We had a wonderful time attending the Black & White Ball benefiting Lao Family Community Development Corporation on April 27, 2016. Koy Saephan, Founder, Director of Operations, Excel Interpreting & Translations, LLC, invited us to sit at her table with friends and colleagues. Koy and her brother Lai participated in the Treasure Language Event we attended in Oakland, CA, back in December of last year. We are now working with Koy and her company to translate several of our recent oral history interviews from Mien to English so we can add subtitles for our teachers and students.
Photo: Event Ticket
The evening started with a silent auction where we ran into two amazing people that we interviewed at the start of our Secret War in Laos Oral Histories project. You can visit our Time of Remembrance Interview archives to view Chaosarn Chao’s and his daughter Kathy Chao Rothberg’s videos where they share their immigration experience from Laos to California.
Photo: Kathleen Watt, Chaosarn Chao and Gail Desler
Photo: Kathy Chao Rothberg and Gail Desler
We are inspired by and commend Lao Family Community Development Corporation for providing much needed community services within California’s Oakland and Sacramento regions. Their commitment is to “… deliver asset development, financial education, employment services, and family support to immigrants, refugees, asylees, and low-income U.S. nationals in over 20 languages.”
Photo: Group photo sent to us from Manola Joy
The evening was filled with great conversations and powerful stories of coming to America. Thank you, Koy, for including us in this special event.
Gail and Kathleen
