Laotian American Society 9th Annual Fundraising Banquet

March 29, 2014 | Norcross, GA

Photos by Phalatda Taysavang, Thomas Cannon, and Boon Vong

Laotian American Society (LAS) and its board members and advisers would like to thank all who attended our 9th Annual Event on March 29th. It is with your support that we can continue to give back to our multicultural Laotian-American community through scholarships, cultural programs, tutoring and mentoring programs, as well as contribute to the tapestry of Georgia and the U.S. as a whole. Thank you to 600+ family members, supporters, and sponsors that attended our event!!

…With that out of the way, I would like to thank our extended family for all the help in pulling together this event in such a short time.  On our end, I believe it was 3 weeks prior that we were chopping down bamboo for the food huts, and a mere week before when I finished the design and print work.  Asking friends to travel distances and spend their day off working is definitely something you can’t put a price on.  I could always use the help, but I’d like to think that when I ask for assistance, it’s an opportunity to further experience and learn about our Lao culture.  Shared food, shared experiences–it’s things like this that can break down barriers that still exist in our modern world.

To be honest I was never big into Lao culture when I was younger, but in the past ten years it’s been quite a big part of what I do and what I want to fix.  Not all of us Lao people are doctors that live in huge nice homes, nor are most of us confined to the trailer parks–you’ll find that we run the gamut, from all perceived socio-economic classes, but I’d like to think that all are just regular decent people that started off in this country as hard working refugees.  From my own observations, I would have to say Lao people have the most mixed marriages.  And that’s pretty crazy, if you think like me, that you don’t marry a person, you really marry their culture and their family.  I guess the hospitable easy going nature of Lao folks agree with many other Americans.  It’s a good feeling, to find friends that can handle the “aroma” and spicy nature of papaya salad, and also find other aspects of our culture and people interesting, pretty, or intriguing.

Thanks again to our extended LAS family, all this couldn’t have been possible without all the volunteers, friends, students, elders, and sponsors.