By David Li, bostonese.com
2012 Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC)’s annual meeting and dinner was held on the evening of Nov. 27 at Hei La Moon Restaurant in Boston Chinatown. ACDC is a community-based organization that serves the Asian American community of Greater Boston and the neighborhoods in which they live and work, with an emphasis on preserving and revitalizing Chinatown
At last year’s ACDC annual meeting on Nov. 29, 2011, Prof. Paul Watanabe of UMass Boston led a panel discussion of the future of Boston Chinatown. This year’s annual meeting focused on homebuyer education. David Taglieri, Mortgage Development Officer at Sovereign Bank, was awarded the prestigious Community Award.
Vivien Wu presents the Community Award to David Taglieri.
| The reception started at 5:30 PM with around 200 guests checking out various silent auction items. The Keyes-Glenn Trio provided entertainment for the guests. The annual meeting started at 6:30 PM, with Janelle Chan, executive director of ACDC, delivering the keynote speech. She reviewed many achievements by ACDC in the past year, such as the 25th Anniversary Inspiration Gala, attended by Gov. Patrick and Treasury Grossman, the completion of the 6 Fort street project in Quincy and etc. |
Ms. Chan introduced two new board members of ACDC. They were Geoffrey Why, commissioner of the state Department of Telecommunications and Cable, currently the highest ranking appointed Asian American official in the state, and Ms. Yongmei Chen of Eastern Bank.
A short video was played on a big screen, telling a success story of ACDC’s homebuyer education program. A young Asian couple are now proud home owners after attending the homebuyer 101 class earlier this year. After her speech, Ms. Chan told reporter that she was looking forward to the groundbreaking of parcel 24 project in February 2013.
Parcel 24 project on Hudson street in Boston Chinatown is a joint-venture between the ACDC and New Boston Fund, Inc., a privately owned real estate investment manager and an industry leader in providing real estate investment, development and management services. Once completed, it will create 362 units of much-needed community housing, including 95 affordable rental units, 50 affordable condominiums and 217 market-rate rental opportunities.
| Vivien Wu, Director of Programs at ACDC, presented the Outstanding Housing Educator award. She said:”last week we had Black Friday, then Small Business Saturday. I’m sure many of you went online for Cyber Monday. And today is Annual Meeting Tuesday. There is a Chinese proverb that goes： If you are planning for a year, sow rice. If you are planning for a decade, plant trees. If you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. If this wise Chinese scholar were alive today, he or she might add, if you want to prevent the next sub-prime mortgage crisis, hire David Taglieri.” |
Mr. Taglieri has volunteered to teach over 350 seminars over the past 20 years. “Our students can trust him to be ethical and accurate. ACDC can trust him to really care about our students and understand that the most important thing is for our clients’ households to be stably housed, and learn the financial information that will be of most help to them,” said Vivien Wu.
In accepting his award, David Taglieri thanked ACDC for giving him the opportunity to serve the community.
Organizers of this annual meeting would like to thank the following sponsors.
| Reception Sponsor Davis Malm & D’Agostine P.C. Maloney Properties, Inc. Sapporo USATable Sponsor Janelle Chan Nick Chau Davis Malm & D’Agostine P.C. Eastern Bank Klein Hornig LLP Terry Kwan Denise Lau & William Quan Paul W. & Mary Y. Lee Local Initiatives Support Corporation Peter Madsen Oak Terrace Corporation Vivien Wu |