Special thanks to the members of the ACC History Project Workgroup for their contributions to this and other articles commemorating ACC’s 50th anniversary: Gloria Imagire, May O. Lee, Frances Lee, Donna Yee, Hach Yasamura, Peggy Saika, Jean Shiomoto, and Ted Fong.
By Jean Shiomoto and Ted Fong
The Asian Community Nursing Home, later renamed ACC Care Center, opened in 1987. It was the culmination of a 15-year effort to provide much needed housing and health services to elderly Asians. With little experience and no capital, ACC improvised its way to success by finding the right volunteers with just the right knowledge, resources, and connections.
ACC was founded in 1972 as the Japanese Community Center (JCC) by an uncommon alliance of activists, businesspeople, and civil servants from the Chinese and Japanese communities in Sacramento. Under the leadership of its chairman, Leo Goto, they set out to develop a community center in south Sacramento complete with senior housing, a health facility and spaces for education and cultural activities. Skilled nursing was not on their radar at the time.
ACC was counting on federal funds to finance its project. These hopes were dashed in 1974 when the Nixon administration put a moratorium on funding for new housing projects. Undeterred, ACC focused its attention on its programs which had already gained community support. Besides its recreation programs of ceramic arts and knitting crafts, it started a nutrition program led by Kenji Morishige, called Tanoshimi Kai, for the Japanese speaking elderly and later was the model used to start up the Chinese speaking nutrition program. ACC was an ESL outreach site of Sacramento City Unified School District for immigrants learning English.
True to its activist roots, ACC also staged protests against United Way for ignoring Asian communities in their grant making. The protests led to United Way understanding the needs of the Asian communities and providing much needed grant funding.
ACC incubated and launched non-profit organizations such as Asian Pacific Community Counseling and Health for All, and started Summer Youth Training that later evolved to employment and training programs under Asian Resources. ACC assisted student-led organizations such as Asian Legal Services Outreach, law students from McGeorge and UC Davis King Law School, and medical students under Dr. Lindy Kumagai from UC Davis who started up the Paul Hom Clinic.
After launching these organizations, the ACC Board made a decisive move in the early ’80s to rely more on community support rather than government grants to fund operations. They wanted to minimize competition with fledging community organizations seeking local and state funds. This kicked off the era of membership drives and fundraisers, which later proved to be useful skills when raising money for the nursing home.
In 1980, housing for the elderly made its way back onto the Board’s agenda. On July 22, ACC held a community meeting at the Nisei VFW Hall on 5th Street, inviting people to share their ideas. People stepped forward to express the need for a nursing home that served Asians. Many of them grew up in multi-generational households that took care of grandparents. But with life expectancy on the rise, it was harder to do so as their loved ones required higher levels of care. Sacramento had not a single skilled nursing facility that attended to the language and dietary needs of their parents.
The idea of a nursing home gained momentum within ACC. In a 2015 interview with ACC’s Amy Voong, ACC President Chewy Ito said he was inspired by Helen Quan, who, with her husband Dale, delivered fresh fruits and other presents to residents in Sacramento nursing homes. The Asian residents they met were so isolated the Quans felt something had to be done. They and a small group of friends including Harry Sen and Earl Whang tried to start a nursing home project, but it never got off the ground. According to Chewy, Helen implored him to “do something about it.” She donated money she had raised to ACC and became a volunteer.
The ACC Board decided to explore “convalescent care services,” a priority project for 1981-82. They even considered the purchase of a 121-bed skilled nursing facility, located in the south area of Sacramento. The ACC Board consulted with Edwin Hiroto, Administrator of Keiro Nursing Home in Los Angeles, and invited him to Sacramento to speak at an event. Spurred on by his encouraging words, ACC became even more focused on making the nursing home in Sacramento a reality.
From 1981 to 1983, key people entered the picture, took positions on committees, and used their influence to raise community support and money. Among them were Robert Matsui, Jimmie Yee, Illa Collin, Phil Isenberg, Dr. William Fong, Henry Takeda, George Oki, Ben Mar, Bill Wong, and Margaret Lim. There are too many to mention them all.
The driving force behind this type of organizing was ACC’s Chewy Ito. He owned the Shell station on Riverside Boulevard. People in government and business got gas from his station while he talked to them about ACC. Longer meetings were held at his “office” at Vic’s Ice Cream. Today, his table is still there with his name on a plaque. “Chewy knew how to round up the right people,” recalls Barbara Sotcan, who was the ACC Coordinator in the 1990s. “He was a force of nature.”
By 1983, ACC had developed a well-oiled fundraising machine. Over 500 people attended its Holiday Auction in December 1982, which featured guest auctioneers Stuart Satow, Phil Isenberg, Tom Nakashima, Maeley Tom, Courtland Chow, and Sandra Gin Yep. ACC also hosted “East Meets West,” a fashion show organized by Helen Quan. It raised $2,500. According to ACC News, “Molly Kimura and Maeley Tom coordinated models in a rich display of historical costumes and ultra-modern fashions.” Denise Masunaga, owner of the store Madam Butterfly in Pavilions, an upscale shopping center on Fair Oaks Boulevard, provided the ultra-modern fashions.
ACC’s operating budget was around $42,000 annually. It was only going to get larger with the development of the nursing home. Local churches played a big role in supplying volunteers and donors to keep ACC afloat. This included Sacramento Japanese United Methodist Church, Parkview Presbyterian Church, Sacramento Buddhist Church, and Chinese Community Church.
ACC’s fabled Bingo operation also started in 1983. Frances Lee, who was recruited to the Board by Gloria Imagire, volunteered to be the Bingo Manager. She said her son Robert had finished high school, and she was “looking for something to do.” Frances and her husband Will ran Bingo for its entire run of 22 years! In the first five months of operation, Bingo earned $40,000. That’s $112,000 in today’s dollars.
Money was still tight. The cost of the nursing home project was projected to be $3.8 million. The Nursing Home Finance Committee, chaired by Henry Taketa, retained the services of Gary Hicks (Gary would later join the ACC Board) of the Dowdell Corporation to secure bond financing that would be insured by the State. But ACC was nowhere close to having enough collateral to meet regulatory requirements.
The breakthrough came in 1983, when developer Angelo Tsakopoulos donated land on Rush River Drive to build the nursing home. In the words of Chewy Ito, “Robert Matsui introduced us to Angelo Tsakopoulos. Angelo was going to give us 1.5 acres, but when he saw the plans, he said ‘That won’t fit on 1.5 acres!’ We offered to buy the rest of the property, but Angelo said ‘no’ and donated the full 3.5 acres to the Asian Community Nursing Home.”
Angelo had a history of making large charitable donations to the Greek and other communities. He had (and still has) many friends in the Asian community and appreciated their contributions to Sacramento. He also had land holdings in the Pocket Greenhaven area, to which many Japanese Americans and Chinese Americans moved after redevelopment displaced them from downtown Sacramento. Enough cannot be said about his endearing relationship with ACC Senior Services even to this day.
When Chewy announced news of Angelo’s land donation in mid-1983, it hit the ACC community like an earthquake, a good earthquake. Finally, there was a path to the finish line, except for one small detail. ACC needed a $2.1 million letter of credit to guarantee the repayment of the bond. Additional fundraising would take years to raise that amount.
The man who solved this problem was Victor Yee, Vice President of Sacramento Savings and Loan. One day while Victor was filling up his car at Chewy’s gas station, Chewy told him about the problem and lamented that three banks had turned ACC down. Victor took action and presented the case to the President of his bank, William Hegg. A meeting was called. It was attended by William Hegg and Victor Yee for Sacramento Savings and Loan; Chewy Ito, Toko Fujii, and Gary Hicks for ACC; and officials from the three other banks.
Chewy presented ACC’s project. William Hegg then urged the other banks to participate in the deal and said that Sacramento Savings and Loan would underwrite the full amount if they still chose not to. They chose not to. Unfazed, Sacramento Savings and Loan issued the letter of credit. In a recent interview, Victor said, “it was an easy case to make for my bank, because the nursing home brought so much value to the community.”
On August 22, 1985, the California Health Facilities Authority approved the $3.8 million bond issuance for the Asian Community Nursing Home, 30-year fixed rate at 9-1/4%.
The design of the nursing home was done by Herb Niiya and his firm, Vitiello and Associates. It was based on a design they had completed on a similar project. In 1984, ACC formed the Nursing Home Advisory Board to present the design to the community and solicited input about what services would best serve them. Bob Garrett from the Florin United Methodist Church was its chairperson, followed by Art Imagire. Ray Gee, a consultant from Eskaton, was also a member. He went on to become ACC’s Housing Specialist and Controller, teaming up with ACC CEO Donna Yee to develop ACC’s Park City properties, ACC Greenhaven Terrace, and ACC Maple Tree Village.
Ben Yokomizu was the Site Manager overseeing ACC’s interests in the project. He was the link between the contractor (Murchison Construction), the architect (Vitiello and Associates), the ACC Building Committee, and ACC staff. Prior to ACC, he was a construction engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Groundbreaking for the Asian Community Nursing Home took place on a windy, dusty day on October 6, 1985. It was attended by more than 200 people. Chewy Ito gave the welcoming message, followed by congratulatory remarks from Angelo Tsakopoulos, State Senator Leroy Greene, Supervisor Illa Collin, several state officials, and Thomas Chinn, representing the community at large. ACC Board member Toko Fujii was the emcee. Reverend Virstan Choy from the Chinese Community Church and Reverend Joyo Ogawa from the Sacramento Nichiren Church gave the invocation and benediction.
The Grand Opening Ceremony of the Nursing Home took place on November 6, 1986. Frederick Takayesu became its first Administrator. Patricia Harada, RN, was the Director of Nursing. Calvin Hara was the Director of Administration and Operations. Barbara Horikoshi Firebaugh was the new ACC Coordinator.
There was still some finishing work that had to be done on the building and ACC still had to pass the state inspection. At the start of 1987, the Board added new members, including Nancy Akabori, Joyce Sakai, Dr. Henry Sugiyama, Gary Hicks, Eugene Kim, and S.C. Miura. In April 1987, the Asian Community Nursing Home opened its doors for business.
The story of the Asian Community Nursing Home offers an important lesson for the future. When a community works together for a common goal, great things can happen. This episode in our history brought out the best in people – compassion, creativity, patience, and selflessness. May the next 50 years bring out the same in all of us!
For more articles and videos on the history of ACC Senior Services, visit accsv.org/history.
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