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Remember this? Attendees from all over the Midwest came together during the 2011 Summer Extravaganza to participate and have fun in every activity and event at camp. From the flag football tournament to the volleyball tournament to the spontaneous games, attendees from the different Midwest States bonded and got together as teams in order to work together to try to bring home those winning trophies! Take for example this following picture, where attendees from Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa, and Chicago all got together to form a formidable flag football team. Included in the photo (from left to right) are Taylor Banh, Daniel Banh, Bryan Banh, Jen Nguyen, Lynn Nguyen, Nick Nguyen, and Tyler Banh with special photo-bombing guest, Dan Le, in the far back. Come join us for this year’s Summer Extravaganza hosted at Merrick State Park in Fountain City, Wisconsin. More memories are waiting to be created and only everyone being there will this be possible! So what are you waiting for?! Register now: http://www.uvsamidwest.org/camping/ Early registration ($30) ends Tuesday July 31 at 11:59 P.M. CST After that, the registration fee will be $40. Questions? Concerns? Email us at staff@uvsamidwest.org.
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Remember this?

Attendees from all over the Midwest came together during the 2011 Summer Extravaganza to

participate and have fun in every activity and event at camp. From the flag football tournament

to the volleyball tournament to the spontaneous games, attendees from the different Midwest

States bonded and got together as teams in order to work together to try to bring home those

winning trophies! Take for example this following picture, where attendees from Wisconsin,

Ohio, Iowa, and Chicago all got together to form a formidable flag football team. Included in the

photo (from left to right) are Taylor Banh, Daniel Banh, Bryan Banh, Jen Nguyen, Lynn Nguyen,

Nick Nguyen, and Tyler Banh with special photo-bombing guest, Dan Le, in the far back.

Come join us for this year’s Summer Extravaganza hosted at Merrick State Park in Fountain

City, Wisconsin. More memories are waiting to be created and only everyone being there will

this be possible! So what are you waiting for?!

Register now: http://www.uvsamidwest.org/camping/

Early registration ($30) ends Tuesday July 31 at 11:59 P.M. CST

After that, the registration fee will be $40.

Questions? Concerns? Email us at staff@uvsamidwest.org.

1: The lovely emcees for the night, Anh Dao Vu and Danny Dang 2: The energy from the crowd played a huge part in making Tieng Hat Chicago a success!  3: Tran Huynh received first place and the $200 grand prize 4: Runner up Tuong-Thanh Truong 5: The fashion show cast showcasing their ao dai and formal wear, featuring members  of IVSU and INsight 6: The emcees congratulating all the contestants before announcing those who made it to the final round! 7: Group photo of the Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 committee and volunteers. All their hard work resulted in a check for $1448.00 to the Children of Vietnam :)
Zoom
1: The lovely emcees for the night, Anh Dao Vu and Danny Dang 2: The energy from the crowd played a huge part in making Tieng Hat Chicago a success!  3: Tran Huynh received first place and the $200 grand prize 4: Runner up Tuong-Thanh Truong 5: The fashion show cast showcasing their ao dai and formal wear, featuring members  of IVSU and INsight 6: The emcees congratulating all the contestants before announcing those who made it to the final round! 7: Group photo of the Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 committee and volunteers. All their hard work resulted in a check for $1448.00 to the Children of Vietnam :)
Zoom
1: The lovely emcees for the night, Anh Dao Vu and Danny Dang 2: The energy from the crowd played a huge part in making Tieng Hat Chicago a success!  3: Tran Huynh received first place and the $200 grand prize 4: Runner up Tuong-Thanh Truong 5: The fashion show cast showcasing their ao dai and formal wear, featuring members  of IVSU and INsight 6: The emcees congratulating all the contestants before announcing those who made it to the final round! 7: Group photo of the Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 committee and volunteers. All their hard work resulted in a check for $1448.00 to the Children of Vietnam :)
Zoom
1: The lovely emcees for the night, Anh Dao Vu and Danny Dang 2: The energy from the crowd played a huge part in making Tieng Hat Chicago a success!  3: Tran Huynh received first place and the $200 grand prize 4: Runner up Tuong-Thanh Truong 5: The fashion show cast showcasing their ao dai and formal wear, featuring members  of IVSU and INsight 6: The emcees congratulating all the contestants before announcing those who made it to the final round! 7: Group photo of the Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 committee and volunteers. All their hard work resulted in a check for $1448.00 to the Children of Vietnam :)
Zoom
1: The lovely emcees for the night, Anh Dao Vu and Danny Dang 2: The energy from the crowd played a huge part in making Tieng Hat Chicago a success!  3: Tran Huynh received first place and the $200 grand prize 4: Runner up Tuong-Thanh Truong 5: The fashion show cast showcasing their ao dai and formal wear, featuring members  of IVSU and INsight 6: The emcees congratulating all the contestants before announcing those who made it to the final round! 7: Group photo of the Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 committee and volunteers. All their hard work resulted in a check for $1448.00 to the Children of Vietnam :)
Zoom
1: The lovely emcees for the night, Anh Dao Vu and Danny Dang 2: The energy from the crowd played a huge part in making Tieng Hat Chicago a success!  3: Tran Huynh received first place and the $200 grand prize 4: Runner up Tuong-Thanh Truong 5: The fashion show cast showcasing their ao dai and formal wear, featuring members  of IVSU and INsight 6: The emcees congratulating all the contestants before announcing those who made it to the final round! 7: Group photo of the Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 committee and volunteers. All their hard work resulted in a check for $1448.00 to the Children of Vietnam :)
Zoom
1: The lovely emcees for the night, Anh Dao Vu and Danny Dang 2: The energy from the crowd played a huge part in making Tieng Hat Chicago a success!  3: Tran Huynh received first place and the $200 grand prize 4: Runner up Tuong-Thanh Truong 5: The fashion show cast showcasing their ao dai and formal wear, featuring members  of IVSU and INsight 6: The emcees congratulating all the contestants before announcing those who made it to the final round! 7: Group photo of the Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 committee and volunteers. All their hard work resulted in a check for $1448.00 to the Children of Vietnam :)
Zoom

1: The lovely emcees for the night, Anh Dao Vu and Danny Dang
2: The energy from the crowd played a huge part in making Tieng Hat Chicago a success! 
3: Tran Huynh received first place and the $200 grand prize
4: Runner up Tuong-Thanh Truong
5: The fashion show cast showcasing their ao dai and formal wear, featuring members  of IVSU and INsight
6: The emcees congratulating all the contestants before announcing those who made it to the final round!
7: Group photo of the Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 committee and volunteers. All their hard work resulted in a check for $1448.00 to the Children of Vietnam :)

(Source: uvsamidwest.org)

IVSU!

Illinois Vietnamese Student Union (IVSU-Liên đoàn sinh viên Illinois) is back and ON A ROLL. IVSU is a non-profit organization based in Chicago. IVSU consists of passionate Vietnamese American students, alumni, young professionals all over Illinois that  works together to maintain and promote cultural awareness through their events. In this, the relationship between families, children, businesses, and other non-profit organizations in the community are strengthened. IVSU was under internal construction for some time but now it is back with a BITE.

Their first event this past weekend (21 July 2012) was Tiếng Hát Chicago (The Voice of Chicago). The night was full of entertainment: laughter (credit to the amusing MCs), tears of sympathy (from touching presentations), good looking judges, and such a lively supportive audience. This event overall had GREAT programming and a must see next year if you were unable to attend this year. See pictures at the end of this blog.

As a spectator at this event, I would like to highlight the atomic effort that the staff and volunteers put out as a team as well as individuals.  Through the program you can really imagine the tears, stress, and sweat the committee had to endure from the beginning of planning to the day of the event. During the show several committee staff members went up on stage to personally thanked everyone who came and support the event. And more importantly, through this event IVSU wanted to show everyone that entertainment was only a small portion of this event and that the ultimate purpose was to have a philanthropic occasion that would help raise money for an non-profit organization called ‘Children of Vietnam’. They made each attendee, including myself, feel truly appreciated for attending an event that results to a greater cause which is improving lives of children affected by agent orange in Vietnam. IVSU put together a presentation explaining what the org is, who is affected, how will the children will benefit from the proceeds. From a business viewpoint, I really appreciated the transparency of the event. The presentation included a breakdown of what was spent on the event, acknowledgement of sponsors, total of donated monies, total of profit (read whole blog to find out how much they raised), and how much of it proceeds to Children of Vietnam (which was 100%; IVSU was not keeping a single penny). This transparency really does ensure trust between the organization and all its supporters. At the end of the event, IVSU announced their next event for attendees to save the date. Everyone was excited and on the edge of their seat already yelling for location and time. Unfortunately that will be TBA. But let us just say that IVSU is off on a good start and definitely have awesome man power and a good crowd of supporters. I am anxious to see what IVSU has next in store!!! I look forward to  attending their next event: Mid-Autumn Moon Festival on the 30 September 2012. I hope you join me too!!!

For more information on the beneficiary ‘Children of Vietnam’ and current fundraising efforts taking place nationally, visit: http://cpp.unavsa.org/

Join IVSU fb group page for continuous updates: http://www.facebook.com/groups/2204843129/

Click on either photographer names below to see their picture albums from the event.
Photo Credits: Jay D Yong and Hien Pham

Until next time,
Neda Huynh


See what the committee said about the event:

“…..Not only did we break even, not even did we meet our fundraising goal, but we SURPASSED it…It has been a couple years since IVSU been active in the Vietnamese community. Understanding that this may be an obstacle to bring back a grassroots organization, a band of new and energetic faces hosted the famous Tieng Hat Chicago. This social event will allow IVSU to gain the exposure in the Vietnamese community while testing the waters if the new batch of aspiring leaders and planners are ready to work together. In one short month, 13 staffers and 10 volunteers later, IVSU was able to raise about $1400 for Children of Vietnam. With such an encouraging result, IVSU will be hosting it’s first official election on August 5th, 2012. Who knows where passion and drive can bring the state of Illinois next?”— My-Phuong (IVSU interim President)

“After all the meetings, google hangouts, and planning…it all came together at last. Thank you, to all those who came out to our event and helped us made it possible even when we weren’t so sure we could pull through. Tieng Hat Chicago 2012 couldn’t have been such a success without the support from our community, families, and friends. We expected to operate at a loss, and thought we couldn’t donate anything to CPP this year, but I can’t express how heart-warming it felt when I found out that we raised 1,400 dollars for this year’s CPP: Children of Vietnam. THIS.IS.AMAZING. Special thanks to my IVSU committee and volunteers. Love you all! “ — Ymi Le (IVSU interim secretary)

“Thank you everyone who attended and helped support our event Tieng Hat Chicago! I can’t express how happy I am by the huuuge success of our event, where we were able to raise $1400 for the Children of Vietnam. And I’m so proud of all the hard work our staff has put in these past few weeks, we did an AMAZING job last night, so look forward to more from us! ;)”  —Jackie Lam (UVSA-Midwest IL State Representative)

(Source: uvsamidwest.org)

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