Lauryn Nguyen

Cranking out Masks

Lauryn Nguyen learned to be grateful at a young age. Born in Seattle, she heard the stories of her parents, who escaped Vietnam during the war. Her mother and grandmother were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard from a fishing raft. Her father lived in a refugee camp in Indonesia for several months. “It’s just absolutely amazing to me,” Lauryn says. Anna Nguyen is now a civil engineer and husband Daniel is a manager at Microsoft. They have a comfortable life, and when COVID struck, Lauryn—a 17-year-old two-time Washington State Junior Girls champion—and her family were compelled to act. They enlisted Lauryn’s retired seamstress grandmother, Neo, to make masks, and at one point she was cranking out 100 a day. They raised more than $33,000 for 18 charities, including the Washington Junior Golf Association and The First Tee of Seattle. Lauryn and her golf friends also organized a tourney that earned another $24,000. Now it’s the people in Lauryn’s community who are feeling grateful. —Tod Leonard