English/Tiếng Việt:
 2010 Hot Topic Archives

■ Tet Trung Thu - Tet Nhi Dong
■ VACI Election - Bầu Cử Chủ Tịch Cộng Động
■ Neighborhood Fall Festival - A Multicutural Celebration
 ■ Vietnamese Community Picnic, August 14th,2010 @ McHenry Park
 ■ Vietnamese Community Picnic, June 12th, 2010 @ Prospect Park
 ■ Cultural Celebration: Performing Arts at the Science Center of Iowa
 ■ The 8th Annual Iowa Asian Heritage Festival
■ In Commemoration of the 35th Black April
 ■ The Exhibit "Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon" at the Grout Museum,  Waterloo, Iowa
 ■ Tet Canh Dan Festival 2010

2009 Hot Topic Archives

■ The Exhibit "Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon" at Iowa State Historical Building, Des Moines, Iowa
 ■ Annual Meeting

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 September 25th, 2010

Tet Trung Thu - Tet Nhi Dong

    Appropriately, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Children’s Festival. In the United States, this tradition continues in many Vietnamese-American communities. Trung-Thu activities are often centered on children and education. Parents buy lanterns for their children so that they can participate in a candlelit lantern procession at dawn. Lanterns represent brightness while the procession symbolizes success in school. Vietnamese markets sell a variety of lanterns, but the most popular children’s lantern is the star lantern. Other children’s activities include arts and crafts in which children make face masks and lanterns. Children also perform traditional Vietnamese dances for adults and participate in contests for prizes and scholarships. Unicorn dancers are also very popular in Trung-Thu festivities.

Like the Chinese, Vietnamese parents tell their children fairy tales and serve moon-cakes and other special treats under the silvery moon. A favorite folklore is about a carp that wanted to become a dragon. The carp worked and worked and eventually transformed itself into a dragon. This is the story behind the mythical symbol, Cá hóa Rông. Parents use this story to encourage their children to work hard so that they can become whatever they want to be.

There’s also a story about how the Moon Lady ascended to the moon. A man named Chu Cuoi found a lucky tree that had special healing powers. Because this tree was sacred, people were forbidden to urinate at the foot of this tree. Unfortunately, Chu Cuoi’s wife, Chi Hang forgot the rule and urinated on the tree. On day, while she was sitting on the tree’s branch, the tree started to grow and grow. Eventually, it reached the moon, since then, Chi Hang lived on the moon for the rest of her life as a punishment for desecrating the sacred tree.

 

 

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 September 18th, 2010

V.A.C.I.  Election 2010-2012

Kết Quả:

Vào thứ Bẩy tuần rồi, cô Jennifer Shedd (Nguyễn T. Nga) đă đạt 78% số phiếu bầu cử vào chức Chủ Tịch Cộng Đồng Việt Nam Iowa. 

                   Xin chúc chị nhiều may mắn trong nhiệm kỳ 2010-2012. 

 

 

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 September 11th, 2010

NeighborHood Fall Festival - A Multicutural Celebration September 11 @ Evelyn Davis Park

Evelyn Davis Park was the center of international-themed activities at the third annual Forest Avenue Library Fall Festival on Sept. 11.The free event, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., was a joint effort among the Friends of the Forest Avenue Library, the King Irving and Mondamin Presidential neighborhood associations and Thrivent Builds Neighborhoods. About two hundred people attended this year's event. Des Moines' drum corps, the Isiserettes, was kick off the festival at 11 a.m., with entertainment following from Mikiel Williams, a musical performer from New Orleans; Martial arts demonstrations from representatives of the Wushu Institute; Mexican folk dancing by Jovenes Embajadores; music by Syncopated Company; and Dances by a Vietnamese American dance troupe.  The African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids was bring a special traveling display that focuses on the Harlem Renaissance period, and food was sold by several vendors, including Mr. Bibbs Barbecue, Fat Tuesday restaurant and another New Orleans/soul food cook. Free horse rides was provided around the neighborhood, and children can participate in crafts and games.  

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 August 14th, 2010

Vietnamese Community Picnic August 14th, 2010 @ McHenry Park

                                                                                   Here are some of the photo at the picnic.

 Hope you were among us on Saturday, August 14, 2010 when we gathered and had a wonderful and very fun picnic together at McHenry Park.  We had 200+ people picnicking. 

A few very special guests came to be with us as well…

Lor Doua - Senior Police Officer, Asian Outreach Resource Officer at Des Moines Police Department.

Ohr Henny- Executive Officer, Office of Asian & Pacific Islander Affairs..

An Le – Congratulation to An Le, new teacher, Math, at Lincoln High School.

Truc Nguyen, PhD - Associate Professor, Chemistry, at Mercy College of Health Sciences.

It's a sad news - Mr. Vinh will not re-run for the position to lead the Vietnamese Community in 2010-2012 term that he announced at the meeting with the Board of Directors a few weeks ago.  But he will continue to support the Vietnamese American Community and the community at large.

 An Le, Than Pham, Toan Le, Ky Ngo and Minh Nguyet created some very entertaining games for us too.  (They are so good!)

The bingo game was begun and many of the adults as well as some of the older kids played, everyone enjoyed the games and someone went home with a gift.

V.A.C.I. once again served us a really great meal – grilled pork chops, fried chickens, stir-fry egg noodles, salads, breads, watermelons – truly a scrumptious picnic!

Thanks to everyone for all the delicious and yummy desserts.

A big THANK YOU to each of you for coming out to make it such a fun and memorable day together and also to all who helped in some small way to organize and pull together a fantastic picnic for our group, including friends.  We missed those of you were not there with us...  we are so blessed to have such a wonderful support group!

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 June 12th, 2010

Vietnamese Community Picnic 2010 @ Prospect Park

           

                                                                                     Here are some of the photo at the picnic.

The Vietnamese Community Picnic was very successful. Thank you very much, especially people helped us in prepare games, serve food, etc... We look forward to seeing you on August 14th, 2010 soon!

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 June 5th, 2010

CULTURAL CELEBRATION: PERFORMING ARTS

Vietnamese Cultural Celebration held Saturday at the Science Center of Iowa. The celebration ran from 11:00 through 12:00 PM.  Traditional Vietnamese dance presented by Vinh Nguyen and members of the Vietnamese American Community in Iowa.

           

 Here are some of the photo highlights.

 

Here is the Email from Aimee Langager

From: Aimee Langager [mailto:aimeel@sciowa.org]
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 4:36 PM
To: Nguyen, Vinh
Subject: Thank You!

 Vinh,

 Thank you for being a part of the Science Center of Iowa’s Performing Arts Cultural Celebration Day on Saturday! Your performance was fantastic and enlightening. Kaden and I had a great time watching you perform and I could tell our participants thoroughly enjoyed it as well. I heard participants of all ages say “that was fun!” and “I really enjoyed that!” after the performance. The one dance you were able to do was wonderful. The talk you gave was very informative. The question and answer session was great.  You had about 55 people in your audience.

 We hope you also enjoyed your day and being involved in our Cultural Celebration and the Science Center looks forward to more partnership opportunities in the future. We have two more Cultural Celebration days this summer, which include Visual Arts Day on July 17th and Food, Agriculture, and Industry Day on August 7th. If you or your organization would like to be involved to present or have an information/activity table please let us know. Or if you know of a person or organization that would be a great fit we would love to know so we could contact them.

 Please tell everyone who helped out or performed on Saturday they did a wonderful job and extend our thanks to them. We hope to see everyone back at SCI using their free tickets, which get them into one FREE IMAX movie and to our experience platforms, including our traveling exhibit RACE: ARE WE SO DIFFERENT? Also, please let members of your organization know that if they come to SCI and mention that they are a member of the Vietnamese American Community in Iowa they will receive a discounted rate. The free tickets and discount admission for members of your organization are good through September 6th, 2010.

 If you have any questions, suggestions, comments, or would like to be involved in our upcoming events please let us know!

 Thanks again for helping to make our Cultural Celebration a success and we hope to see you at SCI again soon!

 Aimee Langager and Kaden Borseth

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 May 15th, 2010

                                                         The 8th Annual Iowa Asian Heritage Festival

The 8th Annual Iowa Asian Heritage Festival Saturday, 10 am to 8 pm, May 15, 2010 Iowa State Capitol Complex – East Campus, Des Moines Theme: This is My Story! Everyone has a story, what is yours?

This year we have a new Karen's village, representing thirteen (13) distinct Asian communities that live in Iowa. “Villages” at this year’s event include: Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Japanese, Karen, Korean, Laos, Nepalese, Taidam, Vietnamese, and Thai.

Each village showcases the food, culture, history, arts, and crafts from that community. Participants of all ages will enjoy a wide array of family-friendly activities, including Asian cuisine, martial arts performances and competition, cooking demonstrations, exhibits and sale of traditional and contemporary Asian crafts, and live musical performances.

• Festival Co-Host – The Polk County Board of Supervisors
• Festival Champions – Lite 104.1, Mediacom, & Prairie Meadows
• Festival Leaders – Bravo Greater Des Moines, The Des Moines Register, John Deere, Pioneer, Hi-Bred International, Principal Financial Group, Wellmark BlueCross BlueShield

 

  

 

                                                                                           

If you want the original version with high quality for printing, please e-mail me at paultransr@yahoo.com

This my story - written by Andrew Tran from Meredith Middle School

      When I think of my dad, I think of a working man that can't cook.  After the interview, I got to see his hidden qualities.  He is a hard working, honest, loving, special, confident, and an intelligent person.  Toan influenced me with small and important actions that made me who I am.  Usually, when I make mistakes my dad would fix them so they won't happen again.  Toan was born on April 04, 1969 in Binh Gia, Vietnam.

    The Vietnam War initiated Toan's desire of a better life.  He traveled from Vietnam to Malaysia.  Malaysia is very tight and a crowed small island.  Years after his arrival in Malaysia, Toan and other refugees gathered on a small boat that was headed for U.S. Toan and his wife went on separate boats and planes to Iowa, they did not get to choose where they got to go. Toan moved to Iowa because he wanted to get away from communism, follow his family, and have freedom.

   Toan is unique, but his mind was similar to his father's.  One of the shared traits is honesty.  The second is being a hard worker.  Another similarity is confidence.  These traits helped Toan have dreams to accomplish.

    Toan had many dreams he wanted to complete.  His first dream was to finish college and be successful.  He didn't just sit there or quit because he knew he had achieve it.  Another dream was to get a good home.  He had to save a lot of money and be wise on how he used it.  By being wise, he accomplished those dreams.  These dreams are also my dreams.

   Toan influenced me to do good deeds, such as helping and being kind to others. He showed me how to succeed and be a good student. I think of my dad as a successful man that is not a good cook, and will always be someone I look up to.

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 April 30th, 2010
                                                 IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 35TH BLACK APRIL

On April 30, 1975, the Vietnamese Communist used massive forces to clamp its control over the entire country. Under its tyrannical rule, many people fled from Vietnam and almost half a million people died at sea. Fortunately, hundreds of thousands escaped to the United States and whereby many settled in Iowa to form the Vietnamese American Community in Iowa.  Every year, the Vietnamese American Community in Iowa  organizes a special event to commemorate those who died at sea and the people who are suffering in the country without human rights and freedom. Over 140 of people attend this event.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, an utterly important historical event to the Vietnamese Community.

Prayer ceremony for those who lost their lives at 4:00 P.M. Saturday May 1st, 2010 at Callahan Junior High School, 3101 Center Street, Des Moines, Iowa.

                                                           

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 April 10th, 2010

                                                     

                                                         

                                                    

                 Come celebrate the opening of the exhibit "Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon", an exhibit dedicated to telling the story of the struggles and triumphs of Vietnamese migrants after the War. Join us for authentic food, dancing, arts, crafts and games while learning about traditional Vietnamese culture.                                                                                       

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 February 20th, 2010

                                                                                     Tet Canh Dan Festival 2010      

                       VIETNAMESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN IOWA

    CỘNG ĐỒNG VIỆT NAM IOWA

                                   PO BOX 41274, Des Moines, Iowa 50311
                                   Email: nguoivietiowa@yahoo.com            Website: http://nguoivietiowa.org

TẾT CANH DẦN 2010 INVITATION

Dear Friends,

TẾT is the single-most popular and celebrated Holiday in the Vietnamese culture; it is also known as Lunar New Year in other Asian cultures.  For Vietnamese, TẾT marks the beginning of spring, time for renewing friendships and visiting family members.  TẾT usually falls at the end of January or early February, the first day of this year’s is Sunday, February 14.

To preserve the cultural significance of TẾT and continue integrating the Vietnamese culture into the mainstream American society in Iowa, the Vietnamese American Community in Iowa (VACI) and its affiliated associations will celebrate our TẾT, the year of the Tiger, at the Paul Knapp Animal Learning Center, Iowa State Fairgrounds. The event will begin at 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 20th, 2010.

The TẾT program will include the traditional homage ritual ceremony, dragon dance, cultural performances, (lễ chúc thọ) longevity wishes to elders, (ĺ x́) lucky money for children, karaoke, music, costume (áo dài thời trang) show, and many other popular games and activities in the Vietnamese culture. TẾT festival will not only serve as an annual reunion for many thousands of Vietnamese Americans in Iowa, but also an attraction for many others in the greater Des Moines area.  The Vietnamese community sincerely invites you to support its effort and attend the 2010 TẾT festival, the Year of the Tiger.

To support 2010 TẾT FESTIVAL, you may send your contribution to: VACI (Tet 2010)
                                                                                             P.O. Box 41274
                                                                                             Des Moines, Iowa 50311

Please include your name, address and phone number. 

For more information about the festival, please visit our website at: http://nguoivietiowa.org or write to nguoivietiowa@yahoo.com  Thank you.

 Tet Canh Dan Committee

If you want the original version with high quality for printing, please e-mail me at
 paultransr@yahoo.com

Festival Committee

Master of Ceremony
 Xuan An, Toan Le, Thuy Huynh
 Accounting
 Thanh Luong, Ro Vu
 Foods
 Jennifer Shedd, Natalle Nguyen
 Ancestral Ritual Performance
Dau Ha Dong, Nguyen Ngoc Sang, Lo Cam Bao,
 Hoang Cong Thinh, Le Van Huyen
 Decoration
 Cang Pham, Tony Pham
 Performances
 Kim H. Nguyen, Thanh Phuong
 Hosting
 Lan M. Pham, Tom Nguyen
 Games
 Xuan An, NHS Students
 Tet Magazine
 Hoang Yen, Phuong Tran
 Communications
 Paul H Tran
 Coordinator
 Minh Nguyet

 

Special Thanks

The Vietnamese New Year Festival was very successful. Thank you very much, especially people helped us in decorate the hall, prepare, serve food.  Vietnamese Catholic, St Peter Parish  (choirs & dragon dance) - Hồng Ân Temple - Vietnamese Lutheran Church - South Vietnamese Veteran Assoc. - Vietnamese Elder Assoc. - VASA Drake University - Vietnamese Amerasian in DSM - JROTC, Central Campus Program (Lt. Colonel Ronald Bennett) - Chinese Martial Arts Academy (Sifu Jose Mendoza) - Students from North & Hoover High School, Trinh Le - Phuong Thanh Tran - Phuong Tran (Photos, Tet's Magazine) - Huy Doan (banners) - Minh Nguyet (Poster) and Paul Tran (Photos - Website) and parent teacher association.

 

Financial Sponsors & Donors— Canh Dần Festival 2010

Chùa Hồng Ân (100)  Trần Trí&Thanh (100) Nguyễn Đức&Giao (100) Trần Cẫm (30  Đặng Chiên&Rỏ (50)  Ḷ Piêng (20)  Lê Huyền (30) Đoàn Huy (20)  Ḷ V. Chân (20)  Đinh Ái (20)  Bùi Minh (30)  Nguyễn Bé & Năng (50) Đào Hà (Davenport) (30)  Gilbert R Caldwell (25)  Đèo Xủ & Phương (40)  Ngô Q. Vinh & Thay (20) Trần Minh & Lang (30)  Nguyễn Sáng (20)  Hội Lutheran (100)  Hoàng Liên & Nhàn (20)  Nguyễn Thiện Vinh (20) Dương Tuyết (20)  Trần Muôn (20)  Nguyễn Tư (20)  Mai Thị Thuận (10)  Vũ Bảo (20)  Ḷ C. Bảo (50) Văn T Chương (30) Đặng Chung (20) Đào Hiền&Nguyệt (30) Lê Vọng (30) Vơ Phi Hùng&Dung (50) Hoàng Công Thịnh (20) Ḷ Văn Sáng (50) Phạm Thụy&Kim (20) Trần Nguyên&Hồng (50)  Trần Phong Lan (50) Nguyễn T. Nguyệt (20) Lê Hiền&Trinh (100)  Trần V. Thanh (30)  Nguyễn Joshep Tiều (50)   Phạm Chi&Oanh (50) Nguyễn V. Phi (50) Lê Jack&Thảo (20) Benson’ s Import Service (100) Đoàn Nhiêu (20) Nguyễn H. Yến (100) Lưu Đạt&Kim (50) Nguyễn Tay (50) Cao Chiên&Xuyến (50) Hoàng Oanh (30)  Đậu Đông (30)  Huỳnh Thùy&Duyên (50) Huỳnh Hoàng (20)  Trần Cảnh (20)  Đèo văn Chiu (50) Phạm Hồ&Hoa (30)  Phạm Quân&Loan (50)  Ḷ văn Thống (20)  Nguyễn Xuân (50)  Bành Annette (100)  Trương Nên (30) Huỳnh Sơn&Ánh (50)  Nguyễn Thu&Tùng (50)  Đào Tuấn&Melanie (20)  Lê Tâm&Trần (20)  Phạm Ngát (20)  Lisa Beauty (Hương&Dũng) (100)  Hoàng Tấn&Huyền (50)  (200) Trần Thiên Nguyện (30)  Huỳnh Ḥa (Kim Tín) (100)  Nguyễn Đông (30)  Huỳnh Thảo & Thuyên(30)  Trần Yến & Linh (30)  Huỳnh Huy (30) Trương David&Phú (30)  Lê Tấn Sĩ (30)  Nguyễn Long&Lan (Marion) (100)  China Place Rest.(Nam&Minh) (100) Lê thi Hương (25) Hoàng Công Duân(50) Huỳnh Phúc&Hồng (50) Đào Minh (WDM)(50)  Trần Liễu (50)  Trương Hảo&Huê (50)  Nguyễn Khai (20)  Nguyễn Cao&Kinh (20)  Lư Truyền (20)  Diệu Chính Ban (20)  Cao Minh John (20)  Nguyễn Bích (20)  Đặng văn Sử (20)  Trần Anh (20)  Tô Ḥa&Yến (20)  Trần Nhỏ&Hai (20)  Bùi Thập (20)  Huỳnh Giỏi&Diệp (20) Phạm Hùng&Heidi (100)  Phan Đa&Thanh (100) Tran Hien&Nhung (50) Nguyen Son&Kim (100) Truong Toan&Lynn (100) Đèo Kiên (20) Đèo Tu (20)  Nguyễn Tú&Minh (20) Khương Hoa (20) Lê Hồ&Hồng (20) Đặng Huân&Dung (20) Trần Đoàn (20) Nguyễn Hội Tony (20) Trần Ḥe (20) Phan Mẹo (20) Huỳnh Kiệu&Mai (50)  Nguyễn Nghiêm&Tiếng (50) Phạm Tôn&Melissa (30) Phạm Thông&Chi (30) Ngô Phương (30) Trần Dưỡng&Lư (30) Vơ Phát (100) Phạm Tony (120) Nguyễn Mi (100) New Look Nails (50) TJ Nails (40) Hollywood Nails (100) LV Nails (50) Phạm M. Lan (50)  Nguyễn Vinh (50) Toàn Auto (50) Liêu Thể (20) Nguyễn Hai Jack& Đầm (50) Nguyễn Tâm&Jenny (50) Lê Hai&Đào (30) Lê Hào&Liên (20) Bùi Ban (30) Hồ Tâm&Oanh (20) Nguyễn Nga&John (20) Nguyễn Tuyết (30) Baccam Rang&Thoa (50) Dr. Truc Nguyen&Family (100) Nguyễn Xu (30) Hoàng Theresa (30) Vơ Kim (10) Chen Cindy (30) Nguyễn Lộc (100) Phạm cang (100) Samad Nid Ako (100) Giáo Xứ St. Peters (200) VASA Drake (100)

Bronze Sponsor ($200)

Hội Cao Niên - Vơ Hải Auto - Hội Cựu Quân Nhân – Ted & Theresa(D.O.) Tran

Ban Giáo Chức (Cang–Nga–Kim–Vinh)

Silver Sponsor ($300)

Farmers Insurance Group (Toan Le) - Iowa Asian Alliance

Platinum Sponsor ($1,000)

Double Dragon

Raffle Prizes

Prizes Winning Number Winner
1 506  
2 542 Minh Tran & Lang
3 185 Ngoc Le
4 358 Thien Truong
5 205 Duyen Nguyen
6 108 Tiet Nguyen
7 457 Huynh Hoa
8 204  
9 495  
10 483  
11 311 Grabriel Jose

Drawing prizes must be claimed within 39 days of the drawing (2/20/10 - 3/31/10). Most of the prizes that remains unclaimed goes back to the Vietnamese American Community in Iowa.  

Thank you for Purchasing New Year Raffle Tickets to Support 2010 Tet Festival

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Revised: 11/16/10.

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