Have a great pleasure to M/C with Vattana at the 4th Annual Mother & Daughter Conference today.
It's an honor for all of us to have joined by the 63rd Assembly District Speaker honorable Anthony Rendon,
First District Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, District Director for the 70th District Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell, Marisol Barajas, CEO of the Children Clinic Dr. Elisa Nicolas, Superintenndent-president of LBCC Dr. Reagan F. Romali, Award Winning Actress and Singer Kalean Breen, Managing Attorney at Nguyen Lawyers, ALC, Attorney Belinda Theam, Trial Lawyer and Principle, Attorney Minh T. Nguyen, our very own Dr. Leakhena Heng Tappero and Dr. Christina Lee.
Great panelists and audience. Congratulations to the Executive Director, Madame Chan Hopson, her husband, Board of Directors of the Khmer Parent Association and all the volunteers for another year of great success.
From Charles Song's Facebook page
We are now in Long Beach, CA, providing information and resources regarding many of our programs and services at the 4th Annual Mother and Daughter Conference hosted by our community partner, Khmer Parent Association. If you are in Long Beach, please come and join us at this amazing event. Please also stop by our resource table. Attendees were so inspired by the special remarks given by the California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.
From Vattana Peong's Facebook page.
As a Chair of the 4th Annual Mother & Daughter Conference, I can't find words to express my heartfelt gratefulness to everyone who generously contributed in many ways to make this women and girls empowerment event a very successful and beautiful one. As Luciano De Crescenzo stated, "We are each of us Angels with only one wing, And we can fly by embracing each other." There were so many Angels from near and far coming together to work as an amazing team to make such a wonderful Mother & Daughter Conference, not just fun and enjoyable for everyone in attendance, but also create a harmonious environment, with friendly dialogue and make connections across cultures to build lasting relationships. Early on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, Sergeant Major Wright and his cadets from Poly JROTC, Meagan Ov and her club members from UCSD, Planning Committee members, several recipients from the Class of 2018, my long term friend, Martha Cota, park Supervisor Daveth Yoak and his staff were there to setup for the big event. They actively worked together as a great team to setup tables, chairs and the registration table very quickly to welcome diverse mothers, daughters and guests to the conference. Sophoeut and her three handsome sons managed to put the beautiful centerpieces together and placed them on each table to make the room look very nice and welcoming. All the vendors arrived on time to set up their information tables, ready to provide information to our conference participants. Our guests were welcomed with a nutritious breakfast catered by Asian Fusion Grill, coffee and water to warm them up for the long conference day ahead. Our dignitaries included Councilwoman of 1st District and State Senate candidate Lena Gonzalez, LBCC Superintendent-President Reagan Romali, Lakewood Councilmember and Chief of Staff of Reagan Romali, Jeff Woods, Marcia Parker, Director, Community Relations & Enrollment Development at LBCC, Ca. State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and his staff, Managing Attorney Belinda Theam, Trial Lawyer and Principal, Minh T. Nguyen, Dr. Elisa Nicholas, CEO of the Children's Clinic, Herlinda Chico, Field Deputy of Supervisor Janice Hahn, Award Winning Actress and Singer, Kalean Ung, Marisol Barajas, District Director of the Office of the Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell, 70th District. She amazingly delivered a great message about her own relationship with her mother.
From the community, we had Sotheavotey who made a presentation about the Cambodian Wellness Program at CAA, Susana Sngiem, Executive Director of UCC introduced her Dance group to the floor to perform Cambodian popular dances to entertain the audience, Cambodian Traditional Music Band performed beautiful traditional Khmer music and songs to make the atmosphere lively and Mr. Darith Ung, Khmer teacher in Wilson High, who came to support this event 4 years in a row.
Big applause to our fabulous moderator for the 4th year, Dr. Leakhen Heng Tappero and the six diverse pairs of mother/daughter panelists who candidly discussed and shared their personal stories to move the emotions of the audience very deeply. From left to right they are Jennifer Kumiyama & her mother, Henrietta Kumiyama, Maleka Chris & her daughter, Terica Birdine, Laura Calderon & her daughter, Diana Morales, Wendy Parden & her daughter, Gwen Parden, Thavery Lay & her daughter, Amelia Bounpraseuth, and Minh Thu Thi Do & her daughter, My Ngoc Thi Nguyen.
Our Co-MC, Charles Song and Vattana Peong made the conference program flow very smoothly from start to finish.
Our VIP guests, panelists, participants, young and old, vendors and our dedicated volunteers had a chance to reconnect, communicate, make new friends, build new relationships with one another across cultures. They developed more understanding as the program moved from the touching and emotional Opening Remarks delivered by the young Attorney, Belinda Theam, to Councilmember Lena Gonzalez, to Speaker Anthony Rendon, to LBCC Superintendent- President Reagan Romali, to Award Winning Actress and Singer, Kalean Ung and finally to Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell's District Director, Marisol Barajas who moved all mothers, daughters in the audience very deeply. Dr. Christina Lee & Phatana Ith wrapped up the event with many nice door prizes that added spice to the long day. Everyone went back home with positive feelings and new perspectives about life. Special thanks to Buntheouen Muon, Executive Director of the Cambodian-American Alliance who donated his time to live stream the event from beginning to end, so our friends at home could be informed about this unique event. Dr. Joshua Schneider informed the audience about the opportunities that his Orthodontic office in the Assistance League offers to children with orthodontic needs.
My sincere appreciation and admiration to all our sponsors, donors, planning committee, KPA Board of Directors, Francheska Deras from the Language Access Department who provided skilled Khmer and Spanish interpreters and simultaneous translation head sets for our non-English speaking panelist and audience, to college and high school volunteers who made this event flow wonderfully. Thanks to Daveth Yoak, McBride Park Supervisor & his staff for staying to help at the end of the event, and lastly, Park & Recreation Commission for the large and spacious gym to house all the conference participants. Without everyone's generosity, this mother/daughter conference wouldn't be possible.
May God continue to richly bless all of you with optimum health, wealth, joy, peace, success, prosperity and happiness. Hope to see all of you again at our 5th Annual Mother and Daughter Conference next year!
Chan Hopson
Executive Director
Khmer Parent Association
