On May 28, 2009, Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross wrote this about the award: In Fairfax County's long history (the county was created in 1742), a few names stand out.George Washington may have been Fairfax County's most illustrious and significant resident, but England's Fairfax family played a significant role in the early history of our now-burgeoning locality. According to Fairfax County, Virginia, A History, the Fairfax family "exercised powerful influence on the affairs of Fairfax County. Until the time of the Revolution, they were, even before the Washingtons, the first family of Fairfax County." Thomas, fifth Lord Fairfax, and his son Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, controlled the proprietary patent, or land grant from the king, and Lord Fairfax arrived in 1735 to ensure the boundaries were properly surveyed. So it is not surprising that the Board of Supervisors, in the mid-1980s, when seeking an appropriate title to honor outstanding citizens, chose to call these honored volunteers "Lord and Lady Fairfax." The designation carries with it no special duties or responsibilities, and definitely not any land, but it does provide an opportunity to say "thanks" for service to the community. Every year since 1984, each Supervisor selects appropriate recipients who are honored at a Board of Supervisors meeting and also at a dinner just prior to the Celebrate Fairfax! weekend.
Celebrate Fairfax! has been Northern Virginia’s largest community-wide celebration, with the annual festival hosting tens of thousands of visitors during the three-day run. In 2009, the 25-acre site in the Fairfax County Government Center was filed with more than 400 exhibitors, food vendors, crafters, and interactive activities. Celebrate Fairfax! showcased live concerts on five stages, an interactive SciTech Center and ExxonMobil Children's Avenue, a petting zoo, karoake contest, carnival rides, and great festival foods. Nightly fireworks were a highlight of the festival. A recipient of one of the International Festivals and Events Association's top honors, Celebrate Fairfax was named a Bronze Pinnacle Award winner in 2005 for its long-time quality and success. The festival was also a 2006 honoree as one of the Top 20 events in the Southeastern United States.
The First Asian American Lord Fairfax in 1993 Vilay Chaleunrath. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1993 recognized Vilay Chaleunrath as the first Asian American Lord Fairfax (Mason District). A Laotian American, Vilay Chaleunrath was a leader of the Newcomer Community Service Center (NCSC). The center’s offices in Washington, DC and Falls Church, Virginia reported serving approximately 4,000 refugees and immigrants from more than 50 countries each year.
According to the NCSC website (www.newcomerservice.org), the Newcomer Community Service Center is a minority-based non-profit organization that helps refugees and immigrants from all countries achieve self-sufficiency and become participating members of American society. Founded as the Indochinese Community Center by Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese refugees, NCSC has served the metropolitan Washington area community since its inception in 1978.
1997 Lord Fairfax (At Large) Vietnamese American Toa Quang Do. For his numerous contributions to the Fairfax County communities, Toa Do was honored as the first Vietnamese American Lord Fairfax in 1997. He has also been honored for many other contributions. In 2004, he received the inaugural Barbara Varon Volunteer Award from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The award was established to recognize a Fairfax County resident’s dedication to improving the community through volunteer service and to honor the memory of Barbara Varon, former chairman of the Fairfax County Electoral Board.
Toa Do is shown in 1987 enjoying his first Christmas in Fairfax County with his family.
Toa Do was one of the first to assist FCAAHP. He introduced me to many Asian American small business owners when I attended the BDAG conference on August 2, 2007 at Ernst Community Cultural Center of Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia. The conference was aimed at helping small and women owned businesses to learn to navigate the State of Virginia’s procurement system.
Toa Quang Do, a resident of Fairfax County, Virginia founded Business Development Assistance Group, Inc. (BDAG) which is a not-for-profit, 501(c)-(3) organization. Incorporated in the State of Virginia in 1992, the mission of BDAG is to help small and minority-owned businesses become more viable in American economic life through educational programs, workshops and training seminars.
On May 15, 2004, Toa Do testified to the Virginia Asian Advisory Board Public Forum on the challenges facing Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) who wish to start, stay in or expand a business in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He noted that according to the 1997 census, there were more than ten thousand Asian-owned businesses in Fairfax County with total sales of nearly 2 billion dollars. However, APAs face many challenges, including: “cultural and language barriers, lack of American business techniques and tools, and limited or no access to capital.” He recommended that the state of Virginia should create specific business assistance programs to assist APAs; conduct disparity study and collect data on APA owned business in Virginia to determine if they have a level playing field with mainstream businesses in terms of securing state contracts; and increase access to capital for business start up or expansion for APAs through state financing programs through training in business financing and partnership with banks.
2002 Lord Fairfax (Springfield) Kenneth G. Feng. According to the Fairfax County Park Authority website, Kenneth G. Feng served as the Springfield District representative to the Fairfax County Park Authority Board from October 1995 to 2007. He came to the Board with more than 25 years of public service at all levels and branches of government. His experience includes local government, state universities, and the U.S. Congress. His career started with 7 years of service with Los Angeles County – then over 20 years of service with the US General Accounting Office (GAO).
In addition to the Park Authority, Kenneth Feng served Fairfax County as a member of the Civil Service Commission. During his tenure on the Park Authority Board, he served as Board Treasurer and Chairman of the Resource Management Committee – as well chairman of Administration, Management and Budget, and service on Membership, Diversity and Succession and the Elly Doyle Park Service Awards.
2003 Lord Fairfax (Dranesville) Sudhakar Shenoy. The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority Commission website notes that “Sudhakar Shenoy is founder, chairman and CEO of Information Management Consultants, Inc. (IMC) located in McLean. Founded in 1981, IMC is an internationally recognized systems and software development firm serving both governmental and commercial sectors. In addition to the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority Commission, Sudhakar Shenoy has served on the State of Virginia Technology Commission, the Virginia Innovative Technology Authority, and the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
The IMC website provided the following information about Sudhakar Shenoy’s biography: In 2003, Sudhakar Shenoy was the recipient of the Lord Fairfax distinction for Fairfax County’s Dranesville District for outstanding community involvement and volunteerism. In 2002, Bio-IT World recognized Mr. Shenoy as a Vio-IT Champion for IMC’s innovative work in bringing together information technology and the life sciences. In 1999, Mr. Shenoy was recognized as Citizen of the Year in the local area while a year earlier he received the 1988 Greater Washington High Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award, sponsored by Ernst & Young, NASDAQ and the Washington Post. Mr. Shenoy was also selected by the US Small Business Administration as the Washington Area Minority and Small Business Person of the Year in 1995. In 1996, Mr. Shenoy was inducted into the University of Connecticut’s School of Business Alumni Hall of Fame and was recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Bombay, India in 1997.
Sudhakar V. Shenoy was awarded the 2004 Executive of the Year by the Northern Virginia GovCon Council, the Professional Services Council, and Washington Technology. He is a frequent lecturer and radio personality, often discussing impacts and directions of various technology trends – and was singled out by Business Forward as one of the 40 most influential Global Players in the Washington region.
The First Asian American Lady Fairfax in 2004 -- Korean American Heisung Lee.
Heisung Lee is a registered dietitian (RD) with the American Dietetic Association and worked as a clinical dietitian at hospitals for 30 years. She received her M.S. in gerontology from George Mason University in 1996 and earned her PhD in Public Health from the University of Maryland at College Park. Heisung Lee wrote the following about her reaction to receiving the award as Lady Fairfax in June 2004:
When Chairman of the BOS, Connolly, and now Congressman appointed me as Lady of Fairfax at large, I was not grasping what it meant to me at all because I even did not know of the honor. After I received the honor, I decided to be a liaison person advocating for both parties, Korean American elderly who have difficulty to access the local government services/programs and the Fairfax County that has difficulty to outreach the Korean communities for disseminating information and news. I am doing this job as volunteering for different organizations, providing educations for the Korean Americans, and participating in advocacy events and rallies with seniors and governmental employees.
I immigrated to the US in 1971 in search of higher education and better opportunity. I first lived in Detroit where I completed an internship in dietetics. It was not easy--I had no family, little money, and limited English. After internship, I moved to Richmond, VA where I held my first job in hospital food services. After my husband and I got married, we moved to northern Virginia in 1980. There were very few Asians that lived in this area at the time. For 16 years, I worked as a clinical dietitian at INOVA Fairfax Hospital and Alexandria Hospital, then went back to school to earn my masters in gerontology and doctoral degree in public health. We also raised my two wonderful daughters.
As time passed, northern Virginia changed dramatically. The Asian population boomed, and with it the numbers of Asian seniors increased. There became a great need for senior services that could reach this vulnerable population. I retired from dietetics and began working as the volunteer director of the Korean Senior Center in Vienna. Over the last 10 years, through the hard work of our volunteers and our partnerships with Fairfax County, area hospitals, and community colleges we have been able to achieve a great deal. Ours is the largest senior center by number of participants in Fairfax county.
Among many of our services, we provide English language and citizenship classes, health education and exercise, and operate Korean Meals and Wheels to frail seniors who miss their native food. We also began a training program to train personal care aides who understand the culture and language of our ethnic seniors. This program is now a model for other communities.
In 2003, I was very surprised and honored to be named Lady-of-Fairfax at large by Chairman (now Congressman) Gerry Connolly. This award is meaningful in that it represents the hard work of many individuals who strive to keep our communities connected and care for those who cannot care for themselves. I hope to continue advocating for our Asian seniors as long as I can, and would like to work with others to develop new programs and facilities that will promote a better quality of life for our frail ethnic elders.
It has been an incredible journey so far and I feel very fortunate for God’s many blessings in my life
2009 Lady Fairfax (At Large) Corazon Sandoval Foley. The June 1st citation reads:
Cora Foley was born in the Philippines and made Fairfax County her home 29 years ago. Cora is an accomplished writer and a founding member of the Friends of the Virginia Room Library group. She served as former Chairman Connolly’s appointee to the Fairfax County Jamestown 400 Committee and the Fairfax County History Museum Subcommittee. Cora also initiated and co-chaired the Fairfax County Asian American History Project (FCAAHP) to document the history of Asian Americans who have made Fairfax County their home. Cora and FCAAHP volunteers have recorded dozens of oral history interviews, created an FCAAHP website and are working on a book to be published in May of 2010 during Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. In addition to her work in the historical arena, Cora has also been an advocate for senior citizens. She is pursuing the development of Fairfax County’s “Burke/Springfield Distict Senior Center Without Walls” project to provide wellness programs for seniors.” The Burke Connection in June 2009 published an article entitled “Building Bridges Not Walls” about Cora Foley’s innovative project for a Burke/Springfield Senior Center Without Walls. (BSSCWoW).
