The COVID pandemic has certainly shaken up our community, causing small businesses to shut down and many restaurants to permanently close their doors to the public. This has caused many…
“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work, and into your life. There are no limits.”
Ryan Liu is a dedicated volunteer who embraces this concept in his goals and community service. Ryan is a determined sophomore student at Cedar Park High School in Austin, Texas as well as a member of the Austin Chinese-American Network. Over the past year, Ryan not only served his community in his local city, but he also reached beyond and worked across the world to serve communities beyond his limits.
You might have heard about the Toastmaster International Club. It is a global organization with over 360,000 members for the purpose of promoting communication, public speaking, and leadership. Do you know that ACAN has a similar program, for youth and run by youth?
ACAN Youth Public Speaking Club, sometimes called “social masters”, was founded in August last year and we have been meeting every Tuesday since then, minus holidays. But have they made any difference? What would the club members say about their experience?
Just as hope, ACAN youths did not stop on the first couple days of 2021; instead, they packed Bags of Hope with heart-warming essentials. Altogether, over 30 youth and parents spent 110 hours to prepare and deliver over 400 bags to the homeless camps all over the city.
During 2020, our community was faced with many challenges as a whole, including mental health declines, economic divides, and of course, the COVID-19 crisis. Due to these issues, many members of the Austin Chinese-American Network worked diligently to aid our community during these issues.
ACAN hosts a Winter Gala as a yearly fundraising event to promote its mission of serving the community and fostering our heritage. This year, the Winter Gala was more challenging to host due to COVID-19 and the global pandemic, however, this did not stop us from hosting a spectacular concert.
2020 is a year of many things. But what have we learned? Especially, what have our next generation, young men and women learned during the time of quarantine and online school? I asked them the question and below are their answers, sorted by their first name.
This holiday season, ACAN youth and parents will volunteer to deliver “Bags of Hope” that contain essential items to the homeless community in the Austin/Travis County metropolitan area. You can join us by donating or volunteering.
Our ACAN Youth, Iris Chen, has come up with this wonderful idea: write a holiday card and personally deliver to her neighbors. Just reading her letter will melt your heart. Great job, Iris!