Council issues proclamations for American Craft Beer Week, Lupus Awareness Month and AANHPI Heritage Month

Montgomery County Council members on May 21 issued three ceremonial proclamations celebrating American Craft Beer Week, Lupus Awareness Month and Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month.

For American Craft Beer Week, council members praised local breweries’ economic and cultural contributions. Kelly Dudek, introduced as the executive director of the Brewers Association of Maryland and chair of the state agritourism committee, noted county breweries’ 2023 awards and highlighted agritourism and local supplier connections. Local brewers including Charlie Miller of Lone Oak Farm Brewing and Andrea Lang of Waradaka Brewing were introduced.

During the Lupus Awareness Month segment, several people with lupus shared personal testimony about long diagnostic timelines and daily impacts. One speaker, Sahana, said, “Every day is really a mystery, and I think that’s why they call it the cruel mystery.” Dr. Sarfaraz Hassani of the NIH’s lupus clinical trials unit described racial and ethnic disparities in lupus incidence and outcomes and urged greater minority participation in clinical research.

The council also held an AANHPI Heritage Month commemoration that included a video profiling three local innovators — N5 Sensors, Dr. Shinta Hernandez of Montgomery College’s virtual campus, and Stephanie Vu of Sunwater Capital — and read a proclamation noting that more than 162,000 county residents identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander.

All three proclamations were read, presented and captured with photographs during the meeting; the council emphasized economic, research and cultural contributions from the honored groups.