Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 3, 2005 

CONTACT:
Hung Nguyen (877) 592-4140

NCVA BOARD MEMBERS APPEAR IN PBS TELEVISION PROGRAM

NCVA Board members Nguyen Ngoc Bich and Lu Anh Thu are featured in the history of Arlington County, Virginia as they share the history of the Vietnamese American community in this region.

Washington, D.C. – On Sunday, March 13, 2005 at 7 pm on PBS/WETA Channel 26 in the Washington, DC area, the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans (NCVA) Board Chair Nguyen Ngoc Bich and Board Member Lu Anh Thu will appear in the airing of Arlington: Heroes, History & Hamburgers.

This program from PBS/WETA is an 80-minute tribute to Arlington County featuring archival footage, interviews with residents and insight from local historians. The program documents the history of Arlington starting with life on the land 10,000 years ago and concluding in recent times with a look at the county’s diversity. In the 1970s, Arlington County neighborhoods experienced change with the arrival of Metro.

The PBS announcement on Arlington: Heroes, History & Hamburgers states, “Clarendon, which had been a shopping hub, was torn apart by the construction. Vietnamese store owners saw opportunity in the lowered lease rates and settled in Clarendon – which became known as Little Saigon.”

For the past 30 years, community members, who later formed NCVA, have been involved in the development of the Vietnamese American community throughout the United States. For almost 20 years, NCVA has had a tradition of advocating, leading and strengthening the Vietnamese American community. Our signature leadership program ensures that the critical shortage of culturally aware and adept leaders is present within the community as viable resources as it matures in mainstream America.

Hung Nguyen, NCVA President/CEO, states, “For the past 30 years, Vietnamese American contributions are often forgotten because Vietnamese Americans are mostly referenced in terms of a war. More than reminders of a war, we are a refugee community that has built new homes in a country of opportunities. In Arlington County and in other parts of the United States, Vietnamese Americans generate over $9.1 billion in annual sales receipt. It is important to highlight the cultural and economic contributions of the Vietnamese American community in the capital region and throughout the United States.”

The Vietnamese American community continues to contribute to this country’s cultural and economic prosperity. We are part of the living history that makes the United States a country of every day heroes.

More information about this PBS/WETA program can be found at:
(http://www.weta.org/arlington/about.html)

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Founded in 1986, the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community advocacy organization working to advance the cause of Vietnamese Americans in a plural but united America –  e pluribus unum – by participating actively and fully as civic minded citizens engaged in the areas of education, culture and civil liberties.  (www.ncvaonline.org)