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Vietnamese refugee sells home to buy Rose parade float as thank you gift to nation
Associated Press ^ | 12/29/2001 2:42 am ET | Associated Press

Posted on 12/29/2001 12:19:30 AM PST by mdittmar

In the years since Madalenna Lai boarded a wooden boat and fled communist-led Vietnam, she has wanted to say "thank you" to the Americans who helped her build a new life in the United States.

On New Year's Day, she will get her wish in one of the country's most-watched events, the Tournament of Roses Parade.

It has taken eight years, and she had to sell her house to raise the $100,000 to do it, but when the parade's 52 floats start through Pasadena, Lai's will be among them.

Her 35-foot long, 18-feet wide float will carry a simple message: "Thank you America and the world."

Aboard the float, "Lac viet," a mystical bird, rises from the bow of a boat much like those that carried thousands of Vietnamese away from their war ravaged country. Other ramshackle boats rest beneath, decorated with yellow straw flower, seeds, rice, walnut shells, mums and roses.

Six survivors of the Vietnam war and the mayor of Pomona will ride on the float, officially sponsored by the Vietnamese Cultural House, a nonprofit help agency Lai founded in 1996.

Lai, 59, said she has wanted to enter a float since she first saw the parade on television in 1977.

She had arrived in the United States two years earlier with her four young children. Her husband, Quang Thanh Nguyen, stayed behind with fellow police officers to fight North Vietnamese troops. It would be 15 years before Lai would learn whether he had survived.

After Lai and her children reached U.S. soil, an American family in Pennsylvania took them in for two years. Lai later moved her family to Pasadena, where they lived on welfare for a year while Lai got her footing in her new country. She eventually started two beauty shops, then opened a cosmetology school in Pomona.

In 1990, she was reunited with her husband, who she learned had been jailed in Vietnam for a decade.

"The United States opened her arms to me and my children. We no longer went hungry and my kids received a good education," Lai said Friday. "I told myself after my children finished school and I reunited with my husband, I would give my life to thank America."

She started that quest in 1996. She acquired a fishing boat that carried several Vietnamese refugees to the Philippines, then organized a national tour for the boat.

As she worked on her plans for the Rose parade float, though, tougher economic times sent business at her beauty salons down. She had little time to raise money, so she sold her house to raise the $100,000 fee to have the float designed and built.

"We have children, we can always live in their houses," Lai's husband said of the decision to sell the home. But they didn't have to their youngest daughter, Trang Thu Nguyen, bought them a house in Pomona.

The Rose Bowl football game will be held on Jan. 3 this year, rather than following the parade as usual. The University of Miami and the University of Nebraska are scheduled to play.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame with conquering lims astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command the air-brigded harbor that twin cities frame, "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pom!" cries she with silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddle masses yearning to breath free, the wrechted refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"


1 posted on 12/29/2001 12:19:30 AM PST by mdittmar
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To: mdittmar
God bless America.
2 posted on 12/29/2001 12:19:30 AM PST by gg188
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To: mdittmar
"Just don't send me your Muslim terrorists"
3 posted on 12/29/2001 12:19:30 AM PST by ambrose
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To: mdittmar
That's the beauty of America...

You can do anything you want, no matter how silly or frivolous it is!!!

4 posted on 12/29/2001 12:19:31 AM PST by Captainpaintball
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To: mdittmar
"Whoever sheds his blood with me today, will be my brother and his condition ennobled, be he never so base." John Walker can take a hike. An American has taken his place.
5 posted on 12/29/2001 12:19:31 AM PST by wretchard
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To: mdittmar
thanks for the great article.

This is the type of example I offer to people who say that they are down and out because of "the man."

6 posted on 12/29/2001 12:19:31 AM PST by KneelBeforeZod
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To: mdittmar
All immigrants should learn from these people.
7 posted on 12/29/2001 12:35:37 AM PST by B1B_Lancer
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To: mdittmar
"Thank you America and the world."

Just one generation since the end of the Vietnam conflict and many of our high schools and universities have their top honors taken by the children and grand children of these refugees.

No, thank you Mrs. Lai.

8 posted on 12/29/2001 12:52:50 AM PST by leadpenny
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To: mdittmar
Just saw Mrs. Lai's float on the TV. What a lovely tribute to America and Freedom.
9 posted on 01/01/2002 9:10:58 AM PST by debg
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To: mdittmar
Thank you so very much for posting this! I did not know about this lady - but I do now! What a wonderful tribute to America - to the America we LOVE and to the America that the liberals/socialists/communists led by the Clinton Dominated Demoncreep party want to DESTROY and/or transform into a nation more like the Communist Vietnam from which this seeder of freedom fled!

There are millions more like here - millions who came here to find a better life and who have done so. And there are multiplied millions more who, unlike the slithering snakes who would destroy us, know that if America goes - freedom and hope will also be gone in this world.

Yet, somehow, the blind anti-Americans like Hitlery and her utterly deceived or totally corrupt followers would put up Cuba and China and VietNam and Korea as the nations they favor! As the ideologies they would impose on Americans if they could get away with it!

This lady will be with all Americans who are united to see that the "socialist/communist utopia" that Hitlery wants America to become does not overtake America. I am very glad this refugee from VietNam is my fellow American!

10 posted on 01/01/2002 9:20:43 AM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt
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To: mdittmar
I can't read this without tears. There are tears of saddness for those abandoned to the murderously oppressive communist regime that took over all of Viet Nam in 1975. Abandoned because of the treachery of the ilk of jane fonda and the clintons. But there are also tears of joy for those who escaped. And especially those who learned to truly love freedom and feel grateful to live here. God Bless America and all patriotic Americans.
11 posted on 01/01/2002 9:37:38 AM PST by carpio
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To: leadpenny
Just one generation since the end of the Vietnam conflict and many of our high schools and universities have their top honors taken by the children and grand children of these refugees.

Because, you idiot, they STUDY and WORK at it! Just like my parents did when they came here from Europe after WWII, these imigrants are not AFRAID of work. Believe me, those Americans who work at it recieve top honors as well.
Stop complaining!

There, I got that off my mind!

12 posted on 01/01/2002 9:50:56 AM PST by It's me
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To: It's me
Are you drunk or otherwise incapacitated? What gives you the idea that I was complaining? Pretty loose with the insults even if I was complaining. Do you need a doctor?
13 posted on 01/01/2002 9:58:06 AM PST by leadpenny
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To: It's me
Uh, leadpenny was complimenting them. I think you owe him/her an apology.
14 posted on 01/01/2002 10:05:38 AM PST by McGavin999
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To: McGavin999
No, thank you Mrs. Lai.

Think I should have done this at #8:

No, thank YOU, Mrs. Lai.

Thanks, McG.

15 posted on 01/01/2002 10:13:04 AM PST by leadpenny
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To: leadpenny, :All
I thought at first to that leadpenny was complaining until I read his reply again.
16 posted on 01/01/2002 10:32:40 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: It's me
Looks like you weren't the only one I misled. Please come back. No harm done. Besides, I'll bet you don't even drink.
17 posted on 01/01/2002 10:47:30 AM PST by leadpenny
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To: mdittmar
Bump.
18 posted on 01/16/2002 7:44:24 AM PST by patent
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To: patent
bump
19 posted on 02/01/2002 2:56:13 PM PST by lsucat
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To: mdittmar
I know some Vietnamese people and they very patriotic. They came here in rickety boats after the war, and a couple of generations later their kids and grandkids are going to the best colleges.

Many are Republican. One of them has a son who has a learning disability. She refuses and has always refused to take a dime from the government. Really good people who appreciate America and all it has to offer.

20 posted on 02/01/2002 3:00:42 PM PST by veronica
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