OCA-STL | EMBRACING THE HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICANS

Third Quarter Newsletter

 

OCA Mission:


to promote civic participation, education, and leadership


to advance coalitions and community building


to advocate for social justice and fair treatment


to foster cultural heritage

 

Board

Eling Lam 
Thong Tarm   
Rita Chu   
Shan Cong
Dr. Cody Ding   
Grace Jiang   
Grace Lee   
Guodong Li   

 

Advisors

Helena Hseu   
Dr. Hung-gay Fung  
Jason Tang   
Matthew Yu

 

Contact Us

Introduction

Welcome to our third quarter newsletter.  We are excited to be bringing you future, current, and past news that OCA has been involved. Our current president, board members, and advisors are hard at work to bring you great events to the Asian community. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or questions, please send an email to info@oca-stl.org.

Upcoming Events

 

October 12th  October 18th  October 25th

St. Louis County Executive Candidates

OCA will be hosting a series of forums for the candidates of the St. Louis County Executive position.  Every 4 years, the people elect a Chief Executive Officer to run the all the areas consider under the county proper. He/she is responsible for proposing and balancing an annual budget, promote and encourage cooperative relationships between the county and the political subdivisions within the county in matters relating to land use planning, public health, sewers, parks, safety, public welfare and any and all other governmental functions.

On the 12th, Mr. Charlie Dooley (Democrat) will be presenting his reasons as to why he should be re-elected. On the 18th, Mr. Bill Corrigan (Republican) will be running as a newcomer for the county executive position. On the 25th, Mr. Theodore Brown (Libertarian) will also be running for the position.

October 16th

Picnic with FCC-STL and OCA-STL

The Families with Children from China (FCC-STL) and OCA St. Louis will be on hand to celebrate the Autumn moon by having a picnic at the Kirkwood Park. The fun begins at 11am followed by a BBQ lunch at noon. There will be a magician, music, crafts, Tai-Chi demonstrations, and much more!  Come join us!

September 25th

St. Louis Christian Chinese Community Service Center Fundraiser

The St. Louis Christian Chinese Community Service Center will be having their annual fundraising dinner. Their mission is to promote the well-being of the Chinese as well as the Asian community at large through health and social services.

Sept 18th

MCAST award event

The Midwest Chinese American Science and Technology Association will be presenting an award to previous OCA-St. Louis Presidents Dr. Harold Law and Dr. Hung-gay Fung. They will be giving a lecture at the UMSL earlier that day, followed by the dinner award at Mandarin House.

 

Sept 11th

Swab a cheek!  Come on out and help save a life!

When: Saturday September 11th, 2010
Where: St. Louis Chinese Christian Church
Address: 832 North Woods Mill Road, Chesterfield, MO 63017




 

Past Events

August 1st to August 31st

Bone Marrow Drive!

Did you know Asians are one of the lowest registered group?

At any given time, over 6,000 patients from all over the world, and of all ethnicities, are searching the registry for a match. Patients will find a match from their own family only 25-30% of the time. The other 70-75% of the time, patients must find an unrelated donor.

Ethnic minorities have a 30-40% chance of finding a match from the existing NMDP registry. Caucasians have an 80% chance of finding a match from the existing NMDP registry.

Approximately 50% of all ethnic minority donors will NOT push through with donating if called as a possible match for a patient. (whether because they are unreachable, they say no, or become medically ineligible). Whereas over 70% of Caucasian donors WILL proceed with donating if called as a possible matched.

This drive started because an OCA-Wisconsin member Teri Li, who was recently diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, is seeking someone whose tissue type matches her own so she may have a second chance at life. Teri discovered that only 7% of donors in the national marrow donor registry are Asian Americans, which make her chances of finding a match very difficult. Just a cheek swab and you could be the person to save her life!!

Click here to view the video about her experience on YouTube.

Click here to learn more about the myths and facts about bone marrow donation.

 

August 28th and 29th

Festival of Nations



The Festival of Nations drew out a large amount of people due to the nice weather and variety of food and items from various countries. 

Everyone who volunteered received a Festival of Nations t-shirt, and you can ask for a certificate of appreciation too! 

 

August 26th

 

Asian Career Networking, Focus on the Future


Based on the feedback from the community and the amount of companies and attendees that arrived, the event was an overwhelming success.  Over a dozen of companies and over 160 professionals attended this event. This was the first of its kind that brought in Asians from the St. Louis metro area for many of the companies from various industries.


**Special Note**


OCA-St. Louis is part of 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.


National News


OCA-OC Launches Bamboo Event  

 

Washington, D.C. OCA,  On September 16th, the OCA-Orange County Chapter (OCA-OC) will be hosting a Bamboo event at the Montage Laguna Beach Hotel. OCA-OC strongly believes in educating APA professionals in the areas of leadership, community building, advocacy, and environment. The chapter recently held a workshop as part of their Professional Development Series. Bamboo is part of the series and will continue with OCA's Mentoring Asian American Professionals (MAAP) program later this month.


 The goal of Bamboo is to provide relevant professional development, peer-networking, and mentoring to aspiring Asian Pacific American professionals. The launch of OCA-OC Bamboo will begin with a panel session focusing on uncovering and launching your personal brand, followed by a networking reception. "We are so proud to be introducing Bamboo to Orange County. This program provides such an incredible opportunity for young professionals to learn from experts how to uncover their iBrand. Bamboo provides a platform that will empower and inspire our members," said Lisa Akiyama, OCA-OC President.

Panelists will include: Michael Lomotan, Co- Founder and Executive Creative Director of Plan C Agency, Jack Toan, VP Community Foundation of Wells Fargo, and Misa Chien and Jennifer Green, Co-founders of the Nom Nom Truck. Susan Woo, Vice President of State Farm will moderate.

OCA chapters serves the community for the month of September

 

Washington, D.C. OCA, On September 11th, volunteers of all different ages will roll up their sleeves to beautify OCA-Detroit Chapter’s Chinese Community Center. OCA-Detroit Chapter is one of OCA’s three founding chapters and is known locally in the Greater Detroit area as the Association of Chinese Americans (ACA). Whether it was pruning bushes, moving furniture, or sprucing up flowerbeds, the volunteers will be working hard to make the center shine. “We are truly proud of them for their passion and heart to serve the community,” said Shenlin Chen, executive director of ACA.

The OCA-Detroit volunteer project is part of the September OCA Serves, a month-long national community service project coordinated by OCA National Center. This OCA Serves event encouraged chapters to clean up, beautify and contribute to their local community centers. From Detroit to Los Angeles, Houston to Wisconsin, dedicated volunteers came out for OCA Serves projects all over the country.

 
 

Membership Info

If you had considered becoming a member of OCA-STL this is the year to do it!  We are always looking for energetic individuals to help achieve our mission in empowering the Asian American voice in the St. Louis Metro area and national community.

It is as easy as clicking on this link.
Please select "MO St. Louis" in the "I would like to be affiliated with this chapter" drop-down.

For existing members. Click here to renew your membership!

You can send in your membership form by mail or in person at one of our upcoming events! If you would like a membership form, please feel free to contact our Membership Chair at: info@oca-stl.org

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