CPC Queens Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Benefit Honorees

CPC is excited to announce our 2026 award recipients. We honor their commitment to advancing our community. Join us for the award presentation at CPC Queens Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Benefit on May 28th., 2025 at Terrace on the Park.

Community Service Award Honoree: Leona Chin 

Leona Chin is a community organizer and founder of Kissena Synergy, a diverse, inclusive, multigenerational, multilingual, and multi-abled volunteer team based in Flushing dedicated to environmental stewardship, community service, and civic engagement. 

Beginning in 2015 with advocacy for safer park trails and riding surfaces at the Kissena Velodrome, Leona and her team trained and led others as environmental stewards maintaining the forests, trails, and waterways. In addition, she led Kissena Synergy’s work by providing supplemental support to food pantries, soup kitchens, and community events, and by serving as civic engagement ambassadors conducting compassionate outreach to communities with limited access to resources.  

Since the pandemic, Leona has helped coordinate free food distributions, organizing weekly fresh produce drop-offs to CPC Queens special needs and low-income families. She is active in local PTA/CEC initiatives, leads educational workshops on civic engagement and NYC’s participatory budgeting process, and works with the DOE Racial Equity Collective to advocate for inclusive curriculum. Born and raised in NYC, she is a proud Queens resident with her husband and daughter.   

Heritage Award Honoree: Jay Lau, Esq.

Jay Lau, an attorney licensed in New York and New Jersey, where the majority of his practice is real estate-based.  A graduate of New York University and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, he has a broad-based background having clerked at the Federal Trade Commission and worked in finance before attending law school. He served on the executive board of the Chinese-American Planning Council and served on several sub committees, dealing with the real estate assets of the nonprofit.

He is currently on the advisory board of the Salvation Army and serves on the real estate committee. He is married with four children and currently attending Shelter Rock Church on Long Island. He believes in serving the community and using the gifts and talents that God has given to build community and bring glory to the Kingdom of God.

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ABOUT CPC
Founded in 1965, CPC is a social services organization that creates social change. Building on our historic legacy and ongoing dedication to the Chinese American community, CPC advances the social and economic progress of immigrant and low-income communities of New York through services, resources, and advocacy.

關於華策會
華策會成立於1965年，是一個致力於推動社會變革的社會服務機構。秉承深厚的歷史傳承與對華裔美國社區的持續承諾，華策會透過多元服務、資源援助與公共倡議，促進紐約移民及低收入社區的社會與經濟發展。

ACERCA DE CPC
Fundada en 1965, CPC es una organización de servicios sociales que promueve el cambio social. Basándose en su legado histórico y su compromiso continuo con la comunidad chino-estadounidense, CPC impulsa el progreso social y económico de las comunidades inmigrantes y de bajos ingresos de Nueva York a través de servicios, recursos y acciones de incidencia.