Celebrating service and community

Wells Fargo officials launch the festivities by dangling lettuce as a temptation for lion dancers.

Photos by HUNG NGUYEN

Festivities for the Lunar New Year continue across Southern California and this week, officials at Wells Fargo toasted the coming months with a key group of community leaders and valued customers at Capital Seafood in Irvine.

Guests from the Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino and other Asian groups worked their way through a nine-course banquet featuring lobster, filet mignon, pea leaf sauteed with garlic and for dessert, baked almond souffle. They listened to a presentation including speeches from the company’s regional directors, wealth management division and business banking. Wells Fargo has a history of 160 years of service dedicated to building families, strengthening communities and nurturing livelihoods, officials said.

To help highlight the evening, lion dancers weaved through the seated crowd, with more than 120 in attendance.

Jack Toan, who heads Wells Fargo’s community foundation, works diligently to connect with different communities across Southern California.

Thuy Vo Dang is a scholar coordinating UCI’s Vietnamese Oral History Project.

Linda Vo, of UCI’s Asian American Studies department, and Jonathan Huynh, owner of Pholicious restaurant and Alliance Rehabilitation, both in Fountain Valley, catch up on each other’s news.

Edna Silva, assistant vice president for Wells Fargo, and Ysa Le, director of VAALA, Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association, watch presenters onstage.

A centerpiece delights with citrus and golden “li xi” envelopes featuring a stylized dragon and new bills for guests to offer to lion dancers for good luck.