Group to honor 3 immigrants at celebration

A man from Italy, another from Vietnam and a woman from India: all U.S. citizens, all important members of their communities in Iowa, all honored for their work. DP

The transplants have each contributed to their communities

JENNA JOHNSON, REGISTER STAFF WRITER

DesMoinesRegister.com: It’s a diverse trio.

One is an Italian man who was an exchange student at Hoover High School in 1975 and now runs a subsidiary of an international manufacturing company. Another became the first woman of Indian descent to win a state Legislature seat. And a third fled Laos during the Vietnam War, landed in Iowa and became a refugee caseworker.

The Iowa Council for International Understanding will honor all three Iowans — Luca Berrone, Swati Dandekar and Wangmeng Sayaxang Lee — in September at its 2006 Passport to Prosperity: A Celebration of Iowa’s Immigrants and Refugees dinner.

Nominees for the honor, which is in its fifth year, must be immigrants or refugees who have lived in Iowa for at least five years and have made a significant contribution to the community.

“It brings together three people who have done great things since arriving in Iowa,” said Tim Belay, international programs manager for the council.

“The three people who are being honored this year are such outstanding leaders in different ways.”
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