May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! At Southwest Airlines, we LUV to celebrate the diverse backgrounds of our Employees and Customers.
When? In 1978, a joint Congressional resolution established Asian Pacific American Heritage Week. The first ten days of May were chosen to coincide with two important milestones in Asian Pacific American history: the arrival in the U.S. of the first Japanese immigrants on May 7, 1843, and the contributions of Chinese immigrant workers who helped build the transcontinental railroad that was completed on May 10, 1869. In 1992, Congress expanded the ten-day observance to a month-long celebration.
What? Asian Pacific American Heritage Month celebrates many varied Asian cultures, each with distinct customs, languages, histories, and traditions, while recognizing common experiences in American history. Throughout the country, communities come together to celebrate Asian Pacific American heritage and culture with festivals, civic award ceremonies, and educational activities.
Who? Over the generations, Asian Pacific Americans have grown to more than 14.4 million and have shaped our nation. From cabinet secretaries to NFL linebackers to astronauts, Asian Pacific Americans not only have thrived, but also have broken barriers.
Southwest kicked off Lunar New Year with the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco and the LA18 Lunar New Year Parade & Festival in Pasadena, along with our national sponsorship of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund. During APAH Month, we look forward to honoring the many contributions and accomplishments of Asian Pacific Americana at the 4th Annual Vietnamese American National Gala, the Asian Heritage Street Celebration in San Francisco, and the VC FilmFest Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
Southwest is proud to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with YOU and your LUVed ones, in the air and in your communities.
So we will try again at Southwest Airlines Gate Games - Blog Style. The first four people to correctly answer all four questions in a comment to this post will win a prize. (Once you are identified as one of the first four to correctly answer all of the questions, we'll e-mail you to get your correct mailing address. Please don't post your address in the comment.)
1. NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla was the first Indo-American woman to launch into space on Shuttle STS-87 in what year? 2. What US city has the highest population of Asian-Americans? 3. He is the most successful Asian American politician in U.S. history and served in President George W. Bush's Cabinet as the Secretary of Transportation for over five years. The San Jose International airport is also named after him. What is his name? 4. Jerry Yang, an Asian-American was the co-founder of what popular internet search engine?
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