A Community in the Hudson Valley

Many roots, one Rockland home.

For families across Rockland County — from Pearl River to Spring Valley, Nyack to Suffern — we are the gathering place for Asian American life in the lower Hudson Valley. East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and beyond.

1,400+ Members 26 Annual Programs 501(c)(3)

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Our Mission

To convene, celebrate, and amplify the many Asian American voices who call the Hudson Valley home.

We host the Lunar New Year banquet and the Diwali lantern walk. We champion AAPI Heritage Month in Rockland's schools. We connect first-generation parents with second-generation organizers. We are stewards of stories — and architects of belonging.

Featured Gathering

Coming up next.

February

2027

Annual Banquet · Cultural

The Lunar New Year Banquet — Year of the Fire Horse

Our largest gathering of the year returns to the Pearl River Hilton. A multi-course feast, a youth lion dance troupe from the Rockland Chinese School, lanterns from the Vietnamese American Society, and remarks from County Executive Day.

Time 6:00 PM — 10:30 PM

Venue Pearl River Hilton

Member Tickets $95 · Family of 4 · $340

Capacity 320 · Limited

What we do.

Cultural Programming

Banquets, festivals, lantern walks, mooncake exchanges, Holi celebrations, Tet observances — and the small Sunday gatherings that make a community.

Civic Engagement

Voter registration drives, candidate forums in five languages, and a standing presence at the Rockland County Legislature on issues that affect AAPI families.

Youth & Heritage

Mentorship pairing high schoolers with professionals, a summer heritage academy, college essay workshops, and the AAR Scholarship Fund.

Family Support

ESL conversation tables, a senior buddy network, mental health resources in Mandarin, Korean, Hindi, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, and a small grant fund for elders.

Latest dispatches.

Civic Mar 04, 2026

AAR testifies before the Rockland County Legislature on language access.

Our policy committee delivered a 12-minute testimony on multilingual ballot resources, drawing on a six-month survey of 740 AAPI households across the county.

Heritage Feb 19, 2026

The Diwali lantern walk lights up Memorial Park for a third year.

Six hundred attendees, sixty volunteers, and a quiet collaboration with the Pearl River Fire Department made the largest Diwali public observance in Rockland history.

Youth Jan 28, 2026

Eight AAR scholars admitted to early-decision programs.

Our 2026 cohort earned admission across Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, and SUNY Binghamton, with full mentorship support from our alumni network.

About AAR

A community made by its members.

We were founded in 2019 by twelve families who wanted their children to grow up knowing their neighbors. Six years later, we are 1,400 members strong and still organized around that one idea.

Our Story

Twelve families. One spreadsheet. A first banquet for forty-three.

In the spring of 2019, twelve Asian American families in New City and Pearl River began meeting on Sunday afternoons at a parishioner's basement. There was no website, no nonprofit status, no mission statement — only a Google Sheet of contacts and a shared sense that the children at school had no shared calendar of their own.

By that autumn, the group had grown to forty-three families. The first Lunar New Year banquet was held in February 2020 at a Korean restaurant in Spring Valley. Three weeks later, the world closed. We held our first Zoom Holi the following week.

What was meant to be a families club became — through a pandemic, a rise in anti-Asian violence, a national reckoning — something larger. We raised $84,000 for victims and elders. We escorted seniors to vaccine appointments. We translated public health guidance into seven languages. We did not plan to become an institution. We simply could not stop.

"We started because our kids needed a Lunar New Year. We kept going because our parents needed a country."

— Helen Park, Founding Member

Today, AAR is a 501(c)(3) operating across Rockland County and parts of southern Orange. We program 26 events annually, maintain a youth mentorship pipeline of 80+ pairings, manage a small grant fund for AAPI elders, and serve as the county's most consistent civic voice for Asian American families.

We remain volunteer-led, with a working board of nine and an active member base across seven heritage committees: Chinese, Korean, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Bangladeshi, and a multi-heritage circle for blended and biracial families.

Board of Directors

The people steering.

Priya Hari

President

Indian-American · Nyack

Daniel Kim

Vice President

Korean-American · Pearl River

Linh Tran

Treasurer

Vietnamese-American · New City

Marlon Reyes

Secretary

Filipino-American · Suffern

Helen Park

Founding Member

Korean-American · New City

Jenny Chen

Programs Chair

Chinese-American · Pearl River

Aisha Rahman

Civic Chair

Bangladeshi-American · Spring Valley

Theo Yamamoto

Youth Chair

Japanese-American · Nanuet

Our largest fall event. A lit procession, three musical sets, sweets from twenty-two member households, and a quiet moment of remembrance at sunset.

Memorial Park, Pearl River Veterans Memorial Dr · 5:00 PM

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Become a Member

Belong, contribute, sustain.

Membership is the spine of AAR. Dues underwrite our programs, our scholarship fund, and our small grants for elders. Members receive priority on every event we host — and a vote at our annual meeting.

Student

Ages 14–22 in school

$15/ Year

Priority on youth & mentorship programming
Access to scholarship fund applications
College essay workshop series
AAR student council eligibility

Individual

For one adult member

$60/ Year

Member rates on all paid events
Vote at the annual meeting
Heritage committee participation
Quarterly print newsletter
Access to senior buddy network

Family

Up to 5 household members

$140/ Year

All Individual benefits — for the household
Priority on family programming
Children's heritage academy access
Lunar New Year family table reservation
Two votes at the annual meeting
Free childcare at six events annually

Founding Patron

Sustaining annual gift

$1,000/ Year

All Family benefits
Listed in annual report (optional)
Founders' dinner invitation (March)
Direct quarterly briefing from board
Patron-only Lunar New Year reception
Tax-deductible to the fullest extent

Apply Now

Welcome home.

Membership applications are reviewed within five business days. Dues are payable after acceptance. If cost is a barrier, ask about our scholarship membership — no one is turned away for inability to contribute.

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

Town / Hamlet

Phone (optional)

Membership Tier

Heritage Committee (optional)

What brings you to AAR?

News & Dispatches

From the field.

Civic notes, heritage essays, scholar profiles, and the small dispatches that keep our 1,400 members in the loop. Published roughly weekly. Archive runs back to spring 2020.

Civic · Featured March 04, 2026 14 min read

What we said to the Rockland County Legislature about language access — and why it took six months to write.

Our policy committee delivered a 12-minute testimony on multilingual ballot resources, drawing on a six-month survey of 740 AAPI households across the county. Here is the long version of what we learned, what we said, and what we are asking for next.

Heritage Feb 19, 2026

The third Diwali lantern walk: how a quiet partnership with the Pearl River FD made it the largest yet.

Six hundred attendees, sixty volunteers, and a year-long permitting conversation. A short note on the unglamorous work behind a beautiful evening.

Youth Jan 28, 2026

Eight AAR scholars admitted to early-decision programs — and the mentor pipeline behind them.

Cornell, CMU, NYU, SUNY Binghamton. The numbers are good but the real story is the 80+ pairings that made the numbers possible.

Family Jan 14, 2026

The senior buddy network turns three. We asked nine elders what changed.

What started as vaccine ride coordination during the pandemic is now a quarterly brunch and a 24-hour care chain. Reporting from the people closest to it.

Civic Dec 19, 2025

What the new Rockland County budget means for AAPI families — line by line.

Annual readout from our policy committee on translation services, school district allocations, mental health resources, and senior programs.

Heritage Dec 02, 2025

"My grandmother's recipe was the directions home." Eight AAR cooks on the dishes they cannot lose.

An oral history project from the AAR Heritage Committee — eight cooks, eight kitchens, eight reasons we keep the stove on.

Civic Nov 11, 2025

Election day debrief: turnout in our seven precincts, the 5-language ballot effort, what we'd do differently.

A frank read on what worked, what didn't, and the three changes we are asking the Rockland County BOE to make before 2026.

Support AAR

Sustain the work.

AAR runs on volunteers and member dues. Every additional dollar funds a scholarship, an elder grant, a translated ballot guide, or a bag of mooncakes for a Sunday afternoon. We are a 501(c)(3); your gift is tax-deductible.

One-Time Gift

Choose an amount.

Full Name

Card Information

Asian Americans of Rockland is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 84-XXXXXXX. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. A receipt will be emailed within 24 hours.

Where it Goes

Your gift, in practice.

$25

Sunday afternoonTea, sweets, and craft supplies for one family event at Nyack Library.

$50

One translated ballot guideFunds the printing and distribution of one fully translated voter guide in five languages.

$100

One youth-mentor pairingUnderwrites a year of programming for one mentee in our 80+ pairing pipeline.

$250

One elder small grantFunds a single elder care grant — utilities, prescriptions, or a transit pass for a senior in need.

$1,000

One AAR scholarshipA full scholarship for one graduating senior, distributed each May at our Heritage Month banquet.

Get in Touch

Say hello.

We answer every email within three business days. For urgent matters — a senior in need, a press inquiry, a school partnership — please call or text our community line.

Where to find us.

Mailing Address

P.O. Box 1942
New City, NY 10956

Email hello@aarockland.org

Community Line (845) 555-0199

Press Inquiries press@aarockland.org

Volunteer volunteer@aarockland.org