Asian American Coalition of Chicago’s 32nd Annual Lunar New Year Celebration

Plans are busily underway for the Asian American Coalition of Chicago’s 32nd Annual Lunar New Year Celebration, to be held Saturday, February 28, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, 9300 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, Rosemont, Illinois. The theme for the 2015 AACC Conference on Business and Networking (daytime programming) and evening 32nd Annual Lunar New Year Celebration is “E Pluribus Unum * Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (meaning: Unity in Diversity). Over half of the house tickets were committed for this popular black-tie optional gala, as of late December.

The Coalition plans to award its prestigious Pan Asian American Ping Tom Memorial Award – its highest award, its 2015 Exemplary Community Service Awards, and its Youth Who Excels Awards that evening.

The Asian American Coalition of Chicago previously announced via social media (December 19, 2014) that it was thrilled to announce that Aurora N. Abella-Austriaco, has been named the 2015 Pan Asian American Ping Tom Memorial Awardee. The Coalition renamed its Pan Asian Award in 1996 after the late legendary Chicago civic leader Ping Tom. Ping Tom was also one of the original founders of the Asian American Coalition.

Owner and President of Austriaco & Associates, Ltd., Aurora N. Abella-Austriaco is Past President of the Chicago Bar Association; Past President of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers’ Association (2008); current longtime Chair of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Asian American Advisory Council; former candidate for Illinois State Representative; and former Chair of the AACC Lunar New Year Celebration (2009), among numerous other distinguished community and civic achievements.

Attorney Darryl Tom, on behalf of the Tom Family, is scheduled to assist in the presentation on-stage Saturday, February 28, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. ABC7 TV’s Linda Yu is scheduled to do the video voiceover, while FOX TV’s Joanie Lum is scheduled to be the Celebrity Presenter on-stage that night with AACC 2015 Chair Martino Tangkar.

(The following information is based on awardee background material provided to the AACC Media Committee taken from Nomination Forms and from information provided by Nominators and/or members of the Awards Committee, as of December 23, 2014.)

The Asian American Coalition of Chicago is pleased to announce its 2015 Exemplary Community Service Award recipients as follows:

1. (Mr.) Shah Mojammel, President, S. A. Faruk Inc.; President, Bangladesh Community of Chicagoland; Bangladeshi American Community Awardee;
2. (Dr.) Hong Liu, Executive Director, Midwest Asian Health Association (MAHA); Honorary Chairman, Chinese American Association in Greater Chicago (CAAGC); Chinese American Community Awardee;
3. (Ms.) Clarita Santos, Senior Director, Community Health Initiatives Community Investments Department, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois; Community Leader; Filipino American Community
Awardee;
4. (Dr.) Amrajit Singh, Past Chairman, Indian American Medical Association of Illinois (IAMA); Past Chairman, Punjabi
Cultural Society of Chicago; Indian American Community Awardee;
5. (Mr.) Prabowo Woerjadi, Executive Member, Indonesian Diaspora Network – Midwest, USA; Member, Board of Directors, Indonesian American Community of Illinois, NFP; Indonesian American Community Awardee;
6. (Mr.) Stanley S. Kurokawa, Vice President, Japanese Mutual Aid Society; Member, Board of Directors, Japanese American Service Committee and Heiwa Terrace; Japanese American Community Awardee;
7. (Dr.) Peter C. Paik, M.D., FACP, Physician; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Korean American Association of Chicago, Korean American Community Awardee;
8. (Dr.) Wei Xiang Wong, Committee Member, Malaysian Club of Chicago; Volunteer Research Fellow, Chinese
American Museum of Chicago – Raymond B. & Jean T. Lee Center; Malaysian American Community Awardee;
9. (Mr.) Mohammed Junaid Butt, General Manager/Director of Sales and Catering, Sabri Nihari Restaurant; Community Leader; Pakistani American Community Awardee;
10. (Ms.) Klinsukont Chokdee, Advisor, Thai Classical Music Academy; Vice President, Board of Directors, Wat Dhammaram; Thai American Community Awardee; and
11. (Mr.) Carter Mai, Software Programmer, Anixter International, Glenview, Illinois; Special Assistant to the Chair in 2005 and 2013, Asian American Coalition of Chicago; Chair-Elect for the 2022, AACC Lunar New Year Celebration, Vietnamese American Community Awardee.

The Asian American Coalition of Chicago is pleased to announce its 2015 Youth Who Excels recipients as follows:
1. (Ms.) Xiaolin Mei, 16, Junior, Jones College Prep, Chicago, Illinois, Chinese American Community Awardee;
2. (Ms.) Samantha O’Brien, 17, Senior, Jones College Prep, Chicago, Illinois, Filipino American Community
Awardee;
3. (Mr.) Anukool Vasudevan, 22, Senior, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois, Indian American Community Awardee;
4. (Ms.) Catherine Au Jong, 23, Associate Degree Candidate, College of Du Page, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Indonesian American Community Awardee;
5. (Mr.) Bryan J. Kim, 19, Sophomore, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana- Champaign, Illinois, Korean American Community Awardee;
6. (Ms.) Jasmine Amelia Ruth Williams, 20, Junior, Illinois State