With her recent move to ACC Maple Tree Village, Mickey Yamadera has come full circle at ACC. This remarkable woman who mobilized people, resources, and goodwill for ACC for decades is now living within ACC’s “community of caring” that she helped create.
Fellow long-time volunteer Frances Lee remembers meeting Mickey around 1983. She says, “After Mickey retired from the State of California, she volunteered at the ACC office on 6th and V Streets, working with Joyce Sakai and Dona OwFook, who were running the office at the time. Mickey and her late husband George were both bingo volunteers. Each session needed 22 volunteers. She worked tirelessly on staffing. Mickey also sold bingo paper on the floor, and George was a bingo caller.”
Mickey was also ACC’s treasurer for many years. She kept a file card system with names, addresses, and information on what donors and volunteers did. She clipped and saved obituaries of people who passed away. All this information helped friends of ACC give “koden,” which is the Japanese practice of giving money to the family of the deceased.
“These were a substantial portion of our donations,” says Donna Yee, the former CEO of ACC Senior Services. “The koden list often gave rise to a retelling of many stories of families and relationships, a practice that imbued staff with knowledge and a real sense of the culture of caring at ACC. We learned through this oral history how families were linked before and after WWII and through marriages, divorces, celebrations and tragedies.”
Mickey served on the ACC Craft and Bake Sale Committee from the very beginning in the 1980s. She constantly made calls for food and other items to sell. Says Donna, “Mickey could get all kinds of people to do so many things they never thought they could do.” Frances agrees, “If you have ever gotten a call from Mickey, you know it’s hard to say no.”
“The backbone of ACC has been its exceptionally dedicated volunteers. Mickey embodies that spirit, and we are so fortunate to have her in our lives!”
Gloria Imagire
Hach Yasumura met Mickey at work in 1962, while working at the Department of Motor Vehicles. He had just moved from Long Beach to Sacramento. She invited him to her church, Pioneer Methodist Church, which is now Sacramento Japanese United Methodist Church (SJUMC). He recalls, “Mickey-san was part of the group when we did an initial outreach to the churches about the plans for the Asian Community Center’s housing for the elderly under the leadership of Leo Goto. She was there to support some of her friends from church: Leo Goto, Gloria Imagire, and Yasushi Chewy Ito. Mickey-san is a team player, whether it was for her family, her relatives and friends, at church, at DMV, or for the Girls Scouts. She was always there to help.”
Glenn Watanabe met Mickey in 1978. He transported Tanoshimi Kai participants in ACC’s 14-passenger van to SJUMC, where Mickey helped organize weekly luncheons for them. “I liked her immediately,” he says. During the bingo era, Glenn called numbers alongside Mickey’s husband George.
In 2007, Mickey recommended Glenn as a committee and board member. “I remember talking with Donna Yee, asking why ACC would take that risk on me when they didn’t know me that well,” says Glenn. “Donna laughed and said that although I was thoroughly vetted, it was Mickey’s endorsement that actually sealed the deal. That’s how much respect and admiration Mickey garnered through all her years serving ACC as a volunteer and officer.”
Mickey has always been a doer, one who makes a lasting impression on the people she works with. “Mickey’s life is one of perseverance, patience, hopeful optimism, and grit,” says Donna. “She listens compassionately to the problems and tragedies of others, not to compare or compete, but with pure empathy and appreciation for the fortitude and strength of others.”
She was always there to help and support, says Hach. “She always has a pleasant smile to greet you. She would share her laughter with you and she was there to share your sadness.”
“She’s a true lady,” says Frances.
