40th AACC Annual Celebration

Year: 2023
Host: Vietnamese American Community
Venue: Hyatt Regency O’Hare, Rosemont, IL
Theme: Celebrating Four Decades of United Leadership and Service
Attendance: 1000+
Highlights: For the fifth time, the Vietnamese American Community hosted the Lunar New Year Celebration. This year’s event featured half-day Business and Education Forums, which ran on separate tracks, with the goal of highlighting government services available to AAPI communities and sharing resources. An afternoon interfaith prayer session followed. At the evening Gala dinner, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker presented the Ping Tom Memorial Pan Asian American Award to Grace B. Hou, Secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services.  Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs presented the Sandra Otaka Memorial Grand Asian American Award to NBC 5 Chicago.  Krystal Ka’ai, Executive Director for the White House Initiative on AANHPIs, read the official greeting from President Joe Biden.  Daphne Kwok, AARP’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, delivered the keynote address.  

The Vietnamese American Community handed over the AACC “torch” to next year’s host: the Japanese American Community.