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Tet parade in Little Saigon saved by fundraising push

Anh Do.
By Anh Do
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The nation’s only Tet parade, staged in the heart of Little Saigon, will go on after all.

After being told that the city of Westminster could not help pay for the annual Lunar Day parade in the country’s largest Vietnamese community, organizers hurriedly raised $60,000 in just two weeks.

“We knew we could not lose this opportunity to promote the beauty of our culture,” said Ha Son Tran, vice president of the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California. “Everyone put in a lot of energy, and there’s a lot of pride. Finally, we can show others that we were able to meet the challenge” of fundraising.

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Nghia X. Nguyen, president of the federation, appeared at the City Council meeting Wednesday night, presenting two cashier’s checks, one for $35,000 and the other for $25,000.

An official from the city’s community services and recreation department will oversee the funds, said Councilman Sergio Contreras, who grew up in Westminster and started marching in the parade when he was a high school student.

“I think it’s amazing,” he said. “Two weeks. I haven’t been in a situation where we challenged a group to come up with the money in that short amount of time and they made it happen. Now the event that we’re waiting for will happen.”

The annual parade, scheduled for Feb. 10, is expected to draw thousands and be televised on Vietnamese cable channels here and aboard.

Peter Trinh, a father of two from Huntington Beach, said he plans to attend. “I heard so much about it and I want my kids to be exposed to our community,’ he said. ‘I think it’s a good chance for them to see our culture up close, and, of course, we’ll bring the friends we always go out with. Can’t wait.”

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--Anh Do

L.A. Now
Anh Do

Anh Do, the community engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times, works across the newsroom to spotlight our journalists and journalism, bringing our diverse talent closer to the audiences they serve via virtual and live events. She’s a member of the recruiting team and also represents the paper in communicating with the public who have questions about The Times’ journalistic standards and practices. Before this job, she spent 11 years in Metro covering Asian American issues and general assignments. A second-generation journalist, she has reported for the Seattle Times, the Orange County Register and Nguoi Viet Daily News. Do, born in Saigon, is a graduate of USC with degrees in journalism and English. Her writing on culture and trauma has won awards from Columbia University and the Asian American Journalists Assn. She received Yale’s Poynter Fellowship in Journalism and, in 2016, was part of The Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attacks. Apart from words, she’s passionate about all things canine, spending nearly three decades supporting dog rescue around the globe.

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