The Story of Tum Teav
Our History
The Cambodian Community Day had been celebrated in summer of each year between 1998 and 2000 at Barcroft Park, Arlington, VA. Each event was sponsored in part by the Arlington County, Virginia and led by Mr. Saroeum Tes and Sowatha Chea of Cambodian American Heritage, Inc. Due to a bad weather and a lack of participation from the communities, the event of 2001 was cancelled.
Cambodian and American communities in the Greater Washington, D.C Metropolitan area met on Friday July 27, 2001 in the City of Arlington, Virginia and unanimously agree to establish a planning (working) committee to better coordinate, organize, and promote the Cambodian Community Day, referred to thereafter as CCD. The attends of the meeting pledged to make the CCD an annual event and had elected Mr. Ben Bao to chair a CCD committee which has a responsibility to organize, plan and execute the yearly event. Mr. Boran and Ms. Sophia Tep joined the committee as 1st and 2nd Vice-Chair. On July 7, 2002, the committee celebrated another successful CCD event at Barcroft Park.
In 2003, Barcroft Park had gone a major renovation. The committee decided to look for a new sponsor. The committee made a contact with the Alexandria City, Department of Park And Recreation. The city agreed to sponsor the CCD festival. Since 2003, the festival has been held at Ben Brenman Park, 4800 Brenman Park Drive, Alexandria every year. Mr Ben Bao continued to serve as Committee Chair until January 2006. In January 2006, Mr. Boran Tum was elected to be the Chairman for a two-year term (2006-2007). In October 2007, the committeed decided to establish a Board of Directors and elected Ms Sophia Tep to be the President for a two-year term (2008-2009). In November 2009, the CCD Board elected Miss Somony Yann to be the President for a two-year term. In February 2012, the Board elected Mr. Ben Bao to be the President , a second time, for a two-year term (2014-2015). Mr. Ben Bao is re-elected in January 2016 to serve a four-year term (2016-2019).