Introduction

July 28^th

This lecture provides an opportunity to hear about restorative justice. Professor John O. Haley spoke about his ideas and techniques to reduce crime and recidivism in our individualistic culture. Bonnie Miller from Family Court of St. Louis County provided her insights on how Japan's community-based restorative-justice system may or may not impact America's crime problem.

June 23^rd

Our own OCA family members, Peter Tao and Helen Lee with the design firm TAO + Lee Associates Inc. was chosen to work on the Saint Louis Art Museums expanded education center in its south building.  They faced tough competition from 25 firms nationwide that responded to the museum's request for proposals to win out the contract.  TAO + Lee will execute the design concept master plan for a dedicated school and group entrance to the south of the museum and new classrooms in the south building.  Construction is expected to last two years and the museum anticipates gallery closures and movement of art throughout the museum during the project.

Click here for the Bizjournals article

Click here to view the construction progress

June 17^th to 20^th

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 had 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 had not attended an OCA convention to look forward to participate in 2011 at the Big Apple - New York.    Click here to view the recap on the convention.

June 5^th

As one of the ways to foster better community relationship building, OCA had one of their monthly board meetings at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. It was at this meeting where the board members had discussions with Jorge Riopedre - Executive Director, on the different ways OCA-St. Louis could partner and possibly work together on future projects and events.

May 25^th

OCA was invited to celebrate APAHM with the DEA. Supervisory Special Agent David Jenkins kicked off the lunch celebration by reading the Asian American & Pacific Islander Proclamation for 2010 on behalf of the President. It was followed by some very tasty Asian food and a documentary on martial arts film history. Participants not only enjoyed lunch, but also found a new appreciation for the amount of effort the Asian community put in to enter the main stream media in America. DEA is looking to further partner with OCA on programs that would help educate the community regard street drugs and its negative impact on all of us.

May 21^st

Dr. Hung-Gay Fung, Eling Lam, and Thong Tarm were on hand to help celebrate Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month with the FBI.  The FBI St. Louis Division invited Dr. Hung-Gay Fung to be a guest speaker to celebrate APA Heritage Month. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is celebrated in May to commemorate the contributions of people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent in the United States.

Dozens of FBI employees listened to Dr. Fung speak about Chinese culture, Feng Shui and I-Ching while tasting treats from a Chinese bakery.  Dr. Fung is a past president of the St. Louis chapter of OCA. The FBI also invited current OCA President Eling Lam and board member Thong Tarm to participate.

For future events, Ms. Lam is working with the FBI to host a half-day presentation in which the Chinese American community in St. Louis can learn more about the mission, goals, history, and internal workings of the FBI. The FBI holds these events with various community groups as a means to exchange information between the FBI and the participating communities. Through this exchange, criminal problems affecting communities will be identified and addressed.

In August, the FBI St. Louis Division is also planning to participate in OCA's upcoming career networking event. The FBI is recruiting qualified applicants to be agents and professional staff (non-agents). Non-agent positions include a wide variety of jobs such as interpreters, laboratory scientists, computer experts and analysts. Visit www.fbijobs.gov to learn more about FBI jobs and current openings.

May 15^th - 16^th

This year, immediate past president Helena Hseu was the Chairperson for the Chinese Culture Day event at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The rain may had dampen the grounds, but the dragon dance continue on indoors. There were traditional and modern fashion shows, food tastings, Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Exhibition, Tai Chi, and tea sampling. In the Jordan Education Wing area was where the children were taught to make decorative fans, jump rope, dragon boats, and given book readings.

**Special Note**

OCA-St. Louis recently joined the Adopt a Highway program and our sign is posted at the Manchester road and Ruck road intersection in Ballwin. It is half a mile west of Manchester road and Clarkson road.

Southern California Edison Awards $25,000 to OCA's Leadership Development Programs

Washington, D.C. OCA, is pleased to announce securing a $25,000 grant from Southern California Edison (SCE) to support local chapter leadership development programs.

APAs still remain one of the most under-served populations in the Southern California landscape --linguistically and culturally disadvantaged in the areas of access to educational and economic opportunities. Local chapter leadership development is one of the key strategies for addressing the socio-economic gaps in the communities served by OCA chapters and SCE.

With this grant, Southern California Edison enables OCA to support these leadership programs which aspires to achieve greater equity and equality for all APAs, stated OCA President, Ken Lee.

SCEs commitment through this grant represents their continued dedication not only to their customer communities, but the APA community and their families. An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.

SCE is proud to support the vital work that OCA does to help empower the Asian Pacific American community. SCE's support of OCA and other organizations that assist underserved populations is rooted in longstanding partnerships with the communities we serve, said Veronica Gutierrez, SCE's vice president of corporate communications.

OCA-OC is honored to have this partnership with Southern California Edison. We are grateful for the company's generous support of our social justice, community building and professional development events and programs in Orange County, says Lisa Akiyama, OCA-Orange County chapter president, because of SCE we are able to continue to serve, empower and mobilize the APA Community in Orange County.

OCA-GLA is extremely grateful for SCE's generosity and partnership. We are very pleased to continue to partner with SCE in expanding our programmatic capacity to meet the increasing needs of the APA community in the greater Los Angeles area during this period of great economic difficulty, states Bryant Yang, OCA-GLA chapter president.

This grant will directly support professional development and social justice advancement programs for OCA-OC and OCA-GLA. Both chapters are in areas where there is a large population of SCE customers. More specifically, the SCE grant will support professional leadership programs such as Bamboo and MAAP, as well as other advocacy and cultural public programming for which both chapters have been known for.

JACL, OCA, and APIAVote Visit Gulf Coast Communities Affected by Oil Spill   

Washington, D.C. OCA, From July 7-10, 2010, leaders from the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), OCA, and APIAVote visited the Gulf Coast to gather first-hand accounts of how the Asian American community is being affected by the BP oil spill. The explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling rig, has threatened the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in the Gulf region. The Southeast Asian American community in particular, an estimated 80 percent of whom are involved in the seafood industry, has been heavily impacted.

JACL, OCA and APIAVote met with Vietnamese fishermen, local community advocates, BP representatives, and state and federal officials in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. The goal of the trip was to assess the needs and current situation of Gulf fishermen in order to better target relief efforts and assistance to the communities.

Through focus groups with over 25 Vietnamese fishermen, we learned that the most pressing concern for people is finding a job to support their families and pay bills while they are unable to fish. The meager claims provided by BP have not been nearly enough for families with house and boat payments. For most fishermen, the only jobs available are with the BP oil cleanup efforts, but they are frustrated with the lack of transparency in the oil cleanup hiring and claims process, said Floyd Mori, National Executive Director of the JACL.

George Wu, Executive Director of OCA and chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), noted, There is a strong language access problem for the Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, and Thai community in the Gulf Coast. While some materials are being translated into the appropriate languages and interpreters are available in limited instances, there is still a lack of in-language resources and up-to-date information. This has caused misinformation, confusion, and mistrust.

We need to continue to work directly with the people most affected by the oil spill so that they have a voice at the table. These communities will be affected by the oil spill for decades. There are immediate needs and longer term capacity building to be done, but it starts with working alongside communities on the ground, said Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, Deputy Director of APIAVote.