2016 Gold Mountain Celebration honouring State Treasurer John Chiang and the Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation.
Dear CACS Friends and Members,
It’s been an exciting 2016 . . . CACS congratulates our very own Directors Joyce and Alex Eng in receiving the Community Service Leadership award from the Asian Pacific Islander Public Affairs Association (APAPA) on May 7 at the Grand Sheraton. Both deserve this recogniton for outstanding contri-butions to the Northern California area for over 28 years of community service and leadership. Today, they unselfishly mentor CACS board directors while serving and balancing support to other non-profit organizations that enrich the lives of many through civic and social engagement.
I am pleased to welcome Vaneesa Lam to our CACS Board. An Asian Studies major from UC Berkeley, she has studied at Peking University and been involved with the Asian-Pacific Chamber of Commerce. Her passion is to educate the public about Asian culture and her background is aligned with CACS’s mission in preserving Chinese Culture. Her story is featured in this newsletter.
This year is a Presidental election year where there are many issues that will affect public policy and we encourage you to educate yourself before exer-cising your votes in November. CACS will be at the Voter’s Education Forum at CSUS on Saturday, Sept. 24, to educate and learn about the current election topics.
On Oct. 7, please join CACS at the Annual Gold Mountain Celebration at Asia Pearl as we award California State Treasurer John Chiang the Fank Fat Founders award and present the Sacramento Asian Sports Founda-tion (SASF) the Community Service Award.. The Honorable John Chiang and the SASF have contributed im-mensely to California. I look forward to meeting you at our GMC and thank Anne Luong and Karun Yee, Co-Chairs, for planning this event. These proceeds benefit our cultural and educational programs to develop youth and promote leadership.
On behalf of the Board, we thank the following community organiza-tions who included the CACS in their programs, and have contributed to our mission to educate and promote future leaders. We reciprocated in financial and other support to Asian Resources on Jan. 26; Sacramento County His-tory Day on March 5; Sacramento Mayor’s Town Hall Discussion on April 18; APSEA Scholarship Gala on April 19 with a $1,000 Scholarship; APAPA 12th Annual Capitol Intern-ship & Scholarship Gala on May 7; OCA Dragon Boat on May 12; Pacific Rim Street Festival on May 14; Locke Spring Festival on May 21; and the Mandarin Immerson Program on May 27, where CACS donated $1,000 to the Chinese language program at Wil-liam Land Elementary school.
Many thanks again to our dedicated Board, Advisors and wonderful vol-unteers for their continued hard work to support CACS! I hope you enjoy the Summer and have a safe journey. Please let me know if you have ideas for CACS by reaching me at (916) 261-2118 or at [email protected].
Very Best,
Honey Lum, President
The Chinese American Council of Sacra-mento was originally founded to advocate on behalf of the Chinese American com-munity in the Sacramento region. Over the years we have developed interests in public benefit and charitable programs. This has brought the fact that the Chinese Ameri-can Council of Sacramento (The Coun-cil) needed to establish a formal 501(c)3 organization that can offer tax deductibility for donations. The CACS Foundation (The Foundation) has been created as a separate charitable organization.
We appreciate your support over the last 29 years. Thanks to you ...
Persons interested in promoting or aiding the charitable work above will be interested in joining The Foundation. The Tax ID number for your donation is: 81-1929503. Contact Cathy Wei at: [email protected]
The Council will be expanding into the advocacy that was part of the original vision of Frank Fat, founder of the Chi-nese American Council of Sacramento. The Council intends to be represented at County Boards of Supervisors, City Councils and at the Capitol in addition to conducting voter education and registration programs and other community work. Contact Honey Lum at [email protected]
Current CACS Members are automatically Members of CACS Foundation (The Foundation) and will enjoy a complimentary one-year Membership in the Chinese American Council of Sacramento (The Council).
By Honey Lum
APAPA (Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Associa-tion) honors our CACS Board Directors Alex & Joyce Eng with the Community Service Leader-ship Award at the 12th Annual Internship Award and Scholar-ship Fundraising Gala on Satur-day, May 7, 2016 at the Sheraton Grand in Sacramento.
Joyce & Alex were selected as the recipients who have dem-onstrated a strong commitment towards serving and contribut-ing to the betterment of the API Community.
CACS is proud of Alex and Joyce. Congratulations!
By Jim T. Chong
CACS Board Member
Locke is an historical landmark for the Chinese community because it is the only remaining rural/self-contained Chinese town in the United States, located just outside of Sacramento. Surprisingly, many local people have not been able to experi-ence the nostalgic environment of the town and are pleasantly surprised when they make the trip.
During the Annual Locke Spring Festival in May, which attracts people of all nationalities, the town was filled with the richness of many cultures and artists of various Asian communities. Founded in 1915, the town of Locke now proudly enters its 101st year of existence. The festival is an important milestone where people are able to visit and enjoy the performing arts, which I had the honor of serving as emcee.
Eastern Ways Martial Arts, lead by founder Sifu Hubbard, began the day’s entertainment with the deep resonating drums…a familiar sound that introduces the Lion Dancers. The Entertainment chair, Eva Chu, choreographed an outstanding line-up of ethnic performances including the Sinagtala Filipino bamboo pole dancers, Stockton Taiko Dummers, the IU-Mien cultural dancers, and the Great Richy, juggler. Three academ-ic scholarships were also awarded by the Locke Foundation to the high school senior recipients supporting the Asian youth.
Equally important during the event is that people from all over the neighboring cities were able to visit the various shops and historical buildings that played a significant role in the Chinese culture. There are also some wonderfully unique art shops to visit. The annual festival is one not to miss…not just because of the entertainment, but because of the history it represents. If you are looking for a great place to visit, consider visiting Locke, CA for a little taste of Chinese history.
Pearl Chang passed away on May 21, 2016 of an inoperable failing heart valve.
The team of Pearl Chang and John Cho have been volunteers at every major CACS activity since 2001. John would wander taking pictures for the CACS His-torical collection. Pearl could be found at the recep-tion desk greeting and checking in guests with her charm and efficiency.
John and Pearl were honored at the 2013 Member-ship Dinner with the “Members of the Year” award. Pearl will always be remembered for her warm smile and graciousness. Pearl leaves behind her loving husband John, daughter Sheri, son-in-law Leon, and grandson Joey.
By Karun Yee
Historical Chair
What a lovely spring afternoon on April 9, 2016 to have Elaine Zorbas unveil her new book, “Banished and Embraced.” The Chinese American Council of Sacramento was proud to have Elaine, a researcher and history librarian, enlighten our audience on what it was like to live in the Amador foothill town of Fiddletown. Ms. Zorbas is a member of the Fiddletown Preser-vation Society, involved in restoration of the Chinese herb store, grocery store and gambling house. Elaine has a BA in history from UC Berkeley and an MA in library science from USC. Due to her background as head of research at the Pasadena Library for a number of years, she has spent 10 years writing her new book about the Chinese of Fiddletown. Her dedication and thorough attention to details brings their extraordinary stories to life, especially of the last Chinese resident Jimmy Chow. The important fact that Fiddletown was a thriving community of over 700 Chinese immigrants, dis-pels many myths about these people.
Happy Garden Restaurant was able to provide a nice private room and delicious dim sum lunch thanks to Fiona. Thank you to all the hard work of Brenda, Kingman, Franc, Honey, Jim, Karun and Dr. LaPierre for public-ity, registration, audio equipment and taking pictures. Please look forward to our Annual Author Spring Luncheon next year.
We welcome new mem-bers, Arthur Chung, Douglas Hsia, Allison Bran-schombe, and Carol On. Thanks to Shirley Wong-Snider, Elaine Zorbas, Elizabeth Null, and Stuart Walthall for renewing their memberships.
CACS wishes to acknowl-edge the generous dona-tions from Joan Hirose and Aileen Nita. Your donations will go towards our chari-table projects benefitting the elementary students in our community.
At the APSEA Scholarship Gala on April 19, CACS directors awarded $1,000 to Sui Shan Cheng, Kennedy High School. She, coincidentally, volunteered at the Locke Boarding House on Feb. 8 during Lunar New Year.
By Brenda Fong
CACS and SCCSC (Sacramento Chinese Community Center) co-hosted a booth at the Pacific Rim Street Festi-val held May 14th at Southside Park. This festival, in its 23rd year, was the dream of Mr. Frank Fat, legendary restaurateur and community leader who created this event to showcase and share our Asian culture with the greater Sacramento community. It was a day to celebrate with entertainment, food, art & crafts, and partici-pation by local community groups. Thank you to members of both our organizations (Honey Lum, Karun Yee, and Anne Luong) for giving their time to participate in this daylong event. A big thank you to CACS Life Member, “Master Stephen Tse”, who brought enjoyment to the crowd with his masterful skills in Chinese calligraphy.
By Brenda Fong
We are happy to welcome Ms. Vaneesa Lam to our Board.
Vaneesa was born in Vietnam, came to the United States with her parents and siblings at a young age as a stateless refugee. While growing up in Sacramento, she “was intrigued and inspired by many multi-cultural communities, especially the varied layers con-tained with the Chinese community.”
She is a UC Berkeley graduate, well-travelled, and speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin. Vaneesa is a successful Broker-Associate with Better Homes & Garden Real Estate Company. She is a member of two local Asian associations and three real estate organizations. Her skills in international travel and Asian Studies allow her to assist international clients and train other agents on conducting business with other Asian cultures. Vaneesa is a long-time Land Park resident, mar-ried and the mother of two children.
By becoming involved with CACS, we hope that Vaneesa learns more about our immediate community and adds her skills and knowledge to help us in our efforts to promote our culture in advocacy and policy-making, and continue our educa-tional outreach programs with local schools and their students.