HOUSTON—The stars shined in the Lone Star State, feted Texas-style in a gathering with nearly 500 people cheering their work this past weekend at the fourth annual Vietnamese American National Gala.

Immigrants united in the third-largest Vietnamese community in the U.S. in a gleaming meet-and-greet, learning about each other’s professions while celebrating the universal mark they are making in their adopted nation — in the same month that America lauds its people of Asian Pacific heritage.

And everywhere the participants went — from bull rides at a “hoedown” to touring wide, flat malls dotted with refugee businesses on Bellaire Boulevard to a splashy black-tie dinner at the Inter-Continental Hotel — they heard echoes of “30 years. We’ve succeeded in the last 30 years — what can we do in the next 30 years?”

In truth, it’s been 32 years since Viet-Ams, as the group is often referred to, arrived in this land following the end of the Việt Nam War. But after just three decades, their profile is increasingly large — and prestigious — as Houston Mayor Bill White said in Saturday’s welcoming speech, crediting Vietnamese Americans with having “a gift of life.”

“Our lives can be displaced” and in handling that, “the Vietnamese American community can be a shining light to every community in this nation for what can happen when you look forward and not backward.”

Success stories took to the stage at VANG, where the mission is to honor individuals and groups for their contributions to the Vietnamese American society and to America.

“We celebrate our award recipients — we celebrate us!” said emcee Châu Nguyễn, local television reporter for KHOU, Channel 11. “We think it’s a success every year because our goal is to bring together inspiration and leave with inspiration,” said Ryan Nguyễn Hubris, who helps lead the organizing committee.

Starting with the winners, Nguoi Viet 2 recaps the three-day event:

The Golden Torch awards

For honorary Vietnamese American: Gerald Ford, president from mid-1974 to early 1977

The late leader signed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act of 1975, making it possible for 130,000 Vietnamese to legally resettle in the United States after the fall of South Việt Nam on April 30, 1975. The bill was amended in 1977 under the sponsorship of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), allowing refugees to adjust to a parolee status and later become permanent residents.

John Carlson, a White House colleague and Ford family friend for more than 30 years, accepted on his behalf, describing the revered politician as a man who “cared deeply for those yearning for freedom.”

He remembered waiting with the president and his wife in the days following the mass exodus in Sài Gòn, greeting the first plane of Operation Babylift when 2,500-plus infants and children were transported from Việt Nam to be adopted by families around the world. The couple carried some of the crying babies when they appeared on the tarmac. Ford then said to him, “We cannot forget the living while mourning the dead.”

Carlson read a letter from Betty Ford, who wrote: “Thank you for recognizing my husband. I am certain he is smiling down from above enjoying the fruits of his labor.”

She praised the Vietnamese Americans, adding, “You came to the United States empty-handed and now are in the ranks of America’s best.”

For national leadership: International Central Committee on Vietnamese Scouting

The nonprofit group sprung into life in 1983, after a convention held in Costa Mesa, Calif., and long after the Vietnamese scouting movement lost its headquarters, seized by Communists in 1975. Its history began as early as 1930, when Troop Lê Lợi, its first unit, started in Việt Nam, with the country’s entry into the World Scout Organization official in 1957.

Today, more than 4,000 boys and girls are registered in 51 Vietnamese American scouting groups in the United States alone. Adult leaders teach them to preserve Vietnamese traditions while adapting to current needs in society. Their immigrant peers are learning similar skills in Canada, Germany, France and Australia.

Tiêu Anh Đặng and Nam Hoàng Lương accepted the honor, with Đặng, a 13-year scout who heads the Vietnamese Students Association at the University of Maryland, saying that the organization will observe 100 years this summer. She thanked it for its “dedication to establishing identity, character and morality” among youths.

Members of ICCVS have launched eight jamborees, sharing their culture and their memories gained from a lifetime of participation.

For national leadership: Office of Refugee Resettlement

Since 1975, the U.S. has resettled 2.4 million refugees, with almost 77 percent of them Indochinese or citizens of the former Soviet Union — two groups in whom the United States has had strong humanitarian and foreign policy interests during the last three decades. The average number of individuals admitted annually since 1980 is 98,000.

With the end of the Việt Nam War, Congress realized it needed a process to handle the flow of families trying to come to America, leading to passage of the Refugee Act of 1980, creating standard services for those welcomed into the nation. The legislation has a definition of “refugee” used in the U.N. Protocol, allocating federal funding for resettlement.

Jim de la Cruz represented his organization, accepting the honor and asking the audience “not to look at me so much as a government employee,” but someone who reaches out and extends himself “from an agency that really loves people... men, women and children of all colors.”

For cultural preservation and promotion: Văn Lang Vietnamese Language & Culture Education Center

An initial class of 30 students launched the San Jose group, now attracting 1,000 pupils managed by a staff of 120 teachers. As part of its mission, it follows an adage from the Lạc Hồng heritage, “First learn the proper conduct and second the literature,” blending classes on Vietnamese history with training on speaking its native tongue.

The center, based at Gunderson High School, opens its doors every Sunday, hugely supported by parents and the Federation of Young Vietnamese Volunteers Organization which runs its operations.

Phạmvũ Minh-Duy and Nguyễn Thị Thúy Liên represented Văn Lang onstage. It takes seven hours to prepare lessons for three hours of instruction one day a week, Nguyễn said, citing a menu of 12 courses, each course lasting 16 weeks.

We could “never, ever” do this without our volunteers, she stressed. “We are so grateful to them.”

For arts and entertainment: Betty Nguyễn

The woman who became a household name in her community anchors the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom. Nguyễn, who grew up in Texas, has covered major world events ranging from the death of Pope John Paul II to the London bombing attacks to Hurricane Katrina, all occurring in 2005. From the network’s Atlanta base, she helped guide coverage of the tsunami disaster in South Asia, the Iraqi elections and the handover of sovereignty to Iraq.

While working in Dallas, she reported on the space shuttle Columbia explosion and the Sept. 11 tragedy, and in 2003, won the Legacy of Women Award and a regional Emmy for “Outstanding Noon Newscast.”

Nguyễn has been named to the Texas Philanthropy Hall of Fame for volunteering with Help the Hungry, a group she co-founded to reduce global hunger through humanitarian relief in poor areas. In this cause she works with her mother, and in receiving her award, she said, “I just want to thank you, Mom, this is for you,” crediting her with instilling “in me the confidence to chase my dreams.

“We’ve essentially won the lottery by being Americans,” she added. “Just imagine what we can do with the next generation.”

For military service: Lt. Col. Paul Đoàn

As chief of aerospace medicine of the 2nd Medical Group at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Đoàn is the veteran of a career that finds him constantly on the road — and in the air. Working as a flight surgeon, he has logged more than 222 hours, including 91 combat hours in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

His past diplomatic and humanitarian missions involved visits to Bulgaria, Peru and Việt Nam, while assignments have taken him to places such as Florida, the United Kingdom and Lubbock, Texas.

Đoàn ranks as the first Vietnamese American to attend Duke University following the end of the war. In 2005, Yale University selected him as its Johnson and Johnson International Health Physician Scholar, an honor that sent him back to Việt Nam, more than 30 years after he left as a child.

He dedicated his Golden Torch recognition to “the men and women of the armed forces, bravely serving our country all over the world,” and to his late father, Col. Đoàn Văn Bang of the Vietnamese Air Force.

“I would like to encourage you to be proud of your traditions,” he told the audience, adding his hope for people to imitate the courage of those in the military, “to succeed at all odds.”

For student of the year: Đức Trọng Đinh

Holding a cardboard check for $5,000, the scholarship winner said he would donate the money to fund heart surgeries for two needy children in Việt Nam, as listeners clapped loudly. The University of Houston student, a junior majoring in biology, is a candidate in the elite Joint Admission Medical Program, which guarantees him a seat in any medical school in Texas.

“I am so lucky that my education is set,” he said, citing his need to do more good in the world — now. “If I wait until I’m older, then more children will have to suffer because they were born into an unfortunate family.”

In high school, Đinh started a nonprofit called Lend a Hand, offering educational assistance to Việt Nam’s poor and awarding more than 1,000 full scholarships to qualified students in his homeland. He aims to be a cardiovascular surgeon, leading a team of doctors globally to reach those in need.

A vacation to Việt Nam and visits to orphanages prompted his activism. “I really felt empty” after winning his university accolade, he recalled. “I thought, ‘What now?’ ”

A chance meeting with motherless, fatherless kids, especially one girl, starved not just for material goods but for affection, who asked him to pick her up, changed his perception. “For me to be able to hold her that day was a very big thing,” he said, emotional in the moment.

The trophy

It’s heavy, weighted with six and a half pounds of crystal. Each winner also brings home a VANG commemorative medal, dipped five times in 22-karat gold and backed by a 10-year guarantee from Diamond Cutters International.
Its significance — and the significance of the ceremony — overwhelmed attendees.

“It’s incredible,” noted Đinh, the student, standing next to his mother, Lan Bạch Nguyễn, before collecting his award. “It’s not just luck that gets us here,” she said of her son being singled out. “Each person offers a hand; we aid one another.”

The judges

This year’s selection committee mirrored the diversity of its chosen winners. They were:

Liên-Hằng Nguyễn, associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky, Lexington

Nam Lộc Nguyễn, director of the immigration and refugee department for Catholic Charities of Los Angeles and a 2005 VANG honoree.

Phú N. Nguyễn, senior information officer at Inter-American Bank of Washington, D.C.

Pamela Tranpark, CEO, Victory Lending Corp. of Houston
Texas State Rep. Hubert Võ of Houston.

The performers

A talent competition invited folks to apply to perform onstage between the presentations of the Golden Torch award. Two men and two women were chosen:

Hà Trần, also known as Trần Thu Hà, whose memorable voice is behind her transformation into one of the most popular Vietnamese divas and whose latest release, “Đối Thoại 06,” showcases her versatility, spanning from cultural classics to jazzy love songs to funky electronic music blended with indie rock.

Huy Phạm, whose pop ballads show why he’s won every Vietnamese Student Association and intercollegiate music contest he entered during his college years. He’s a graduate of the University of California, Davis, studying biochemistry.

Amy Trần, who debuted her first, full-length album, “Soulmates and Second Chances,” while enrolled at the University of Southern California. She began with piano lessons as a girl, moving onto the alto saxophone and later, the acoustic guitar.

Vudoo Soul, armed with an electrical engineering degree from MIT, who says he makes a good living “just with what I love, music.” To hear the diminutive singer is to understand why “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson voted thumbs-up for him, noting: “I never imagined a voice like that coming out of a body like yours.”

“This year, we’re adding more Oscar-style touches to the program,” Hubris, among the VANG organizers, said. The goal is to make the gala sparkle, with invitations extended to rising Vietnamese American directors and actors to help present the awards along with politicos, including: Sichan Siv, former U.S. representative to the United Nations; Texas Congressman Al Green; Texas State Rep. Hubert Võ; and Chloe Đào, a Houstonian and Vietnamese American winner of the popular “Project Runway” reality TV series.

The summit

The same actors and directors near the podium — Dustin Nguyễn, Charlie Nguyễn and Hàm Trần — along with Johnny Trí Nguyễn — were featured speakers at the Vietnamese American Summit, held the day before the gala. Apart from focusing on film, a menu with three other choices filled meeting rooms with listeners, curious and ready to take notes:

Vietnamese American media: What can it do to captivate its audience and rise to the challenges of the next generation?

Vietnamese American Heritage Project: An introduction to the landmark Smithsonian exhibit honoring 30 years of Vietnamese American achievement and how the community can assist funding it.

Women in Leadership: Ways to shape the people and the environment around you.

“This is just not about honoring those who are successful,” said Danny Nguyễn, a summit director from San Jose. “We want to give tips and create smaller gatherings where everyone can ask questions. There’s a lot of energy here, and a lot of experiences that we can hear about to learn from.”

The VANG 40

Scholarships were awarded to 40 young Vietnamese Americans from around the nation, most students, with the stipulation that “get yourself to Houston, and the rest will be taken care of,” said Hải Tôn, president of UNAVSA, the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Association, and a recipient.

VANG did this to broaden the mix of participants and to allow youths closer access to professionals while reducing their costs, added Danny Nguyễn. “We give them a chance to meet those they may not otherwise meet, to let everyone connect and exchange ideas.”

How did it work out?

“It’s awesome,” said Tôn, 27, a technology consultant from Westminster, Calif. “VANG offers something different from your regular community event. It has really tapped into the student network and that’s valuable.”

“Being here motivates me to do more for the community,” added Lan-Chi Krysti Võ, a biology major at the University of Texas, Austin.

“It’s really an honor to be chosen out of all the essays submitted” in this competition, said Roger Lê, who is studying information systems at the University of Texas, Arlington. He has learned some new buzzwords — “No history, no self.” Therefore, “know history, know self,” boosting his understanding of his culture.

The scholarship bunch, forming an impromptu circle before the dinner, related their thoughts as the gala started. Some had been strangers before the trip, but after sharing rides, meals and a room with as many as five or six others, they were turning into fast friends.

“We ask about what each of us does in school. We tell about what we want to do later in life. We advise,” said Kathy Phạm, a computer science major at Georgia Tech, looking at Tâm Dương, a neurosciences major at Scripps College.

The next act

Would they come back in 2008?

“We hope we get invited,” said Hương Hồ, a biochemistry student at Rice University. “This is unforgettable, and it has really opened up our eyes.”

The crowd drifted inside, later streaming outside, having heard the refrain, “See you next year in Las Vegas,” a refrain echoing onstage as the clock ticked, more than three hours past the opening speech.

VANG’s fifth anniversary will be highlighted in a special edition of V Magazine, according to organizers, 300 pages in full color for the next reunion.

Those dates? May 16 to 18, 2008.