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A 50th birthday deserves more than one day of celebration, which is why ACC Senior Services is celebrating with multiple events.  ACC will start with “Big Day” lead-in events throughout April and cap this off with the “Big Days of Giving,” a two-day telethon on May 4th and May 5th. The celebration features a mix of pre-pandemic favorites and exciting virtual programming for new and existing supporters alike.

The Big Day of Giving (BDOG) is the 24-hour online giving marathon for regional nonprofits that has made a profound difference since its inception in 2013. The $7.2 million raised across Sacramento last year helped shine a bright spotlight on more than six hundred charitable organizations.

ACC is one of these charitable organizations! Last year’s BDOG telethon raised $210,000 – more than double the $100,000 goal – and gave crucial support to our COVID safety measures and operations. In addition to careful safety measures at our three residential facilities and in-person programs like Rides, the Big Day of Giving funds allowed the Lifelong Learning and Wellness Program to pivot to online programming to reach our community at home. This pivot provided and helped expand services to older adults while classes were closed at the ACC campus. It also showcased ACC’s services to people who did not know about ACC. The online classes, workshops, and support groups have become so popular that they will be a lasting part of ACC’s Lifelong Learning and Wellness Program. 

In addition, ACC Care Center’s COVID response and vaccination rates also earned U.S. News and World Report’s national Best Nursing Homes rating. This would not have been possible without the safety measures funded by the Big Day of Giving. 

What the Big Day of Giving Means This Year

“Care” took on new layers of meaning during the pandemic and is the heart of what this year’s Big Day of Giving donations will fund. Older adults whom we protected with lockdowns need extra care and support even if they live independently. Our 50th anniversary goals focus on older adult’s individual needs with ACC offering a new Care Navigator Program, Options Counseling, and Senior Escort programs; as well as expanded services with Rides, Lifelong Learning and Wellness Program (LLWP), the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), and activities for the residents in our facilities.

The new programs are part of a larger “No Wrong Door” initiative that helps identify and meet an older adult’s needs in full, not just in the first program they encounter. Care navigators and options counseling help older adults navigate health and social services from understanding the best options to enrollment assistance and referrals. Senior escort volunteers who are also trained in bystander intervention offer exercise, companionship, support, and most of all safety for older adults during public outings. These programs, combined with Rides expanding Saturday group outings for ACC senior living facility residents and same-day service scheduling, further our Community of Caring through more options

Our expanding programs, meanwhile, stand on our conviction that growth, development, and education aren’t just for the young. Both LLWP and SCSEP empower clients through skill-building and our expanded classes are in direct response to participant feedback. Clients at home have loved searing, frying, or stirring along with live cooking demonstrations, while SCSEP’s job-seeking participants have needed more technological literacy to work or seek employment during lockdown. 

“What strikes me most about ACC is its mission has always been the community’s needs,” said Marketing and Development Director Kala Haley-Clark. “Before I was even born our founders were building programs and services around our clients’ needs. That focus stays with us today, and it’s the reason I am so proud to be part of this incredible organization.”

Why Support ACC for the Big Day of Giving?

The Big Day of Giving is special in that donors aren’t just supporting organizations they love, but helping new donors take notice. BDOG donors and nonprofits alike love watching the leaderboard to see which organizations climb to the top – and learn more about what those leading organizations stand for. Your donation to ACC’s Big Day of Giving campaign lights the way for donors across the Sacramento region to learn about our programs, be part of our impacts, and share our story with others. 

In short, you demonstrate what our Community of Caring stands for when you support our Big Day of Giving campaign. 

How You Can Help

There are several ways to support ACC Senior Services for Giving.

Donate to ACC. Note on your check or online donation that you want your gift to support our Big Day of Giving campaign, and we will add your gift to our total.

Donate to ACC through the Big Day of Giving website. You can find us at bigdayofgiving.org/accseniorservices where you can donate or create your own fundraising page to share with friends. You can schedule your gift as early as April 21st, or you can donate on the Big Day of Giving to watch us climb the leaderboard!

Share our story. Our community is the reason we get to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Help us ensure the next  50 years by helping us build that community bigger and stronger.

Join our Big Day of Giving events. A birthday isn’t really a birthday without a party. We hope to see you at our wonderful lead-in events and two-day telethon!

Give yourself a hand. You are the heart of our success, and you should be proud!

Family caregivers are exhausted — physically, mentally, and emotionally. They start healthy. They’re working full-time and caring for a family member part-time. Driving mom to a doctor’s appointment, restocking her refrigerator, taking her to a friend’s house for the afternoon are relatively easy tasks and provide quality time to catch up. Light duty, easy, sometimes fun. But when chronic disease and dementia start to take over a loved one’s life, that’s when family caregivers become vulnerable. Their health declines. Many become depressed. Many leave their jobs.

This happened to Kate Washington. She was at ACC in February to talk about caregiver burnout. Kate is a food writer and former restaurant reviewer for the Sacramento Bee. She has a Ph.D. in English from Stanford University. She and her husband Brad have two children and were having a good life. But when Brad was diagnosed with cancer, everything changed, including the nature of their relationship. Brad became the patient, and she was his caregiver. Kate took on a new full-time job for which she had no training. She coordinated treatments, administered IV drugs, cleaned commodes, managed medical appointments, and dealt with insurance companies. Kate kept Brad alive, but she was crumbling inside. On top of being a caregiver, Kate still had to be a dutiful mom and wife. She spoke at ACC about her experiences and her book, “Already Toast, Caregiving and Burnout in America.” The title speaks for itself.

Kate is in her late forties. Now imagine someone in her 80s thrust into the role of caring for a spouse with dementia, chronic illness, or a disability with no outside help. How is this humanly possible? Yes, we all know someone in this predicament. As Kate wrote about in her book, this is a problem that communities all across America face. In the world’s wealthiest country, unpaid family caregivers live in a society that provides very little structural support. Many of us in the ACC community can relate to this all too well.

So, why not just hire a professional caregiver or move your loved one to assisted living or a skilled nursing facility? It is not that simple. For many people, these options are not affordable or desirable. Many families can’t even agree on what’s best for mom or dad at this point.  Families struggle and enter into conflict when deciding what’s best for their loved one. In the meantime, the loved one and the person doing the primary caregiving suffer. Despite all the services that our government, healthcare providers, and insurance companies seem to provide us, very little is done to help the family caregiver. That’s where ACC is making a difference.

For family caregivers facing burnout, in-home respite care goes a long way to helping them avoid burnout. At ACC, we send a volunteer or “friendly visitor” to a home, so that the family caregiver can take a short break, recharge, and do other things away that are important and meaningful. Accepting respite care reminds the family caregiver of the adage, “to help someone, you have to help yourself first.” Here’s another way to visualize this. When you are on an airplane and the oxygen masks drop down from the overhead compartment, you put your mask on first then assist your child. 

 ACC’s friendly visitor is there just to talk to the care receiver, watch TV together, read the news, play cards, or go for a walk. He or she doesn’t have to do house chores or personal care. He or she is there just to provide companionship and safety supervision. What a difference this volunteer makes. Everyone’s quality of life has improved!

As the saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Likewise, it takes a community of caring to support us as we age. The Friendly Visitor and In-Home Respite Program at ACC is looking for volunteers who want to make a difference in people’s lives, including their own. It is deeply satisfying work. All of us need respite and companionship at different points in our life. The need only increases with age. 

A thriving and resilient nonprofit organization, particularly one situated in the healthcare sector, relies on a leadership team with diverse and relevant backgrounds and skillsets to guide its growth, development, and evolution. A passion for the work is an essential prerequisite. 

Exemplifying these attributes, we are proud to profile our two newest additions to the ACC Board of Directors; Betsy Donovan and Brent Luu. Betsy Donovan joined the ACC Board of Directors on July 1, 2021, and brings over thirty years of experience in skilled nursing, administration, and adult healthcare expertise. While Betsy’s invaluable experience as Eskaton’s Chief Operating Officer and her many years as a licensed Skilled Nursing Administrator check every box in terms of relevant professional expertise, it is her passion for older adult care that comes through when you speak with her about ACC’s work.

Betsy describes her 93-year-young mother as an independent, tech-savvy, and healthy adult living her best life. Betsy’s love and appreciation of older adults have been a motivator her entire life, shaping her views of aging and longevity. In this way, Betsy says ACC’s mission resonates deeply with her. She admires ACC’s connection to community and its diversity of innovative services and programs designed to support older adults and meet them where they live. 

Betsy’s connection to ACC is not new; as a former member of the founding Board of Directors for Meals on Wheels by ACC, her support for ACC dates back more than a decade, and her return to a leadership role in the organization is to be celebrated indeed!

Brent Luu joined the ACC Board of Directors on January 1, 2022, and brings over twenty years of pharmacology expertise, in practice as a Clinical Pharmacist as well as education in his current capacity as a professor teaching the Foundation of Pharmacology at the UC Davis School of Nursing.

Brent’s appreciation for the marvels of modern medicine took root in his childhood admiration of his father’s work as an herbalist and acupuncturist. He is absolutely enthusiastic in his description of how medication works in the body, providing cure and treating symptoms in such a simple but incredibly effective way. I can attest that, even after a mere thirty-minute conversation with Brent, I am left with a certainty that any student of his will enter their career in the healing arts with a passion for quality care.

Quality of care is core to Brent’s philosophy, and what he finds so inspirational in ACC’s work. Like ACC, Brent recognizes that we are positioned to attend to the needs of a growing population of older adults, and he is determined to help guide ACC’s work to provide quality and compassionate care for this community.

Members of ACC’s Board of Directors are volunteers, giving of their time and expertise to serve the organization. Betsy and Brent each exemplify the spirit of volunteerism at its finest, and ACC is not the only organization to have the good fortune of their support.

Betsy and her sisters are founding partners of the Sunshine Family Outreach Center, a 501(c)(3) community benefit organization providing community and educational services to North Highlands neighborhoods.

Brent is a member of the Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation, serving as the Sacramento Deputy Medical Coordinator. This foundation is a non-government organization that focuses on education, humanistic culture, disaster relief, medicine, and environmental protection.

Learn more about each of these nonprofit community service organizations at https://sunshinefamilyoutreach.center and https://tzuchi.us/what-we-do

This Spring, the cul-de-sac where ACC Maple Tree Village is located will be renamed Kado Court to honor the renowned architect and friend of ACC, Ed Kado, AIA. For over 20 years, Ed Kado donated his services to ACC. He designed ACC Maple Tree Village, which opened in 2019 and the renovation of 7375 Park City (2001), now the location of Meals on Wheels by ACC offices. He spent over two yearsdesigning and planning 75 units of subsidized housing for seniors (2010), which was not built due to lack of funding. He then designed 24 assisted living units at ACC Greenhaven Terrace (2014), the renovation of 17,000 square feet of classroom and office space at the ACC Campus (2015), and, over the years, has worked with residents, staff and state officials on the renovation of the ACC Care Center. 

“During one planning session Ed shared memories of visiting his father at the ACC Care Center in its early years, and how ideas to improve the privacy and space for residents came from that experience,” said Tamara Kario, ACC Care Center Administrator.

Ed’s keen sense of design and functionality is responsive to input on how space will be used and how lifestyle and work processes can be supported. “Ed is collaborative and fully engaged with you to get it right,” said Donna L Yee, retired ACC CEO. “He does not try to fit us into a preconceived idea. He uses a problem-solving approach on every aspect of a building.”

Added Howard Harris, a past ACC Board member, “To manage costs, we negotiated our big projects on a fixed cost basis, where the architect is paid by the contractor. I can’t remember how many times the contractor asked who was paying Ed, because he was such an advocate for ACC.”

In 1998, Ed Kado told the Sacramento Business Journal, “In 1941, when I was 7 years old, my family was put in a concentration camp in Colorado. My father lost everything. We got out of there in 1945, and my mother had a sister living here in Sacramento, so we moved in with my aunt. I was good in math, and I was good in art, so in junior high, I knew I’d be an architect, because I knew it took those things to be an architect.” Ed attended C.K. McClatchy High School and Sacramento City College before going to U.C. Berkeley.

Ed graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1962, earned his license in 1967, and opened E.M. Kado & Associates in 1970. One of his best-known designs is the Ziggurat, the 10-story pyramid-shaped building that was built by the Money Store in 1997. It is in West Sacramento on the shore of the Sacramento River. He also designed a building for Union Bank, the visitors center for the Almond Growers, the Beuhler Building for Sutter Hospitals, and several buildings for California State University Sacramento. He also helped design the Crossroads Shopping Center near the Executive Airport.  He designed Oto’s Marketplace and Mahoroba Japanese Bakery as well as many private residences.

ACC Maple Tree Village’s street address will be changed from 7579 Maple Tree Way to 18 Kado Court. The new street name was unanimously approved by the City of Sacramento’s Planning and Design Commission after our application was considered in a public hearing in the Fall of 2020. A City permit has been obtained to replace the signage at the intersection of Alder Tree Way and Maple Tree Way. ACC staff will be working with the California Department of Social Services, as well as the US Postal Service and all City departments to be sure they are informed of the address change.

Episode 6 of the ACC History Project was livestreamed from ACC main campus on February 21. From One Became Many covered the origins of several Sacramento Asian American and Pacific Islander service organizations. Is there one person or one entity that should be credited for starting these nonprofit organizations?

Many of them were started or heavily influenced by ACC and some were started by community activists who were part of the forerunner organizations, Asian Community Services (ACS) and the Japanese Community Center of Sacramento Valley (JCC, later renamed to ACC). You can hear about those important organizations and individuals in Episodes 3 and 2, respectively.

First, let’s look at Health for All, Tanoshimi Kai, Asian Resources, Inc., and Stepping Stones (now Asian Pacific Community Counseling), organizations that were directly related to ACC. 

Around 1980, Health for All (HFA) was incubated by ACC from ideas that June Otow developed. At that time, June was an outreach worker at ACC and an original member of ACS. May O. Lee was a social work intern and recalls working with June and many volunteer mothers from the Southside neighborhood to do outreach and gain support for a preventative health clinic. ACC provided start-up funds and $1,000 came from the Sacramento Presbytery Mission Action Committee. HFA would eventually rely on Medi-cal reimbursements.

Many health and nursing professionals, Chinese and Vietnamese interpreters, and ACC board members were involved in launching HFA. Attorney Phil Hiroshima incorporated it. Dr. Richard Ikeda succeeded June as Executive Director. 

In the first ten years, HFA had staff that spoke seven languages and served many of the southeast Asian refugees coming to Sacramento County. HFA established the first school-based clinic in Sacramento, an Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Center, and four Adult Day Health Care programs. Eventually, HFA operated seven clinics, many housed at neighborhood schools to ensure preventative health care and immunizations were available to low-income communities.

ACC spent a lot of time identifying community needs for seniors. This led to the founding of Tanoshimi Kai with much of the grunt work done by Kenji Morishige. Tanoshimi Kai addressed the nutritional and socialization needs of the elderly Japanese. There were two sites. On Fridays, the Sacramento Buddhist Church hosted one and on Wednesdays, the Sacramento Japanese United Methodist Church hosted the other. Mrs. Minnie Tanihara took reservations and Betty Kashiwagi was the Nutrition Site Manager. Staff was paid through a grant from the Area 4 Agency on Aging.

A similar site was set up for the elderly Chinese at the New Helvetia Housing Project. It was run by Edna Liang.

Asian Resources, Inc., had its origins with ACC. In 1979, ACC ran the Summer Youth Employment and Training program. It was started to help Vietnamese college students and their families get jobs and financial support after the fall of Saigon. ACC applied to the county to receive funding. After the summer ended, ACC developed the Asian Manpower Program with Kathy Omachi as its Director. 

With the support of ACC, Raymond Lee spun off the program, incorporated it as Asian Job Resources Project and became the Director, but he had to leave shortly after for personal reasons. Soon after, May O. Lee became Executive Director. She wrote a new funding proposal, hired new staff, and organized a Board of Directors. The Board changed the name to Asian Resources, Inc. May would be the Executive Director for 26 years before retiring. Elaine Abelaye followed, and now Stephanie Nguyen is the current Executive Director of this successful organization.

My Sister’s House, Sacramento’s domestic violence shelter and services organization, was incubated by Asian Resources, Inc. Using the model of providing initial support, ARI staff person Carole Ching, community activists Hach Yasumura, Jean Chong, and Elaine Chiao, among others, planned and launched My Sister’s House.

Asian Pacific Community Counseling started as Stepping Stones in 1986 with Kathy Omachi as its first director. Harriet Taniguchi was on the ACC Board at that time. She recalls that there was a lack of culturally relevant and bilingual mental services for the API community. 

Paul and Marion Ono, Reverend Hei Takarabe of the Parkview Presbyterian Church, Dr. Luke Kim, Raymond Lee, Reverend Ninh Nguyen, Jane Tamano, Joan Hirose, Harriet, and others, organized to address this need. Through public advocacy and testimony, they were able to get funding from the Sacramento County Mental Health Department. Hence, Stepping Stones was born.

Reverend Ninh requested a separate program for the Southeast Asian community so Stepping Stones agreed to share resources, leading to the founding of the Southeast Asian Assistance Center.

Next, several other community organizations were started by activists who were part of ACS or who were inspired by “hanging out” at the Tambara House, the home of ACC. This includes the Yellow House tutoring and recreation program, the Asian Health Clinic, Asian Legal Services Outreach, and the Asian Pacific State Employees Association.

In the spring of 1970, Parkview Presbyterian Church approved the use of their house on the corner of 8th and T Streets for a tutoring and recreation program for students from William Land School. The students went there after school and in the summer. Because of its color, the location was dubbed the “Yellow House.” Lillie Yee Shiroi was in Professor Isao Fujimoto’s class at UC Davis and volunteered at William Land School. She recalls William Land’s students were more than fifty percent Chinese and many did not speak English well. That situation led to the creation of the tutoring program. Students from Sac State and UC Davis continued to help with the program.

Professor Fujimoto, who recently passed away, joined UC Davis in 1967 and headed up the Community Development Program. He also started the Asian American Studies program. Professor George Kagiwada also mentored students who wanted to do community work in Sacramento.

Raymond Lee and Harold Fong, two of the original members of ACS, boldly struck out on their own to establish the People’s Bookstore to promote socialism. They modeled their services after the Black Panther’s “Serve the People” program. They started programs like free film series, free day care center, free tri-lingual community newsletter, study groups, and a free health clinic inside the bookstore.

The health clinic eventually became the Asian Health Clinic. Dr. Lindy Kumagai started the clinic and recruited medical students from the UCD School of Medicine to staff it. The Bookstore continued to provide translators, transportation, and publicity. .Raymond stated that potential liability issues stopped them from continuing to have it in their bookstore but the health clinic continued elsewhere staffed by students from UC Davis. Today, it continues to operate as the Paul Hom Asian Clinic, the oldest existing Asian health clinic in the United States. It is led by medical director Dr. Ron Jan.

Asian Legal Services Outreach (ALSO) began in 1973, started by law students from UC Davis and McGeorge School of Law. Andy Noguchi, Joan Nosse, Wilfred Lim, Brent Kato, Clement Kong, and Will Yee were some of the eager students ready to create “good trouble” for the community. Despite not having a lot of experience, they helped with immigration forms and other administrative issues. The founders were part of ACS, which identified legal support as a community need.

ALSO closed in the summer of 1976 but was revived in the Fall by students from UC Davis King Hall. It was incorporated in 1977 and started receiving grant money so it could hire staff to continue with full-time services to the community. ALSO originally had office space in the Tambara House. The law students got to mingle with the other social workers and volunteers that hung out there. ALSO closed its doors after 20 years of operation.

The Asian Pacific State Employees Association was founded by another group of people not directly affiliated with ACC. But Dean Lan, one of the founders, recalled spending many hours meeting at the Tambara House to discuss issues of civil rights. He says meeting people like May Lee, Andy Noguchi, Hach Yasumura, Randy Shiroi, and Raymond Lee was inspiring because of their dedication to social activism.

So, was the Tambara House the “one?” Many of the people we interviewed commented on how wonderful it was to drop into the Tambara House and meet like-minded people. Harriet Taniguchi remembers that she was the coordinator for JCC as her social work placement. JCC converted the garage into a classroom for ceramic classes, Koto and Go. Social work students, recruited by Earl Shiroi, passed through for meetings and activities.

Earl’s name comes up often as the person who had the vision of organizing the community by focusing on needs and having activists work to create organizations that would provide those services. He was a mentor to many of the social work students that went on to start successful organizations. 

Many other people continue to pop up in the history of ACC. Take, for example, a young UC Davis student named Darrick Lam, who did an internship at Health For All in 1986. Darrick went on to get a master’s degree in Social Welfare and then worked for the City of San Francisco and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Now, he’s the CEO of ACC Senior Services! 

I think everyone agrees that neither ACS nor ACC is the “one” that created the “many.” In my opinion, the ONE is the shared vision of all those past leaders that providing services, education, and advocacy to our community was critical to being unified to exercise the power that came from that vision.

That’s the legacy of people like Earl Shiroi, Leo Goto, Chewy Ito, and the hundreds of other folks that ACC has been documenting. As ACC and other groups continue to expand services, it’s clear that there’s more work to do. Stay tuned.

By Jeri Shikuma, Home and Community- Based Programs Administrator

One of our goals at ACC is to enrich the community with topics that are important but sometimes difficult to discuss. Many of us prepare for important life phases like going to school, getting a job, getting married, raising kids, and planning our finances. But how do we prepare for caring for a loved one at the end of his or her life?

We just completed a four-part workshop series with Julie Interrante on this topic. She is an end-of-life counselor and a former hospital chaplain. Julie is also the author of the book The Power of a Broken Open Heart, Life-Affirming Wisdom from the Dying, available on Amazon.com. 

For more than 35 years, Julie has helped family caregivers understand what happens in the final phase of life and how to be present with their loved one. Here are some excerpts from the conversation I had with her after her last talk at ACC

Jeri: In each of your workshops, you had guests talk about caring for their loved ones at end-of-life. Tell us one of these stories.

Julie: I do want to reflect a bit on the couple who lost their adult daughter.  Their story offers us the chance to see that each person, regardless of relationship, handles caregiving and grief in their own way.  Mark was very clear about the pain and sadness of not being able to protect his daughter from her illness.  He showed us through his tears that the experience still touches him deeply.  Esta told us how she just couldn’t believe this was happening to her youngest daughter.  She also very courageously explained how after her daughter’s death, she and Mark grieved differently.  She talked with friends and shared her feelings while Mark was more private and did not have the same community of friends she did.  They both shared how they needed to find a time of day that worked for both of them to share their grief together.  

Esta and Mark have loved and supported each other and allowed enough room for each to walk their loss in their own way.  Letting go of our preconceived ideas about life, love, and loss is the message I hear in their story. 

Jeri: We all know that life has many phases, but you identify one called “the completion years of life.” Why do you call it that?

Julie: As I mentioned in the presentation, there is a beginning, a middle and an end to everything in life, including me and you and everyone.  For that reason, I think it is helpful to refer to the dying process as life completion because it reminds us that while the timing of our dying or the way we die, may not be in our control, we do take part in our dying.  Even if we know our time is short, we can make choices about how we want to live the days or months we do have.  

The idea that I am completing my life helps empower me to consciously connect, make meaning, say goodbye, and talk with the people I love about how I want to spend my time and my precious energy. When you share with clarity your thoughts, fears and desires with your loved ones, it helps create connection and gives permission to loved ones to talk openly as well.

How we stay connected in the dying process is the same way we stay connected during the rest of our lives – sharing with honesty, heart, tears, laughter, and presence.

Jeri: Throughout the series you talked about emotions that are normal, but that people may not accept them as such and become disconnected with their loved one.

Julie: It is very normal to have feelings of fear, sadness, relief, uncertainty, and anger to name a few.  For many people there is also a feeling of being numb or shut down, sometimes feeling paralyzed.  It is not uncommon to have a lack of focus, to lose things, forget names and words that ordinarily come easily.  These feelings may be uncomfortable and that is why often people want to get rid of them or don’t talk about them, but they are normal.  The feelings we have are providing information about what we need.  Taking time to validate our feelings and giving ourselves time and space to express them will enhance our ability to remain connected with the ones we love.

Jeri: When someone’s body is shutting down, certain “normal” things happen, and we have a tendency to want to intervene as opposed to just being present and letting nature take its course. What can people expect?

Julie: I believe you’re referring to the dying process itself.  There often comes a time when the person who is dying is no longer interested in eating or drinking. They often lose their appetite and interest in food.  This can be disturbing to loved ones because we are used to feeding someone when they are ill.  In the dying process however, this is not what is needed.  As the body shuts down, we no longer need nor want food and it is important to honor this shift in the body.  While this change can be difficult at first, it is signifying that it is time to stop “doing” and to become more present, perhaps simply sitting at the bedside of our loved one.  It might be a time to quietly share your favorite memory, or maybe read a favorite poem.  This is the time in the process where we receive the gift of being present in this tender, vulnerable and very precious time of life.

Jeri:  The caregiving journey doesn’t necessarily end when the care recipient dies.  What are some of the important things about the grieving process you would want people to know about?

Julie: The grieving process has a life of its own.  Grief is not something we control. It is something we live with.  There are a lot of ideas in our world about how grief will or should look, but grieving has many facets and many feelings.  Sometimes it looks and/or feels like anger, sometimes numbness.  Sometimes grief can look like shutting down.  It can look like overeating or crawling under the covers.  Sometimes someone in grief weeps for days and weeks on end.  Whatever your grief looks like, please honor it.  When you are ready, share it.  

You can consider a grief support group or grief counseling.  When someone we love dies, we are dropped into a very big transition of our own.  This is a time of uncertainty.  Often that uncertainty includes wondering how you fit in your life now or wondering whether life makes any sense anymore.  These are all normal.  

There is a general belief that grief will be over in a few weeks or a few months and that after that there is closure.  Grief does not work like that.  We don’t come to closure.  We learn to live with it.  Grief is a process, a life process.  It is painful, deep, and powerful.  It does get better and during it all, you will continue to laugh and love and cry.  And you will heal.

Watch Julie Interrante’s four-part end-of-life series at accsv.org/julie. Episodes include:

Conversations in Dying

Creating meaningful Experiences When Time is Limited

Walking a Loved One Home

Life After Loss

The Senior Escort Program provides escort services to seniors who feel unsafe or uncomfortable in public without accompaniment. This program was created by the Sacramento Senior Safety Collaborative (SacSSC) in response to the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. 

But there’s more to it than safety. Volunteers go on walks, trips to the grocery store, museum visits, and more to provide company, social interaction, and often physical exercise for seniors in need.  

Since COVID-19 began in 2020, the need to quarantine and maintain social distancing has created life struggles for many, especially for the senior population. Through isolation periods with no human contact, there has been a rise in mental illness, loneliness, declining cognition, and loss of life. Social connection for seniors is critical! The World Health Organization and AARP report that experiencing social connection for seniors has benefits that include disease prevention, fewer physical health problems, longevity in life, encouragement for the human spirit, and encourages a greater sense of belonging.

This free service that the Senior Escort Program offers to seniors adds life value! We appreciate our committed volunteers who help make this all possible. I personally was able to volunteer, and it feels so rewarding! One of our participants says that she is only able to get out for a walk and go to her Tai Chi classes when a volunteer comes to escort her. 

Says Ella Avenell, who attends McClatchy High School, “The Senior Escort Program was such a fun opportunity to help out my community! I really enjoyed walking with Ms. Jessie Lee. She was such a lovely person to talk to. I would recommend this experience to anyone!” 

Yes, we are creating opportunities for social contact, emotional support, active movement and intellectual stimulation in ways that strengthen one’s well being! To continue providing this service, we are in dire need of passionate, and friendly volunteers for our program. Many of our volunteers get just as much fun and social interaction out of the volunteering as the participants do. Retirees and students who need community service…we’re talking to you! 

Donna Fontenot is a three-year SCSEP participant, now serving as an Administrative Assistant trainee for ACC Senior Services. She retired from social work in San Francisco and relocated to Sacramento to assist with the care of her aged parents. Both passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic, but she wishes they would have been able to benefit from the Senior Escort Program. 

ACC has been helping low-income seniors to find employment through the SCSEP program since 2017. Every year, there are dozens of seniors with several barriers to employment such as disability, lack of work experience, low literacy skills, limited English proficiency, and homelessness, who find a job and start working. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging time to find employment for seniors, SCSEP has helped several seniors to exit for employment within 2021. 

One of our SCSEP participants, Carla Tumiwa, joined ACC SCSEP in March 2021. She came to SCSEP with a disability and low employment prospects. Her goal was to get a job and rebuild her financial independence. Because of her physical limitations, it was not easy, but her commitment to become self-sufficient and get a job brought her lots of success. 

Carla took a customer service class which added to her customer service knowledge and skills. After finishing the class, she took the Walmart associate test and passed the exam. After passing the test, she received a job offer from her local Walmart store and she started working as a cashier.

In the beginning, it was not easy for her to work as a full-time cashier. She became sick and had to spend a few nights at the hospital. But she didn’t give up. After her recovery, she went back to Wal-Mart working part time. Now it has been six months. Carla said, “My Walmart supervisor noticed that I am a hard-working person and wants to provide me easier assignments so that I don’t quit.” She is working as a guest specialist and wants to work full time again. The moral of her story tells us that anything is possible, but small steps will lead to great results. She started part time, built good relationships with her supervisor, and now she feels ready to go back to full time.  

Great accomplishments require hard work, dedication, and willingness to go above and beyond your comfort zone. But, once you reach the summit, then life will be better. 

The majority of SCSEP participants are facing physical limitations, but with accommodations and using the available resources, they engage in the community and live healthier and happier lives. To overcome our aging problems, we must work on our mindset, habits, and how we embrace the changes. Having the right mentality is all about positive thinking and believing that you can find ways to deal with your limitations and weaknesses. Our habits are a key part of our lifestyle. Building and developing healthier habits will help us to live happier and longer. Last, the ability to accept changes in your life, and adjust yourself accordingly will make the difference. But remember that small things lead to big changes and require time and patience.

ACC Senior Services has been awarded a grant of $7500 by the Sacramento Region Disaster Relief Fund of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. 

According to Linda Beech Cutler, CEO of the foundation, the grant will be used for partial funding of a part-time production assistant, plus additional camera, mixer, and microphone equipment for the Lifelong Learning and Wellness Program (LLWP) at ACC.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, ACC’s Lifelong Learning and Wellness Program has livestreamed over 700 health and fitness classes, educational workshops and fun special events to older adults throughout Sacramento and beyond free of charge. Over the last year, LLWP received 2,000 registrations and thousands of unique viewers on YouTube and Facebook accessing archived classes, workshops, special presentations, and concerts.  The grant from the Sacramento Region Community Foundation will give us additional resources to increase the amount and variety of ACC’s online programming helping older adults to connect, be engaged, and live healthier lives.  

The Sacramento Region Community Foundation is an advocate for quality of life, dedicated to connecting people who care with charitable causes.  An effective steward of the region’s charitable assets since 1983, its mission is to transform our community through focused leadership and advocacy that inspire partnerships and expand giving.

By Jean Shiomoto and Ted Fong

Next year marks ACC’s 50th Anniversary, an important milestone for the community achieved through people like you, our donors, supporters, volunteers, sponsors, and dedicated staff over the past 50 years. 

We are grateful to have Gloria Imagire, longtime volunteer, supporter, and past ACC Board Member, spearheading gathering people in the community who laid the foundation for ACC.  To date, we’ve produced three online programs featuring conversations with May O. Lee, June Otow, Peggy Saika, Randy Shiroi, Harriet Taniguchi, Frances Lee, Hach Yasumura, Donna Yee, Brian Chin, Phil Hiroshima, Harold Fong, Raymond Lee, and Lillie Yee-Shiroi, each sharing their memories as we record ACC’s rich history. In addition, Gloria has been busy doing one-on-one interviews with people like Barbara Sotcan, Amiko Kashiwagi, Carol Seo, Jiro Sakauye, Jan Morikawa, Courtney Goto, Naomi Goto, Margaret Fujita, and Helen Quan as they go down memory lane sharing what they did and whom they worked or volunteered alongside.  

In this issue of ACC News, we share with you the early beginnings of the grassroots call to action captured from conversations with them, recalling their vision, dreams, and involvement as they understood the need for care, services, and housing for the elderly.

Most people today are unaware that the seeds of ACC were planted by young Asian activists in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Their ranks included students from UC Davis, Sacramento State College, and Sacramento City College, along with faculty members. They were empowered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, emboldened by the protests of the Vietnam War, and deeply concerned about allocation of public resources to Asians and non-English speaking immigrants in their communities.  Several of the student leaders were pursuing degrees in social work and Asian American Studies, programs that were trending on college campuses.

In 1969, they banded together to form Asian Community Services (ACS), not just to advocate for the rights of minorities, but also to provide services for the underserved. They confronted United Way for collecting money in the community but not investing it in social services programs to help Asian immigrants. They staged protests at Fantasia Miniature Golf Course for their use of racist pictures and slogans. They rallied the Asian community to prevent the closure of William Land School.  They were community builders, launching recreation programs for the elderly and providing tutoring services for immigrant children.

In 1970, ACS set up its field office in what was then known as the Yellow House on T Street, which belonged to the Parkview Presbyterian Church.  People like Lillie Yee and Randy Shiroi began tutoring Chinese immigrant kids attending William Land School. Margaret Fujita taught ceramics, Etsu Wakayama taught calligraphy, and Kiyono Ito taught knitting. They would later move to 1118 V Street.

In 1972, ACS lobbied the Sacramento City Council and secured $6,800 to fund its programs. They were backed by the Sacramento Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Sacramento Japanese United Methodist Church, and Parkview Presbyterian Church. Actions like these dispelled any notion that ACS was a group of rebels, radicals, and troublemakers. The people who coalesced around their cause would remain involved in building ACC Senior Services over the next 50 years.

The early 1970s was a great awakening for the Asian community. In addition to ACS, there were other grassroots groups representing the interests of the Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Korean communities. One of these groups started as a workgroup convened by Leo Goto to study the feasibility of building a Japanese cultural center.  Leo was born in Spokane, Washington, the son of a minister. He had moved to Sacramento to work as a project manager for the Sacramento Redevelopment Agency. Outside of work, he harbored a burning desire to develop a Japanese cultural center that would bring the Sacramento Japanese community together, celebrate their heritage, and look to the future. But he also wanted the development to be inclusive and “open to all Americans in all walks of life.” Architect Alan Oshima developed drawings that defined space for housing, exhibits, classes, a library, restaurants, and shops. The project caught the interest of Asian community organizations, private businesses, and churches around Sacramento. 

In January 1972, 50 representatives from different organizations met and decided to form a non-profit entity. On March 1, 1972, the Japanese Community Center of Sacramento Valley, or JCC, was incorporated with help from young attorneys Phil Hiroshima, then president of JACL, and Frank Iwama. Peggy Saika, who had been involved with ACS, was selected to conduct a study to determine the needs of the community. This study took eight months to complete and was published on November 27, 1972. It identified housing, healthcare, and independent living for the elderly as key needs of the community. “For all practical purposes, the elderly housing complex and the cultural center should be within close physical proximity to each other,” the study recommended. One floor of the housing complex was to serve as “an intermediate healthcare facility.” 

Several community members played dual roles in ACS and JCC – Hach Yasumura and Randy Shiroi and Peggy Saika among them – providing a connection between the two groups. Initially, some of the leaders felt that the ACS folks were rebels and radicals. While people from JCC were older and more established in their professions, eventually they took a liking to their younger counterparts in ACS for their thoughtful views and action-oriented agenda.

 In September 1973, the board of ACS decided to dissolve the entity and turn over their Asian Senior Programs which served mainly Japanese Americans seniors to JCC. In its final newsletter, they stated that ACS had fulfilled its goals of 1) “raising issues that affected or were of concern to the Sacramento Asian community,” and 2) “initiating community development programs in which the people being served would eventually take over and run these programs themselves.”  In their service to the community, ACS left behind the foundation for ACC’s senior services that still exists today.

Also in 1973, the Nixon administration ended federal subsidies to low- and middle-income housing projects. This was not good news for JCC, since housing was a central part of its development plan. JCC could not raise enough money to build the Japanese Cultural Center and senior housing complex. In March 1974, Leo Goto announced that the plan would be abandoned, but that it would continue to provide services to the community through programs originally developed by ACS.

The ideas unleashed by JCC’s study captured the community’s imagination. In 1979, JCC changed its name to Asian Community Center of Sacramento Valley. Chewy Ito, who was already serving as the JCC Board president since 1974, presided over the expansion of more services and the plan to provide healthcare and housing for the elderly. A gas station owner turned community organizer, Chewy was instrumental in getting business people, public officials, donors, and volunteers to support ACC’s growth.  Developer Angelo Tsakopoulos donated land on Rush River Drive for the construction of ACC’s skilled nursing facility, which was completed in 1987. 

People often ask, how has ACC endured for nearly 50 years? The consensus is that collaboration among the Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian minority communities ensured that the best ideas for the entire community would be brought forward and championed. Sacramento was arguably the only city in the country where this type of cross-cultural collaboration took place. Secondly, people from ACS and JCC had complementary skills and visions. ACS excited and mobilized the masses, while JCC brought in people with money and influence. Both camps were inclusive, embracing an all-Asian approach to advocacy and program development. Today, ACC Senior Services serves the Asian and non-Asian communities alike.

As ACC looks forward to the next 50 years, we will be standing on the shoulders of those who came before us.  Thank you for your continued support of ACC.