Introduction By Ted Fong
The ACC History Project started last year at the urging of Gloria Imagire who wanted to document ACC’s 50-year history “before all these people are gone!” We formed a workgroup whose regular members included Gloria Imagire, Hach Yasumura, Donna Yee, Frances Lee, Jean Shiomoto, and myself. The Workgroup produced eight episodes of The ACC History Project, which were livestreamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Zoom. We also wrote several history articles for ACC News, which are posted at accsv.org/history.
Through it all, we learned that ACC’s early growth was 100% organic. No artificial ingredients, sweeteners, or preservatives. Just hard work and perseverance. A program usually started from an idea that someone had, and was willing to run with it, or a community need so obvious it could not be ignored. The people we interviewed talked about how everything ACC produced was from scratch. Year after year, through three generations of volunteers and staff, things got done.
ACC’s grassroots history is unusual. To know its history is to know its strengths, which is helpful in planning its future. In the words of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, “Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.”
What follows on these pages are new testimonials and interviews for your study and enjoyment.
May O. Lee
Little did I know when I was hired as the Coordinator in 1976 by Chewy Ito, President of the then-called Japanese Community Center, that I would be part of a lasting 50-year legacy known as ACC Senior Services. Having come from the Seattle area where there was a visible and vital International District with its Chinatown, Japantown, and Filipino communities, I was at a loss trying to find something similar in Sacramento. I didn’t realize that redevelopment broke apart this community and only a semblance remained on 10th Street and parts of Broadway near the Southside Park area. Volunteering at first at JCC/ACC, I met lifetime friends like Peggy Saika, Wanda Chang Shironaka, Kathy Omachi, and, of course, Harriet Taniguchi who induced or influenced me to be part of the Asian American Movement where so many organizations evolved from ACC: Stepping Stones/Asian Pacific Community Counseling, Health for All. Upon receiving my degree in Social Work, I took over and started Asian Resources, Inc.
Hach Yasumura
I have always been active in advocacy and support for language and cultural access to health and human services. As a social worker for the Sacramento County Department of Social Welfare, I assisted our Asian and Latino Caucuses to develop a list of volunteer interpreters for our non-English/limited-English speaking clients. This was done in the early ’70s until the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors supported our efforts to have paid certified bilingual staff. We also supported the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act which was signed into law in 1973.
Many of our established agencies were not sensitive to serving our non-English/limited-English speaking communities. We, in the Asian and Spanish-speaking communities, began to develop our community-based, nonprofit agencies in order to provide those services.
This was why I began to support having a community-based organization, Asian Community Services, which began in 1970 at the “Yellow House” on the grounds of Parkview Presbyterian Church. A group of us, members of the Asian community and many students from the local colleges, began to advocate and support language access and combat racism.
When the members of the Asian Community Services decided to disband, some of us felt it was necessary to continue. We eventually moved to George/Toshi Tambara’s rental house. Thus, we organized the Japanese Community Center of Sacramento Valley (JCC). The Board of JCC did a survey led by Leo Goto and Peggy Saika to determine the needs of the community. The survey indicated the need for senior citizen housing. The project was directed to expand its service to a broader Asian community. However, funding for senior citizen housing never materialized due to changes in federal funding. The project, led by “Chewy” Ito, Leo Goto, Earl Shiroi, and others, was then directed toward a possible Asian nursing care home. The organization changed its name from the Japanese Community Center to the Asian Community Center of Sacramento Valley.
Frances Lee
My time with ACC goes way back to 1980 when I joined the ACC Board. Since then, I have seen the amazing growth of ACC, the planning and building of our 99-bed care facility, the purchase of the Prudential building which is now the Meals on Wheels office, the purchase of Greenhaven Terrace, the purchase of the Merryhill School for the ACC offices and the building of Maple Tree Village. What a whirlwind this has been! I am so proud to have been an active part of the early years, especially my work with the volunteers at ACC Bingo and the annual Craft and Bake Sales.
Linda Revilla
During my years as Program Director, one of the things the Programs team really enjoyed doing were special events. We had legendary Lunar New Year’s luncheons with the Chung Mei Lion Dance Troupe; luncheons for Caregivers and their loved ones during National Caregiver Month; we brought Tom Ikeda from Densho, writer/filmmaker Frank Abe from Seattle, Judge C. Kobayashi, and more VIPs for our commemorations of Executive Order 9066; holiday parties with sing-alongs; concerts with Asian Pair; Open Mic nights; and one of my favorite memories, the Senior Senior Prom, where Lois and Keiji were crowned Prom Queen and King. I’ll never forget one woman who would call us up months in advance, to make sure we knew that she wanted to attend one of our holiday luncheons- she said she really looked forward to it every year. We knew that many older adults with no family often only had ACC to celebrate with. I appreciate the free reign we had to be creative and do fun and meaningful things for the community.
Jessie Lee
The beginning of anything and everything is different for everyone. It can be a project that involves a few or hundreds of people or it can be a soul-searching way of life for oneself. One thing is for sure, whether it be for a community or for oneself, there must be a sense of commitment and dedication to realize an unmet need and/or to realize a dream.
I became involved with the ACC for both reasons. When my mother got very ill in 1980, I floundered. I was lost. I had no one to turn to help me get through this difficult time. When she died in 1981, I struggled and stumbled through many stages of grief and the seeds were planted firmly in my mind. It was not right; no one should have to go through that turmoil. There was such a great unmet need for help not only for her but for me as well.
I became actively involved in ACC several years later through volunteer work. I was nominated for the Board of Directors and was later elected president. Our main focus at that time was to increase our membership and to help pay off the debt on the nursing home. But we also had our dreams of an ACC office and a community center. During those early years, we were still holding our Board meetings in a conference room at the nursing home. Our dream at that time was to find a place to call ACC home and to have a community center where people could meet for information, education, socialization, and lots of fun and games. In 1996, we started on the journey to fulfill our dream. We started the search for a physical location. Dr. Vic Okamoto and I spent many hours looking at possible locations and meetings with agents. When Vic left our organization, and as President, I appointed Wil Lee and Chewy Ito as co-chairs of the Acquisition Committee for our new home. Through the hard work and dedication of Wil and Chewy and active support from the Board of directors and the community, the grand opening of our new home at 7375 Park City Drive was held on June 22, 2002.
What began as a dream and a vision became a reality when the nursing home opened in 1987. As we continue this journey in meeting the needs of seniors and families, we must continue our dreams. Our Rides program, Meal On Wheels, Bridge to Healthy Families, Lifelong Learning and Wellness Program, and all of our programs need you. We want your dreams, your expertise, your skills, and your time to help make yours and everyone’s dreams come true. Imagine the possibilties!!!
Janet Sakata
All the ACC accomplishments are wonderful. The continuum of care provided for elders (Independent Living, Assisted Living, Care Center and Maple Tree Village) provides us with security knowing there’s a place when it is needed. One of their best programs is Rides. We sighed as the seniors eagerly unbelted before the bus stopped and then raced off through ACC doors. The joy of seeing their smiles and laughter after attending a class is the best reward!
Ray Gee
Over the past 50 years, ACC founders, leaders, management, and staff have faced what sometimes appeared to be insurmountable challenges in providing a continuum of senior services in the South Sacramento community. For the most part, those challenges were successfully overcome with the support of the community and the dedication of volunteer leaders, capable management, and devoted staff. Due primarily to the impact of COVID on all ACC operations, ACC now faces its greatest challenge ever in order to sustain its services and remain financially viable. I trust that current leaders, management, and staff will again persevere.
Raymond Lee
Asian Community Services, the precursor of ACC, presented a change in the philosophy and goals of the Asian American movement in Sacramento. We were students and young people. We all had an intense desire to serve the community but lacked an overarching goal and the means to achieve it. AT ACS, we learned that it was not enough to just help people. We learned to galvanize and empower them to determine their needs and seek solutions. Helping the people simply meant assisting the human service department in their tasks and their tasks only. The struggle never ends. The fight goes on. This is the beginning. These are the roots.
Don Morishita
For the first half of its 50-year existence, ACC was known as the operator of the highly successful nursing home. A small group of founders, led by Chewy Ito, recognized the need for a skilled nursing facility in the Asian community, and through the generosity of persons like Angelo Tsakoupolis and the hard work of volunteers, a nursing home was built in the Pocket-Greenhaven. Funds raised from bingo became the primary source of income for its operation. But the need for increased senior services was becoming apparent as the baby boomer generation was nearing its senior years. I was fortunate to be invited to join the Board of Directors in the late 1990s.
At the time, ACC consisted of the nursing home and a recently acquired building now occupied by Meals on Wheels by ACC. There was an executive director and a small staff housed in cramped quarters at the nursing home. This is where my wife, Sheri, first started volunteer work assisting office staff with their daily duties. The Board, together with the new Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Donna Yee, through many facilitated strategic planning meetings spent many hours developing the vision and strategic direction which laid the foundation for what is now ACC today: offering an array of programs including skilled nursing, assisted living, independent living, transportation, senior programs and the Meals on Wheels program. ACC was much smaller back then and I recall being part of a “working Board” since the committee structure was not yet implemented.
Board meetings regularly lasted over three hours as we poured over detailed financial reports questioned many expenditures and discussed and made decisions on almost every topic imaginable. As Board members, we and other volunteers spent several days under the supervision of Howard Harris, wielding sledgehammers and hand tools and doing the demolition work on the Park City building to ready it for the construction of staff offices and classrooms for our first senior center.
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