Volunteer of the Year Award


Our  Foundation is run entirely by volunteers.  In 2009 the Advisory Committee instituted an annual Volunteer of the Year Award, in recognition of  individuals who have demonstrated exemplary dedication in carrying out the mission of our Foundation.
Moon Lan Fong, 2010 Volunteer of the Year
Moon Lan Fong was born on August 16, 1914 in the small village of Tai Shan Guangdong Province in China. Following the traditions at the time, she left school at the age of 16 and was married, in an arranged marriage, to Gong Ye Fong, a 21-year-old young man who had returned from the United States in search of a wife.  Brought together by a matchmaker, they met for the first time on their wedding night. In 1949, Moon and her two children, David and Yin, moved to Minneapolis to join her husband Gong Ye.  In the ensuing decades Moon worked hard to adapt to a new country while striving to maintain Chinese traditions and culture at home. At the same time she worked hard to learn English and to navigate in a foreign environment.  A third child, son Stephen, was born in Minneapolis.
After a full life of taking care of her family and the family restaurants, Moon, in her retirement, returned to her first love, Chinese poetry and calligraphy. She picked up where she left off at age 16 and resumed to study Chinese classics on her own. She taught herself calligraphy and spent long hours practicing, eventually becoming an accomplished calligrapher, as well as a painter and a poet.  At an age when most people would have retired to their cabins on the lake, she embarked on a second career as an active and tireless volunteer.  She demonstrates calligraphy and painting at workshops, festivals and other cultural events presented by local Chinese organizations.

Over the years many relatives and close friends of Moon's have been the lucky recipients of her poems, paintings and calligraphy.  Inside these 'packages', she had carefully tailored her thoughts to the person in mind, gently and accurately arriving at the crux of the matter each time. Many of these precious aphorisms, and several responses to them from recipients, have been collected and published in a book titled, Reflections.  True to her generous nature, Moon has donated all proceeds from the book to her favorite charities.
The Chinese Heritage Foundation honors Moon Fong as the 2010 Volunteer of the Year for her generosity of spirit, and determination to espouse and practice a philosophy of simplicity and volunteerism in our community.
 

David Lam, 2009 Volunteer of the Year


DavidMingThe Chinese Heritage Foundation has a very active Calligraphy Committee that has been going all over town, from Blaine to Burnsville, to do name translations and to deliver presentations on various topics on Chinese culture. They have done name translations at the annual Dragon Festival, public and private schools, business corporations, nonprofit organizations, and citywide multicultural festivals.

 

David Lam has been a mainstay of this active Committee.  He is the chief translator and, eschewing easy phonetic translations that often don’t make sense in Chinese, he works hard to translate English names into authentic Chinese ones, complete with a popular or prestigious Chinese last name, and a given name that incorporates traditional Chinese values and aspirations, including the burdens that Chinese fathers often place upon their children.  David does this quickly.  On a busy day, the calligraphy team has done 200 names in three hours.  That is more than a name a minute.

 

In addition to name translations, David often gives presentations on different aspects of Chinese culture.  A gifted public speaker, he is at ease whether he is talking to professionals at Target Headquarters or to a grade school class in St. Paul.  Mixing humor with facts, he charms his audiences on topics ranging from ancient Chinese pictographs to common practices during Chinese New Year, leaving them wanting to know more.DavidLam2

 

Volunteering has always been a big part of David’s life.  For his many years of volunteering in Hong Kong he was honored in 1991 with an invitation to have tea with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.  He immigrated to the Twin Cities in 1993, continued his volunteering activities and, in his spare time, went back to being a college student again.  At age 69, he graduated, magna cum laude, from the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota.