mobanmarketBARNEGAT, NJ — At just one-year-old, Thy Cavagnaro came to the United States as a Vietnamese refugee. Her family escaped just hours before the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Ever since, she has dedicated her life to thanking the American soldiers who risked their lives in the Vietnam War and came back to an unwelcoming country. Now, thanks to this work, Cavagnaro has been awarded the Americanism Medal by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
Cavagnaro was nominated by the Middletown chapter and received her medal on Sept. 21 at the NJDAR state conference.
“It was an honor to be able to present Thy the DAR Americanism award at our autumn NJDAR State Conference,” said the Middletown chapter’s president, Regent Michele Donnelly. “I also wanted to host a celebration for her in Barnegat where she has so many supporters and people who wrote recommendation letters for her, but because our recipient is so humble she declined this idea. In her never ending quest to make sure Vietnam veterans feel welcomed home and loved, she did not want to turn the spotlight on herself, even though she deserves this recognition for all she has done.”
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Cavagnaro has spent years supporting and celebrating Vietnam veterans, which all started in 2017 when she founded Thanking Vietnam Veterans in Barnegat. She and her husband, Jimmy, designed, built and dedicated the first of its kind Vietnam Memorial in Barnegat on March 29, 2018, the first year after the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act was signed into law. There is no other memorial of its kind in the US which was erected and funded solely by a Vietnamese refugee in honor of those soldiers who fought for her country.
She hosts an annual event on Vietnam War Veterans Day each March, she travels to schools to educate students on the Vietnam War and hosts small dinner groups to have one-on-one conversations with veterans.
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“Never in a million years did I think that I, as a VN refugee, would be standing here, receiving the Americanism award from a patriotic organization like the Daughters of the American Revolution,” Cavagnaro said in a speech accepting the medal.
And even while accepting an award, Cavagnaro focused on veterans – sharing a story of her friend Rick Amsterdam, who couldn’t attend as he was taking care of his son. His two sons both have advanced kidney disease.
“Rick lived through many nightmares in Vietnam, and experienced new ones when he came back home and got attacked by anti-war protestors before he even made it back to his house,” Cavagnaro said. “Since then, he’s had gnawing guilt of surviving when so many other soldiers did not, including his own brother. And he blames himself for his sons’ kidney issues, for the damaged genetic material he passed onto them from all the Agent Orange he was exposed to while in Vietnam.”
“My husband and I do what we do to honor Vietnam veterans like Rick, and to share their stories with everyone and especially with our youth, so that they realize the freedoms of our great country are worth fighting for, back in the 1700s, and definitely now,” Cavagnaro said. “There’s a reason why everyone in the world tries desperately to come here, and is not trying desperately to leave.”
You can watch her speech below.
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