Amazing Wife, Mother, Sister, Grandmother, Advocate, Friend
A pillar in the community; a lifetime of service
Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Virginia and her family moved to New York City in the 1960s seeking better access to higher education. Always creatively inclined, she attended the High School of Art and Design as well as the School of Visual Arts. She met her husband John, in 1974 and they were married in New York City’s Transfiguration Church. Their first son, Jonas was born a year later, so they moved to Bloomfield, NJ to allow for their growing family. Maxwell was born two years after that.
After owning her own small card and gift shop, Virginia answered a call to service in 1986 and went to work for the Girl Scouts of Essex County (NJ) as a Field Manager. Following a relocation, she took a new position with the Girl Scouts of Bergen County (NJ); there, she made strong friendships, embraced the nonprofit world of youth leadership and empowerment, and discovered her talent for fundraising.
Her work with the Girl Scouts introduced her to her great passion - advocacy work, and she was nominated to serve as Commissioner for the Bergen County Human Rights Commission. Through this work, she also became a passionate advocate on behalf of Asian Americans. She would go on to twice serve as President of the Organization of Chinese Americans New Jersey Chapter (OCA-NJ). With OCA-NJ, she created several programs to assist AAPI youth: an internship program in the New Jersey State Legislature; a scholarship fund to assist with the increasing costs of college expenses; and a career fair to help seed Asian American leadership. Through all of this, she also created the fundraising support to sustain these programs, inaugurating various black-tie fundraisers and pushing to increase chapter membership. She organized and chaired the OCA National Convention that was hosted by OCA-NJ in Jersey City in 2016. Her interactions at the state level were noticed at the federal level, and she would go on to serve OCA as the National VP of Finance and the National VP of Chapter Development.
Her service to others extended beyond her advocacy work and continued with personal endeavors as well. She was the leader of five different Girl Scout troops, of which 18 would go on to earn their Gold Award, the highest youth award in Girl Scouting. She herself would be awarded the Thanks Badge, the highest honor for an adult volunteer. A hobby that started during the time she owned her card shop, she would often prepare wedding stationery for friends and family with decorative calligraphy. As the proud parent of a trans son, she began to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, speaking to other parents struggling with their children coming out. The entire Ng family would receive the National Queer Asian Pacific-Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) Community Catalyst Award in part because of this work. After retiring from the Girl Scouts, Virginia would continue to tap her skills and talents to fundraise for the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center so underserved Asian Americans communities would have access to high quality, affordable healthcare. She also volunteered with AARP and was awarded the Andrus Award for Community Service.
Virginia devoted herself to family, a group that she defined without limitation. She was beloved and will be dearly missed. If you would like to honor her and the connections you made because of her, our family encourages you to donate to the OCA scholarship fund named in her honor - the OCA-NJ Virginia L. Ng Founder's Scholarship.
