Marking 50 years in Sacramento, ACC Senior Services hopes for help from Big Day of Giving

Thirty-five years ago, Asian Community Center Senior Services relied on bingo nights to raise money to build the massive senior living complex in Sacramento’s Pocket neighborhood.

This year, they’ll be turning to a virtual telethon on May 6 for Big Day of Giving featuring live entertainment from community figures such as former California legislative aide Maeley Tom and CNN journalist Lisa Ling. All the money raised from this year’s telethon will go towards reopening services ACC had to cut back during the pandemic, such as transportation, exercise classes and guitar lessons.

“We can help people retain their dignity and remain independent,” said Darrick Lam, ACC Senior Services president.

In years past, ACC Senior Services would have relied on several in-person fundraisers to raise the funding they need for tailored services like door-to-door transportation and cooking classes. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made holding all those events impossible, making Big Day of Giving more crucial than ever to keep the center afloat.

Last year’s Big Day of Giving event brought in $170,000 for the center, blasting past their original goal of $75,000.

“We’re hopeful we can get to $150,000 this year,” said Jean Shiomoto, ACC Senior Services board chair. “It helps to put on those programs to keep seniors active … We need the money to keep the lights on and the facilities running.”

The event, which runs from noon to 5 p.m., will showcase performances from local groups like Gracious Ladies O Kehaula’i Hula, workout classes and even a fashion show on Polynesian clothing. Viewers can access the event via Facebook Live, YouTube and Zoom.

“This is also a time for us to reconnect with our community,” Lam said. “Most important … is to tell our supporters what we have done in the last year, and what we can do with all the sponsorships and donations.”

Five decades of tailored senior services

The ACC services empire began in a small house on Sixth and V streets nearly 50 years ago. Members of Asian Community Services and the Japanese Community Center joined forces to assess the legal and health needs of the aging Asian American community.

In April 1972, the organizations formally incorporated and ACC Senior Services opened its doors to offer translations, senior nutrition, recreational activities and English-language classes. But soon after the organization launched, its members realized a second goal — to establish a skilled nursing care facility that serves low-income elders with culturally appropriate care. Without in-language services or ethnically appropriate cuisine, the organization wanted to combat the social and linguistic isolation Asian elders can face.

The challenge was getting the money. Government funding was unavailable for opening nursing homes at the time, according to Lam. So in 1983, ACC started holding bingo nights three days a week with help from over 500 volunteers to raise the money needed to open a nursing home. In April 1987, ACC’s first nursing home was opened to the public.

Since then, ACC’s nursing facilities have expanded to cover independent living facilities as well as convalescent care, and have been pursuing different ways to enrich its senior citizens’ lives since. In fact, ACC Senior Services was one of the earliest adopters of personal centered care, seeking to create care that felt humanizing rather than clinical.

For instance, ACC meals are served with actual place settings and chinaware instead of plastic trays and cloth napkins instead of bibs. Seniors are seated in tables of four to encourage socializing and they can choose their entrees at each meal.

They’ve also been able to offer classes for older adults and active retirees like line dancing, wellness education classes and singing lessons. And one of ACC’s most popular services is door-to-door transportation for things like shopping trips and doctor appointments.

“One might wonder why a nonprofit like ACC needs to do fundraising,” Lam said. “The key thing is that those sponsorships will only be able to cover a certain percentage of our operations … We recently applied for a $195,000 grant for ACC rideshares. But the total cost of operations is over $700,000. That’s still a gap of half a million to operate the program.”

It’s programs like these that ACC has had to curb or modify for the pandemic, pivoting to things like online cooking demonstrations and Zoom yoga workshops — which has made Big Day of Giving crucial to raising the funds it needs.

“We hope that the community will continue to support us,” Lam said. “We have a long history of providing services in the Pocket Greenhaven neighborhood. We’d like to continue. … We really feel that we need to do our part (in light of a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes) to make sure seniors in our community will remain protected.”