Due to the incremental weather on Saturday and Sunday, January 18th and 19th, we couldn’t attend as many happenings as we would have liked but we still managed to navigate the cold, snowy streets to make it to make it to three places.
Along these lines, our first stop on Saturday evening was the 2025 New Year Celebration put on by the Asian Business Association of Ohio (ABAO) at the Li Wah Restaurant in Asia Plaza.
Margaret W. Wong & Associates LLC sponsored this occurrence because we admire the work of the ABAO that is dedicated “to help Asian-owned businesses gain opportunities and growth.”
Accordingly, Ms. Lei Jiang, the President of the ABAO, gave us a moment to speak and we used the occasion to talk about how proud we were to work for Margaret W. Wong & Associates LLC because it has done so much for so many people of all income levels seeking to immigrate to the United States.
We left the ABAO gathering early because we wanted to take in the 100 Year Anniversary Celebration of the German Central Farm Foundation in Parma.
After we arrived, we conversed with Mr. Leonard May, the very friendly President of the Foundation, who told us that the purpose of venue was to preserve the German culture while c
reating a space where all are welcome.
> Of course, we have been to all kinds of events over the years at German Central Farm, and written about many of them in this blog, so for us this goal has been more than realized.
Thus we kicked back and enjoyed the music of “Lula’s Button Box Review” as well as the “Gemutlichkeit Clevelander Musikanten.”
While we were admiring the anniversary cakes, we had spoke with Mr. Helmut Sems, the Treasurer of the Foundation, who poignantly recalled his family’s immigration to the United States in 1949 when he was 9 years old.
With tears in his eyes, Mr. Sems then affirmed how much being a United States citizen meant to him in a manner so positively genuine that it left us choked.
The next day was Sunday and we got up early so we could go to St. Emeric Church behind the West Side Market to pick-up several dozen fresh donuts that Ms. Margaret W. Wong purchased for the attorneys and staff of her Cleveland office.
Certainly, these donuts were created from a recipe that originated in Hungary and several people who were involved in their preparation were glad to tell us how much they loved being involved in the annual bake sale.
And the reason for this is because two goals were accomplished, one was to raise money for their beloved church and the other was to share the food and culture of their beloved country of origin.
