VP of Membership, Wendy Wilber and SW Airline Representative |
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| Pioneer Award Receipient - Wat Misaka |
OCA-STL Board Memebers with Dr. Leroy Chiao at the NASA Johnson Space Center |
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