culturally competent mental- health services. asian americans have a lot. thank you. [applause]

president chiu: another supervisor has two from his district. supervisor farrell: what can i say? i'd like to bring two of. if you both who are here, and maria is accompanied by her daughter here today, as well. i will keep this shorter. just to let you know about maria, i got to know her on the campaign trail, and i got to know her. this was about empowering individuals.

there was a board member and board chair. multi-cultural child care organizations, for affordable child care services. teachers, children, and their families to have a learning environment that allows children to develop to their full potential, and while serving as board share for the child care services. she is also a 10-year board member and chair person for the bay area business development center, which is for eight business loan guarantee. the in power steering entrepreneurs to end poverty with microfinance loans and help low-income entrepreneurs grow their business, and by 2010, gumball capital had organized a challenge at 15 schools, raising capital for their cause. and lastly, as the secretary of

the bread project. from the start, their mission has been to promote economic self-sufficiency and in power individuals with limited resources by providing bakery training and assistance to low- income individuals. the founders found that beijing was a trade with a growing demand and a practical korea pact that could be taught in a short time. individuals hits in their economic recession can find work quickly to sustain themselves and their family. it is through the great work of people in district two, like ms. matsu, and we want to thank you and honor you for all they do for the pacific american community. [applause] >> thank you very much, board of supervisors. this is a great honor.

what inspires me to do this community work is getting to know and to work with the countless unsung heroes home really dedicated their lives and their careers -- who really dedicated their lives. they're free leisure time to help those less privileged. thank you very much. [applause] supervisor farrell: and secondly, i am honoring him as we -- tyhe -- the chef at one of my favorite restaurants in the city. he has provided the city with leadership for over 10 years. he has brought an exciting cultural blends and an extremely intense of culinary career p.m. he was born in asia.

his career was at the prestigious shangri-la hotel in kuala lumpur. he has worked more than 25 years. in 2001, a restaurant invited him to take the reins of their kitchen. it has taken years to keep them thriving as one of the popular restaurants. his commitment in rich's the economic prosperity of our city of district two and contributed a great deal to our cultural diversity. i thank you for your efforts on the city and county of san francisco, and from our family that goes there quite often, thank you all for your continued hard work for the great restaurants in our district. thank you. [applause] >> supervisors, it to the community, thank you very much for this honor. i am very honored. thank you.

[applause] president chiu: congratulations. it is my honor to make the next presentation.

if you could please step up to the podium? [applause] and i first want to welcome all of the members of the association who are here. they q4 being here. for those of you who do not known cta, they are the largest based tenants' organization in san francisco. they fight for tenants in chinatown and in the broader san francisco community. our unreal today -- honoree has served caught with them. he is summoned retired as the postmaster at the

telecommunications bureau after 33 years of service and moved to san francisco in 1992 to be with this family. from 1992 to 2002, he worked as a garment factory worker in san francisco while living at 152 jasper place with his wife, a building that holds many elderly, monolingual and long- term residents, and there were even action notices sent. this is for the chinatown community development center, and after months of rallying and committed to organizing, the landlord rescinded this, and the tenants were able to remain in their homes. i should note that the case at jasper place was one of the

parts of what i passed last year to place restrictions on the development of garages that replaced tenants and units. so with that, the board of supervisors, we want to extend our highest commendation and gratitude to you for leading these rights for them and all sit franciscans. congratulations. [applause] >> [speaking foreign language]

[applause] [speaking foreign language]

[applause] [speaking foreign language] >> good afternoon. i am glad to be here. after retirement, i stayed home with the carrot taking care of my grandchildren. the new owners of jasper place

had an eviction notice to force a senior house hold out of their homes. we had deep roots in the community. at that time, other residents were worrying about what their future might be. fortunately, the tenants were able to get to the point. it motivated me to continue to fight for our home. in order to win this battle, i know that we have to unite and stays strong. after 18 months of the struggle, we were allowed to stay in our homes. they wanted me to stay and dedicate myself. i realize that there are many tenants out there in san francisco who may be going through the same struggle. income is too wide. we want it so that the city can improve the quality of life of

the vulnerable and low-income population. cta is the largest tenant organization in san francisco. there are several members with this mission in mind, to educate members to become their own advocates. i also have the honor to be elected as the president of cta this year, and i hope to be more active advocate and to develop our membership base across different neighborhoods to come together to fight for our rights. i would like to thank the president for recognition of my work but i would like to recognize that this honor belongs to everyone of our board members and members of cta. i appreciate the support from our members as well as staff, and i would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family for giving me motivation as well as a rallying in support behind me, and also my wife who does

all the house chores. thank you. [applause] supervisor chiu: our next commendation today will be offered by our colleague from district four, supervisor carmen chu. supervisor chu: thank you and thank you to everyone who has come today and congratulations to all the other awardees. as we have seen, it take a lot

of people to create community, with a community organization, community activist residents, or our merchants. aside from that, i just wanted to talk a little bit about martin. it is hard to get to know martin through his work with the outer sunset merchants association. he is not only a regular member there but someone who has always gone above and beyond to really engage the community to improve our merchant corridor. for many of us who serve the diversity that is san francisco, we oftentimes have in our image area people who might not be able to speak english as well, and that is the same thing for our irving street location. because of his help and his work being able to speak different languages and communicate with many of the residents and merchants, we have been able to get much more active merchant purchase a patient and really create a sense of community that was not there before. just this past year, we had our

first ever christmas holiday like project where we have almost 95% merchant participation across all different ethnic groups, so that would not have been possible without margin. in addition to being a terrific merchant partner in the community, he is also someone whose generosity really shines in his day-to-day life. he volunteers once a week at project open hand, volunteers twice a month at st. ignatius church, and probably many of these -- many of us can never say this, and he has actually donated blood 85 times. we want to thank you and recognize you. you are truly a goodwill ambassador in our community. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. i am honored and glad to be receiving this award.

everybody is an inspiration over there here actually, a lot of people volunteer with me regularly who put in much more hours than i do, and i am just humbled by the experience. to be honored -- honest with you, september 11, 2001, was a turning what in my life. this is a place where people come together to be a family. on that day, i decided to donate blood. actually, i had to wait about six hours. unfortunately, i was not able to donate blood the day, but i have made the commitment since that date to start donating blood regularly. every great endeavor begins with one simple step, so, hopefully, everyone of us can just accept

is that and become part of our community. thank you. wa supervisor chiu: our next commendation will be provided by our colleague from district 5, supervisor ross mirkarimi. supervisor mirkarimi: 90. i would like to honor rodney chin, executive director of the buchanan ymca. he is a native san franciscan, lived in district 5, the western addition, with his two sons. he has been the executive director of our ymca for a little more than a year, but his life with the ymca goes back to the very beginnings of his time as a youth in san francisco,

while learning how to swim, while playing in the chinatown ymca, and growing as a child and through his youth and adults could of nurturing that relationship with ymca. ymca, as we all know, makes quite a bit of difference in helping of our community and providing access to the kind of services and the kind of opportunity and the kind of recreation that many communities that are underserved and are disadvantaged do not always get. i have to confess -- i have a bit of a warm spot for ymca because my father was a director of a ymca in chicago, so we grew up with the same level of exposure that i know rodney like to apply as the executive director of our ymca in the began an area of the western addition. it is not the largest ymca in san francisco, but it has served

thousands and thousands of people, and how it is well used is a real testament to the incredible administration by rodney and his staff, who was able to serve a community that is incredibly diverse. it exists right off very facing japan town out webster, and it exists in what is known as the western addition. but japan town and the fillmore were united before it was installed, in many ways, also of building the steps of redevelopment over the past years. that ymca over the last few years has served as a linchpin and it did it to really help bring together a number of communities from the asia- pacific community and the african-american community to get there. it has really proven to be quite an effective template in showing what foster in collaboration in communities that are incredibly diverse but yet have kind of historical

challenges in trying to work together and prosper. this ymca sits right on those multiple borders to do just that. under the leadership of rodney chin, i cannot say enough of how proud i am of what the ymca has been able to do, especially since you have become executive director. so rodney chen, please. >> thank you. supervisors, first, i want to say thank you for this honor. it is an honor to be here with the other honorees who have worked hard in their communities in sanford cisco as well. i want to say that i am very fortunate to be able to work for the ymca of san francisco as well as in a district 5. to show my appreciation for this report, i have,coo and cfo here

to support me. earlier, our ceo was here but he had to leave. our pilot crime rate has dropped significantly, and i feel this has been accomplished by forming collaboration's to serve the community. on top of that is our leader, supervisor mirkarimi, with his eight -- aide. it brought together organizations in the community to help dropping these rates of crime. of course, i mentioned ross and

rally round. urban services ymca. london breed the african american arts and culture center. sue ginsberg at park and wreck -- cardin -- park and rec. this is just a partial list of the community based organizations that have banded together to work with the youth and families in the western addition. these are organizations that serve the community. last week, with the merchant what that the mayor came to, all these organizations were there. after that in the evening, all

these organizations working together. i like to thank supervisors mirkarimi for bringing these organizations together to serve the district where we all work together. thank you. [applause] supervisor chiu: congratulations. i like to ask our colleague from district 6, supervisor jane kim , to make the next presentation. supervisor kim: thank you.

as i mentioned last week at our asian pacific heritage month kickoff, one of the reasons this is so important to me is it is a huge part of my identity. as a high-school student, i remember when my best friends older sister brought us a tattered copy of [inaudible] and learning about asian- american history as a 16 year- old. what i learned and what struck me the most was something i had never learned in school which is that asian-americans have been an important part of building the civil rights movement, of bringing change to this country and are also leaders. that was important for me as a young person, not having role models who were asian-american, knowing that we had a history of making change, positive change, for this country. that is why i think it is important for us to recognize community leaders to continue to be part of that history. i am very lucky, being here today, and many of the books that have mentored me and my family here in san francisco are

in this room, and i just want to acknowledge all of them. today, i get to recognize a young leader in our community, someone who came into a leadership in an unexpected way. steve is not a resident of district 6, but i was so inspired by his story and what he has done in such a short time, i thought it was important to recognize him. a 20-old city college nursing student, washington high school and france's middle school grad, and an active member of aspire, asian students from an immigrant rights, an organization for young in asia- pacific students. many of you have read about his story. on september 15, 2010, he learned for the first time the truth about his residency from

ice officers who came and raided his small compact apartment at 7:00 in the morning and arrested him and his family. as we all know, many young people are unaware of their residency or citizenship when they come to this country, and that is true for many members of my family as well. steve was detained for two months. during that time, his friends and teachers who knew him well got together to start a grassroots campaign, calling for his immediate release. they recruited over 7000 supporters on facebook, send letters, and made phone calls to senators dianne feinstein and barbara boxer, and this body, the san francisco board of supervisors, adopted a resolution denouncing his deportation and calling ice to determine -- postponed his deportation. they also urged congress to pass the dream act, which would grant undocumented immigrant children citizenship if they entered the u.s. before age 15 and are attending a two or fo-y