Parading a $120,000 Thank-You Bouquet

Despite aching feet, sleepless nights and spending $50,000, Madalenna Lai could smile proudly Wednesday knowing that she and others in Southern California’s Vietnamese community had made a dream come true.

“I’m really happy that I have accomplished my gratitude to America,” said Lai, a 60-year-old Pomona resident. “I am very thankful for the people who allowed me to thank America.”

Lai and thousands of other Vietnamese Americans, in Little Saigon and elsewhere, donated money for a float in the 113th annual Tournament of Roses Parade. Each drop of sweat was worth the effort to send a message of thanks to the United States for the kindness, generosity and acceptance refugees found here, participants said.

“It’s something we can be proud of,” said Van Thai Tran, a Garden Grove councilman and one of seven Vietnamese Americans who rode on the $120,000 float representing the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam. “It symbolizes another step toward full assimilation and contribution to the American society.”

Titled “Thank You America and the World,” the float featured 6,000 roses depicting a mythical bird rising from the bow of a boat. The vessel represented the fishing launches that carried many Vietnamese from their war-torn homeland to freedom abroad.

For Lai, the float symbolized her personal struggles and triumphs.

“If there were no United States, our Vietnamese community wouldn’t have opportunities and success stories, so we are very grateful,” she said.

She was 34, penniless and had four young children when she came to the United States in 1975. Her husband stayed behind and was detained in a communist re-education camp. Lai and her children lived in Pennsylvania with a sponsor family before moving to Pasadena and El Monte. Her husband finally joined them in California nearly 20 years later.

Through various programs, Lai found money for eye surgery and treatment for a lung infection. Over the years, her children won grants and scholarships for their education: Two became dental hygienists, one became a chiropractor, one joined the U.S. Navy.

Since she first saw the Tournament of Roses Parade on television in 1977, Lai dreamed of entering a float. She and her associates applied to the float committee for eight years and were rejected each time, but they didn’t give up. This year, they were accepted.

The group--Vietnamese Cultural House, which has 12 members, all from Southern California--spent eight months writing letters seeking donations and collecting money in front of Little Saigon supermarkets. Lai sold her two-story, four-bedroom Pomona home in April and donated $40,000 of the proceeds to the float fund. Her daughter bought her another home in Pomona.

Lai said she still owes $10,000 of the float construction costs, a bill she said she would pay by credit card.

Lai said Wednesday that she has no regrets--just the need for a foot massage and a nap after the countless hours she spent gluing roses to the float, including a late night before the big day.

“I have done what I was set out to do, and it was beautiful,” Lai said. “I am so thankful from the bottom of my heart.”