Houston’s Own Dancing With the Stars Sees a Repeat Champion — and Plenty of Costume Fun

What: The 30th Anniversary Gala of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Association

Where: Royal Sonesta Hotel

PC Moment: With the theme “Dancing with the APAHA All-Stars” this was guaranteed to be a lively evening and so it was when a handful of Asian Pacific American Hetitage Association members donned glittering competition costumes and whirled and twirled to the delight of the 500 guests who filled the ballroom.

Once the high-stepping, the waltzing and the shimmying was complete, reigning champion Dr. Cindy Berthelot-Ly and dance partner Paul Richardson won the top prize of $1,000 for their impressive cha-cha. Judges John Newinn, Dr. Monica Patel and Mahesh Mahbubani rated the various competitors.

Additional entertainment included a song from award-winning Houston Filipino American artist Vincent “Enteng” Evangelista.

Nine honorees were recognized: Corporate — Cadence Bank; George HW Bush Award — Chef Justin Yu; Community Service — The Alliance Texas; Health & Medicine — Dr. Asim Shah; Journalism — Shern-Min Chow; Education — Sarah Sutar; Entertainment & Sports — Dance of Asian America; Public Service — David Nguyen; and Lifetime Achievement — Betty Gee.

PC Seen: Emcees KPRC Channel 2 reporter/anchor Rose-Ann Aragon, Christopher Kelso and Rob Cook; plus Nabil Shike, Lilu Cheng, Rekha Muddaraj, Mariah Escobedo, Terika and Antoine Lee, Mitzi Shen, Christine Ho, Stephan Golubovic, Judge Juli Mathew, Naushad Kermally, Jacquie Baly, Janie Yao, and Theresa and Peter Chang.