I came back to my hectic schedule at work today but cannot get my mind off what happened yesterday and hence, I decided to take the lunch hour to share these thoughts with all you folks!

First of all, please join me to congratulate the two ladies who have put a lot of effort and their heart and soul to make this project happen: Ms Ho Ngoc Tram, the Project Leader and Ms. Huynh Tieu Muoi, Assistant to the Project Lead and leader of fund-raising effort. Without their talents and their super dedication, the success of yesterday event would not be possible.

Also I am delighted to share with you a wonderful news that our Keynote Speaker from California, Mr. Pham Xuan Quang, was so impressed with our association that he signed up to become a remote member of Van Hoa Khoa Hoc and also made a donation for our Youth Recognition Luncheon. Dear Quang, welcome to the Van Hoa Khoa Hoc family and thank you for sharing with us such an inspiring and wonderful speech in yesterday luncheon. Quang even delayed his flight schedule (he supposed to leave Houston around 8:00pm) to this morning so that he could spend more time with our group during our Va(n Nghe^. Bo? Tu'i at anh Bao's place last nite.

For those of you who did not have the chance to participate in this meaninful event, let me share with you a quick report on what happened:

We had a packed audience of 550 yesterday event at Kim Son IV Restaurant. The atmosphere was very cozy and all of the audience stayed until the end of the program. The program went very smoothly and Thuy Tran Elena and Bich Van Ngo did an excellent job as the Mastresses of Ceremony of our event. Gigi Doan Nguyen Quynh Thu and Kelly Phan My Anh also did a wonderful job as the Presenters of Recipients of the Youth Excellence Recognition Award this year. All of them were so charming in our traditional costume a'o da`i and I am sure that we will share with y'all great pictures later on our web site. This was the result of their hard work and dedication to put time and energy into weekly practice sessions since last month.

The most beautiful and impressive performance during the cultural show is the "Au Co & Lac Long Quan" musical skit that the Len Duong'99 campers put together for this year! Your performance was excellent and so wonderful that all the guests were completely captured and stunned with what happened on the stage. This was also thanks to our great decorator - Hoang Nguyen Duc - the author of the huge 6-feet egg we had on the stage, the light and sound crew who made wonderful sound and light effect to the dance and above all, all of our beautiful and talented performers of the show. A special thank to the dedicated dance team leader: Luu Huyen Thanh for a job very well done. I am so proud of you guys and gals! I am also so sorry about the food missing part for the musical skit and to make up for this, Ngoc Tram and I would like to host you a seafood dinner at any restaurant of your choice in some night next week or the week after next week. Dear Huyen Thanh, please help us to coordinate this "makeup" dinner, :-)).

We also would like to give a big round of applause for the excellent reception team this year led by anh Le Mong Hung, anh Nguyen Gia Hoi and Miss Phan Khanh Thu. All members of the team showed up very early and did a wonderful and very well-planned job to receive our guests. All the ladies were so lovely in their blue uniform with the hat and all the gentlemen are very nice with their suit on. You folks helped to create a very nice and professional image for our association.

The Sound and Light systems were very well coordinated by anh Ha Huu Quang, Pham Truc, Tran Quoc Viet and other assistants (Nguyen Sieu, Hoang Duc and others).

The Decoration Team did an excellent job in setting up the stage and most of them showed up really early in the morning (even before it was open). Great thanks to anh Hoang Dang Tuan, Nguyen Dang Hoat, Nguyen Van Tuong Vu (from Austin), Pham Truc, Hoang Nguyen Duc, Nong Duy Dat, Duy Thien, Nguyen Sieu, ... and lots of others that I have not mentioned the names).

The program went so smoothly thanks to our Stage Manager: Hoang Nguyen Duc with his detailed plan for the whole event and with two assistants: Miss Luong Le Uyen and Miss Luu Huyen Thanh. You guys and gals are awesome!

I cannot name all volunteer effort has been put on into this project including the fund-raising trip in the last couple of weeks, some of you who were key persons in these efforts were not at the event but you were remembered by all, I mean: chi Nguyet Anh Nguyen, chi Nguyen Phuong Kim and anh But... Overall we have a team of about 60 members and friends working together to make this program a reality.

Thank you all for a super job and I hope to get the video ready by our next meeting which is the August Toastmaster session to be held on Friday August 13 at Yorktown Appartment Club House so that all of us can share all of these wonderful moments.

I also felt so proud looking at all the young and bright students who were on the stage receiving their Award. I was so proud of Quynh Thu and Kelly who were so charming in presenting the Award recipients... That moment gave me the greatest satisfaction and rewarding feeling that nothing else can offer. I felt so re-energized and ready for the next project, :-)).

We also would like to thank both our keynote speaker, Mr. Pham Xuan Quang and our guest speaker, anh Jeff Watkins for such inspiring and thoughtful speeches. All the audience was captured by their speeches and we received lots of compliments and great feedback from our guests about how impressed they were with both speakers.

Anyway, I have to get back to my work and catch up with things, but just want to share with you some thoughts that have captured my mind since yesterday event.

CONGRATULATION to the whole team for a job well done.

Have a nice day.

Best regards,