2012 December 9 ACA High School Achievement Awards Banquet
About 60 people, including 22 honorees, their parents and other guests, gathered to award scholarships and to celebrate the honorees’ achievements. ACA presented 3 scholarships along with a Mable Peng Scholarship and a P.L. Siak Scholarship. The Detroit Chinese Engineers Association (DCEA) announced their two awardees and their scholarships will be presented in April at DCEA’s event at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2013 World Congress and Exhibition event. The Council of Asia Pacific Americans (CAPA) scholarship recipient will be announced and presented their scholarship in May 2013 at their Splendor of the East event. Click here to read a full recap of this event.
2012 December 6 ACA General Membership Meeting
Attendees enjoyed a multi-course Chinese dinner and socialized prior to the start of the meeting. ACA members elected four new Directors and re-elected one Director for a second term to the Board. Executive Director, Shenlin Chen, gave a presentation highlighting the events, activities and services over the past year. Board President, Ron Wong, along with accountant, Joyce Li, presented the Treasurer’s report on behalf of the Treasurer, Glen Dong, who was unable to attend the meeting. Two revisions to the bylaws were presented and approved by the members.
2012 December 5 Chinese Cuisine Cooking Contest
ACA and the Confucius Institute at Wayne State University co-sponsored this fun event held at the Central Alliance Church in Detroit. This was the second year that the contest was held. Audience members were able to watch as teams prepared their dishes. The audience also had the opportunity to taste the food and vote for their favorite dishes along with the panel of judges.
2012 December 1 APA Y-Advocate Workshop
OCA facilitators, Alex Tsao and Boosaba Pananon, led the workshop with 25 Asian Pacific Islander American students from area high schools actively and enthusiastically participating.
2012 November 25 New American Filmmakers Tour Part 2
A free showing of the films Apart Together (directed by Quanan Wang) and Beijing Taxi (directed by Miao Wang) was held. These films are part of a program of touring films co-sponsored by the Hawaiian International Film Festival and the Vilcek Foundation. Click here to go to the New American Filmmakers website.
2012 November 17 ACA Thanksgiving Celebration
Over 150 people attended this annual event as we recognized and thanked our devoted volunteers who helped out during the year. Each volunteer received an ACA 40th Anniversary T-shirt as a token of our appreciation. Raffle and door prizes included fruit baskets, two $20 gift certificates to Kim’s Restaurant in Troy donated by the owner, and two hand beaded flower pins made by ACA staff member Shirley Yee.
The entertainment featured several folk dance performances, choir performances, Jonathan Swift (who sang a Christmas classic and some Frank Sinatra standards), and a fashion show. To see some photos from the event, click here.
2012 Nov 11 New American Filmmakers Tour Part 1
A free showing of the films A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (directed by Wayne Wang) and Long Story Short (directed by Christine Choy) was held. These films are part of a program of touring films sponsored by the Hawaiian International Film Festival and the Vilcek Foundation. Click here to go to the New American Filmmakers website.
2012 Oct 19 ACA Senior Club 7th Anniversary Party
About 50 seniors and guests from AARP gathered to celebrate the group’s anniversary. The lively entertainment included a variety of performances by the seniors from singing, dancing, skits, magic tricks, and a line dancing lesson.
2012 October 12 ACA 40th Anniversary Celebration Banquet
This milestone event was attended by 220 guests including dignitaries, corporations, community organizations, ACA Board, staff and members. Our keynote speaker Marcella Lee made time in her busy schedule as news anchor at KFMB-TV in San Diego and mother of twins to come back to her home state to deliver the keynote address. This year’s Outstanding Corporate Excellence Award was presented to Comcast and was accepted on behalf of the company by Mary Beth Halprin, Vice President of Public Relations & Comunity Investments, Heartland Region. Margaret Wong received our Unsung Hero Award in recognition of her many years of dedicated service. Our Oustanding Youth Volunteers were Ting Chang, Franky Hang, Chenpai Shang, and Emily Soong. The entertainment included a special Royal Welcome Dance performed by our recently formed ACA Folk Dance Group, a magnificently elegant performance by the Michigan Chinese Folk Dancing Group and an awe inspiring Chinese Yo-Yo routine by Revolution.
Click here to read a full recap of the Celebration Banquet.
Click here to see some photos from the Celebration Banquet that are posted in our Photo Gallery.
2012 September 28 ACA Moon Festival Luncheon
About 80 people gathered to celebrate this mid-Autumn holiday. Entertainment included performances from: residents from the senior housing located on John R (group singing), residents from the senior housing on E. Irving (a group dance), ACA Folk Dance Group, the ACA Senior Choir, and a Chinese apparel fashion show. A couple of stuffed Hello Kitty toys (donated by Margaret Wong) and homemade moon cakes were raffled off.
2012 September 23-25 Exploring the Midwest Fall Outing
Participants of this 3-day, 2-night trip visited out neighbor states of Indiana and Ohio with visits to: the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio; the Marengo Caves in Indiana; a tour of Corydon which was the first state capitol of Indiana; and Oldfield-Lilly House & Gardes/Indianapolis Museum of Art.
2012 August 23 ACA Summer Outing: Toledo Zoo
Sixty people (mostly seniors and a few of their grandchildren) traveled by motor coach on this fun one-day trip to the popular Toldeo Zoo.
2012 July 9-August 3 ACA Youth Cultural Summer Camp
Our campers had another fun summer at our Canton and Madison Heights camps learning cultural arts and language, and even enjoyed a field trip to the Toledo Zoo.
2012 June 29 ACA Dragon Boat Festival
About 90 people enjoyed this fun event which included a folk dance performance, senior choir performances and a variety of other cultural performances, zongzhi raffles, and a catered lunch of Chinese food.
2012 June 23 Vincent Chin 30 Year Remembrance
Over 120 people attended the 30 year remembrance event held at our Chinese Community Center. Our keynote speaker was Frank H. Wu (Chancellor and Dean, University of California Hastings Law School). OCA Executive Director Tom Hayashi participated in one of our panel discussions and also in the web streaming live feed.
About 40 people attended the grave site ceremony at Forest Lawn Cemetary in Detroit presided over by Pastor Karsun Wong of the Chinese Alliance Church. A poetry reading was performed by poet Emily Lawsin of the University of Michigan. The service ended with flowers being laid at the graves of Vincent Chin and his mother Lily Chin.
Our event was one of numerous events held around the country including events in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Austin, and Hawaii. A special web streaming live session was also conducted that linked all the simultaneous events for a shared discussion period.
2012 June 14-16 ACA Niagara Falls Outing
About 60 people participated in this wonderful outing to Niagara Falls, which included seeing the historic crossing of the Falls on a tight rope by Nik Wallenda.
Stops during the trip included an Amish village in Ohio and while in Niagara Falls the group shopped at Fashion Outlets, visited a casino, took a boat tour, and went to the Cave of the Winds and Niagara Museum.
2012 May 5 ACA Mother’s Day Talent Show and Dinner
About 175 people, including 140 mothers, enjoyed our first Mother’s Day Talent Show and Dinner event. Sixteen mothers performed in the talent show portion which also included four guest performances. The talent performances included folk dancing, line dancing, ballroom dancing, “exercise” dancing, tai chi, and a piano performance. All the mothers were treated to a complimentary dinner. Click here to see some photos from the event.
2012 April 21 ACA and COMCAST Cares Day
2012 February 4 ACA Lantern Festival Community Fair
This free event was attended by over 300 people who enjoyed a variety of Chinese food, cooking demos, and cultural performances. Children’s activities included games with prizes to win, face painting, as well as eating cotton candy and popcorn. This year’s crafts included bracelet beading, paper lantern making and lantern painting. Several community organizations joined in the celebration with informational booths on their organizations.
2012 January 28 ACA Lunar New Year Dinner