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Three Indian-Americans -- Mohinderjit Singh Saini, Onkar Singh Sangha and Kevindeep Singh Atwal -- were honoured by the Asian American Coalition of Chicago on the occasion of 24th annual Lunar New Year celebrations.
The awards were presented at a gala dinner attended by more than 1,000 members of the Asian community and hosted by the Chinese American community.
According to the latest Census, the Asian Pacific American population in Illinois is 428,213, or 3.4 per cent of the state population.
Saini received the prestigious Pan Asian American Ping Tom Memorial Award for his numerous leadership positions in the community. He is co-founder, past president, and board of governors of Punjabi Cultural Society of Chicago.
Sangha received the Indian-American Community Service Award and Atwal was honoured with the Youth Who Excels award.
"We are here to stay. Asian-American solidarity, and a unified voice is more likely to be heard by the politicians compared to the small individual community voices," said Rajinder Singh Mago of Punjabi Cultural Society of Chicago.
Artists from the participating Asian American communities performed a colourful unity dance number Our Silk Road directed by Marc Rita.