On November 14th, 2024, ACC’s Home & Community-Based Programs held a community wide Open House event that resulted in an amazing turn-out! Attendees learned more about all of ACC’s Home & Community-Based programs from classes and events to caregiving resources and support. Learn More: accsv.org/services
On September 17th, ACC hosted the ACC Fall Gala with just under 200 people in attendance. The event feature food from local Culinary Partners Binchoyaki, Buckhorn Grill Land Park, Fuji, Kalani Kakes, Sweet Oven Wholesale Bakery, Absolute Compassion Hospice and our very own ACC Chef Tim Hirobayashi! The silent auction featured local artwork, wine-tasting experiences, sports memorabilia, and even an exclusive whisky-tasting and travel package to Nashville!
The evening honored the inaugural ACC Founders Award recipients, Mr. Angelo Tsakopoulos and Congresswoman Doris Matusi. Mr. Tsakopoulos made the dream possible when he donated his 3.5 acres of land that the Care Center sits on today. Congresswoman Doris Matsui and her late husband, Congressman Robert Matsui, were instrumental in taking the idea of culturally sensitive senior care and making it a reality! Without the support of Mr. Tsakopoulos and the Matsui Family, alongside the powerful Bingo volunteers, the ACC Care Center would not be where it is today.
This fantastic event raised over 170k for the Care Center Modernization Fund. This fund will support projects such as acquiring a new emergency generator that meets new state laws, along with the modernization of the lobby and nurses’ station at the 38yr old Care Center. The lobby will honor the gift of Mr. Angelo Tsakopoulous to all who enter.
If you would like to make a donation to the ACC Care Center Modernization Fund, please contact ACC Fund Development at development@accsv.org or by clicking www.accsv.org/donate
Photographers: ACC Camera Club – Jeff Jong, Jeanie Fong, Jonathan Sakakibara
ACC’s 3rd Annual Ohana Walk was held on September 7th, 2024 with over 700 walkers in attendance!
What happens when you get two ACC volunteers looking at soil? Well, you get the start of the ACC Garden Club. Mid 2023, Mike Lee was digging up the dirt from the unused garden planters to fill in the low spots by the walkway in back of ACC, so people wouldn’t trip stepping onto the grass during events. One day, Mike was thinking, maybe we could start a garden again. After a month goes by, Mike chatted with Alfred Yee about it, and Alfred thought it was a great idea. Alfred looked at the remnants of the garden area and the old planter boxes beside the shed in back of ACC. He thought about the hard work Mike was doing moving soil to fill in low spots, and thought, why not start a garden club and rejuvenate the garden area.
Alfred approached Mike about starting a garden club with each of them co-managing the effort. They tossed around ideas for a month or so and thought there should be a sizable group of people who like to garden and want to socialize. They put an announcement in the ACC Newsletter on starting a garden club, inviting anyone with intertest to join. The first Garden Club meeting was April 15th with about 10 people showing up. Word got around and as of May 7th there are 24 participants and growing weekly. Veggies for the sight impaired who come to ACC were planted by Mike for them to enjoy the garden and harvest what grows.
People are still welcome to join the Garden Club to help. Alfred meets Garden Club members on Mondays at 9 am to answer any questions. All the gardening space is taken up right now and if more gardening space becomes available, the new members can get to plant.
Alfred and Howard Lockard did a lot of prep work clearing out the weeds and surrounding areas the week of April 15th. Many thanks to them and others who did the heavy weeding. Alfred and Mike’s goal, socialize, make new friends, learn from each other, work as a team, and of course, plant anything you want, veggies, succulents, flowers, herbs, what ever you want! There is excitement among the gardeners planting, watering, and watching the plants and flowers flourish. Numerous people have donated to the Garden Club, sharing supplies. Many thanks to the Garden Club participants and who also look out for each other’s plants. Everything is flexible and a work in progress. So far, we have been successful in all respects, with the anticipation of a bountiful crop this summer!
Thanks to all of our ACC supporters, donors and community members, ACC Senior Services ranked #7 on the Leaderboard for Sacramento’s Big Day of Giving out of 826 other local organizations! With well over 500 individual gifts, we were able to raise $288,247.40 to date! We are keeping the fundraising going until the end of May to help us get closer to our goal of $400,000. To donate, and help us close the gap, please click here or drop off/mail your donations to ACC Senior Services: 7334 Park City Drive, Sacramento CA 95831.
On May 2nd, 2024, ACC hosted a 5 hour livestreamed telethon for the Annual Big Day of Giving. Viewers were entertained by musical talents such as Broadway star Dina Morishta, George Connor and Mary Nakamura (Asian Pair), Clementine Brass Band and so many more! Tastebuds salivated with cooking demos by Lana Chong, Jonathan and Katie of local favorite Cacio and our very own Chef Tim Hirabayashi from ACC Maple Tree Village. We heard messages from our local elected officials Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, Councilmember Rick Jennings and Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen.
During the evenings, we showcased many of our ACC programs, services, residential communities and clubs. Honoring longtime volunteer Art Imigire and a wonderful heartfelt tribute to an ACC pioneer, Mickey Yamadera.
Our in-person audience enjoyed friendship as they enjoyed the wonderful food and bake sale. A special thank you to volunteer Debbie Seid and her crew of ladies who worked all afternoon to get everyone’s orders packed up and ready to go! From chicken teriyaki bowls to spam musubi, it was a sell out!
Another big thank you to Jean Shiomoto and her crew of volunteer bakers who made the amazing spread of baked goodies!
Big Day of Giving is a 24-hour fundraising event that supports local nonprofits in the Sacramento region. BDOG enhances community-building and collaboration among area non-profits, organized by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation with backing from partners like Western Health Advantage and generous individuals like you!
Annually, the Big Day of Giving is ACC’s largest fundraiser of the year and enables us to continue to offer many of our services and programs at low-to-no cost to our participants. From participants and volunteers with ACC Rides and Senior Escort Program, to residents of ACC Skilled Nursing and Independent Living – your donation makes a direct impact in our community!
For more details and a listing of our Big Day of Giving donors, please visit www.accsv.org/bdog2024
To watch a replay of our ACC Big Day of Giving telethon, click here.
What a spectacular April morning it was for golf! 148 golfers embarked on a full day celebration supporting ACC Senior Services. Beginning with breakfast burritos, coffee and juice, sponsored by Winston Ashizawa (past board chair) & Jean Shiomoto (current board chair), the Teal Bend club house was a-buzz with excitement as Jean Shiomoto and Connie Rusynyk (President & CEO of ACC) gave a warm welcome and sent the golfers on their way. As the golfers departed in the golf carts and moved about the course, you could see the joy and excitement in catching up with old and new friends alike.
From the Ladder Game to Hole-in-One cash prize opportunities, thank you to Winston Ashizawa and William Yee for their sponsorship, there was excitement around every turn. Thank you to hole sponsor Connie Van Real Estate for providing warm homemade chicken Pho as golfers approached Hole 10.
As the golfers finished their last hole, they hopped on over to ACC Campus to hear the results of the morning. Thank you to Herbert & Inez Yee Foundation and the Yee Law Firm for their sponsorship of the L&L BBQ bento lunch that followed. A special thank you to our crew of volunteer bakers who brought in trays of freshly baked goodies for dessert! What a treat!
Thank you to all of our hole sponsors, in-kind donors, army of volunteers & committee members – your support of ACC Senior Services is very much appreciated and helps to impact the lives of those in our community.
The photographs below were made possible by our wonderful volunteer Photographers who showed up early in the morning to document the day: Jeff Jong, Jonathan Sakakibara, Jeannie Fong
Since its inception in 2022, ACC’s Senior Escort Program celebrates the incredible milestone of completing 1500 walks. In response to anti-Asian hate incidents, the Senior Escort Program was formed as a collaborative effort to protect seniors while out in the community. Over time, the program has evolved from a safety initiative to a source of independence and social connection for seniors – one walk at a time.
Those who follow the history
of ACC and social justice issues in the Asian community will appreciate that K.W. Lee is now a resident of ACC Maple Tree Village. K.W. immigrated to the U.S. from Korea in 1950 and became an award-winning journalist who wrote for several mainstream newspapers across the U.S.
When ACC was founded in 1972, K.W. was a 43-year-old investigative reporter for The Sacramento Union. He wrote a series of articles about Leo Goto’s pioneering efforts to build a Japanese community and cultural center in Sacramento. This helped Leo galvanize community support and incorporate the Japanese Community Center of Sacramento Valley (JCC), which today is ACC Senior Services.
Peggy Saika, a founding member of JCC, played a key role in the movement that K.W. wrote about. She headed up a study to determine the needs of the Asian community. After eight months of research, it was published on November 27, 1972. It identified housing, healthcare, and independent living for the elderly as key needs of the community, a vision that ACC has since actualized and continues today.
On December 2, 2023, Peggy and K.W., now 95, met at ACC Maple Tree Village to talk about old times. “This was my chance to pay homage to a man who accomplished so much in his life,” says Peggy.
K.W. Lee has been described as the “Godfather of Korean American Journalism” in a recent book, Saigu, Lessons from the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest. In it, we see threads of the type of reporting that K.W. has pursued over his lifetime. It starts with identifying glaring community challenges that give our leaders no choice but to step forward, come together, and create change. K.W. never shrinks away from tough topics. In the 1960s, he reported on the civil rights issues in the South, vote-buying in West Virginia, and the plight of Appalachian coal miners.
In 1973, Peggy and several community leaders were involved in promoting legislation to restore lost Social Security wage credits for Japanese Issei who were denied U.S. citizenship prior to WWII. K.W. covered the story in The Sacramento Union, describing sansei’s as wanting to “right the wrongs against their grandparents.” During that same time, K.W. also wrote about the potential closure of inner-city schools, the lack of programs that served Asian seniors, and gaps in providing health and legal services to our community.
In 1977, K.W. and Jay Yoo, a law student at U.C. Davis, got involved in the case of a young Korean American, Chol Soo Lee, who was imprisoned near Stockton. Chol Soo Lee was wrongfully convicted for the 1973 murder of a San Francisco Chinatown gang member. K.W. wrote a series of investigative articles that spawned a coalition of grassroots activists to come to Lee’s defense and fight to overturn his conviction. Peggy was involved with the effort that began in Sacramento and then started the New York Committee to Free Chol Soo Lee when she moved there in 1978. This national effort mobilized the Korean-American community and other AAPI groups across the country. Chol Soo Lee was freed in 1983.
Peggy’s reunion with K.W. Lee
at Maple Tree Village was remarkable. Her sister Gloria Imagire, Derrick Lim, and I were there to enjoy their lively exchange. He got animated and fiery on certain social topics. K.W. is still the outspoken journalist that cemented his reputation. He also has a good sense of humor. During our visit, he expressed several times how grateful he was to live comfortably in such a nice place as Maple Tree Village and to be with people of his generation. He asked us to “interview all of them so history will not be lost!”
One idea that emerged is to host a film about Chol Soo Lee and have a discussion with K.W. about his determination to use his writing skills to inform the public and seek justice.
For the ACC community, it an honor to have K.W. Lee residing at Maple Tree Village and benefit from the fruits of his labor. From the time he first reported on ACC more than 50 years ago, he has come full circle to back to ACC.
Welcome to your new home, K.W. Lee.
We would like to thank the community for your support throughout 2023! We have accomplished a lot and could not have done it without each and every one of you! As we move into 2024, we will also be looking at new ways to continue bringing the community together with the support of our volunteers, committee members, and all those who continue to make ACC the very special organization that the community has enjoyed for the last fifty years!
After three years of diverse programming at no cost to participants, ACC will be reinstating class charges starting on March 1, 2024. It’s not a decision we take lightly, because we know how important it is to have fun, meaningful social interactions accessible in our community.
