Appleton Public Library and co-owner of Bowl 91 and Little Siam
The COVID-19 pandemic tested the resolve of everyone, from the strongest to the meekest. Lucky for Yee Lee Vue, she’s had a lifetime of building resiliency.
At the age of 4, Vue moved with her family to the United States from the refugee camps of Thailand. Vue and her family received government assistance and were placed wherever housing was available, ending up in Kaukauna.
“At a very young age, I had to already act and be like an adult. My parents always knew that anytime they asked me to do something, I would be able to get it done for them,” Vue, one of six children, says in recounting how her parents relied on her to translate at the bank or doctor appointments.
While Kaukauna was not the most diverse place to grow up, Vue says she received an excellent education at the district’s public schools, and its English Language Learners program helped her succeed. She went on to receive a full scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and says education was her No. 1 priority, as her parents never received a formal education.
Vue got married at 17 and had her first child at 19. While becoming a parent at a young age proved challenging, Vue says all her experiences taught her to be strong and helped her become the person she is today.
“I am so grateful for those years that we worked together to break down barriers for library usage by disadvantaged families with small children and form community partnerships in the area of early childhood development. It was one of the high points in my career to work with Yee.”
— Tanya Misselt, formerly of Appleton Public Library
After she moved back to Appleton, Vue took an internship at the Appleton Public Library. She credits then-children’s services supervisor Tanya Misselt for taking a chance on her even though Vue had no experience.
With her library experience, Vue began to learn about the importance of early childhood education. That led to work bringing early literacy skills to the Hmong community and later Hispanic families. Vue would go on to earn a master’s degree in library and information science, create a series of Hmong children’s books and resources called Skill Stacker, and be named a UW-Madison Forward Under 40 award recipient. She’s now pursuing a doctorate degree in educational leadership at Edgewood College.
If all that and raising five children weren’t enough, Vue also realized her dream of opening her own restaurant with her husband, Thong. Growing up, she had worked alongside her parents, who own the popular downtown Appleton restaurant Mai’s Deli. When Vue broke the news to her parents that she wanted to leave Mai’s Deli to start her own venture, her mother supported her immediately.
“She told me, ‘I want you to be better than me. I want you to be more innovative, be more out there, and I want you to succeed,’” Vue says.
Now the owner of Bowl 91 in downtown Appleton and Little Siam in downtown Neenah, Vue once again had to channel her resiliency to get through the challenge of running two restaurants — one newly opened — during a pandemic. She’s succeeded and even manages to give back to the community through giving a portion of proceeds to nonprofits during special events and providing graduating seniors working for the businesses with $2,000 scholarships.
It’s her way of showing her appreciation to a community that’s given her so much. “I just want to let people know anything is really possible, and never doubt in themselves and the potential that they have,” she says.
