nwasianweekly.com
Aug. 2, 2008

Photo by Eleanor Lee

Elisa Del Rosario, captial campaign director, holds up one of the noodle bowls to be used in an art piece. The exteriors were all hand painted by ACRS clients, staff and volunteers. Eventually, the bowls will be assembled into a hanging column by Horatio Law and will be the anchor art piece of the new building.

Asian American nonprofit prepares for grand opening

By Eleanor Lee

Northwest Asian Weekly

In this economic climate, nonprofits are finding it increasingly difficult to raise funds, yet Asian Counseling and Referral Service managed a very successful capital campaign. In fact, they have exceeded their goal of $19.1 million, though the fundraising campaign continues in order to decrease the mortgage and funnel as much funds into direct services as possible.

Capital Campaign Director Elisa Del Rosario attributes their success to the organization’s multicultural and multi-service model. ACRS provides a variety of human and behavioral health programs, serving the Asian Pacific American population. It is the largest multi-service organization in the area, serving all the different Asian communities. The staff of ACRS speak 30 different languages and dialects and serve clients as young as preschoolers to seniors in their 90s. Along with more than 500 volunteers, they serve 23,000 clients a year.

Though they primarily assist clients from King County, Del Rosario said they have clients coming in from as far south as Vancouver, Wash., and as far north as Bellingham. One client even drives in from Spokane. The strength of their programs seems to be the strength of their fundraising. All Asian communities are served and where there is a particular interest or need, ACRS will probably address it, she said.

“Those who haven’t needed our services don’t know of us,” she explained. “But if they’re fortunate enough to not have needed our services, we hope they can relate to the immigrant experience and give back to the community. ... Everyone has parents, grandparents who have made sacrifices.”

Del Rosario also pointed out that donors have been especially kind. Several capital campaigns were going on at the same time in the Asian community, she noted, including the Wing Luke Asian Museum and the Filipino Community Center’s. Yet, they all met or are close to meeting their goals, which “speaks to the generosity of our community,” she said.

Diane Narasaki, executive director, added, “We are so deeply grateful to everyone in our community, our donors and government at all levels for making our dream of a beautiful and healing gathering place for our community, full of energy, compassion and a commitment to social justice, come true.”

One aspect of the campaign has been granting naming rights to various areas of the new building. There’s the Yale Wong computer lab, named after the entrepreneur and philanthropist who gave ACRS its first ever $100,000 donation. There’s also the Herb and Bertha Tsuchiya Garden and the Thomas Pak fountain, which graces the main entrance.

The ACRS staff also were generous and confident in their own organization — they gave more than $100,000 of their own money to the campaign. “They’re proud to be a building that’s beautiful and welcoming,” Del Rosario said. “We wanted this place to be like a second home.”

With that in mind, the building was designed to look and function more like a community center than a sterile clinic. At 82,000 total square feet (61,000 for programs and offices and 21,000 for the underground parking structure), the building is three times as big as the old space. It is now located at 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. in Rainier Valley.

The primary reason ACRS moved south, Del Rosario said, is because it found that its client base was increasingly shifting south. Rainier Valley is now 50 percent Asian Pacific American, according to Del Rosario.

It was “all about increasing access,” said Del Rosario. The new site will have the light rail tracks running directly in front, a Metro bus stop on the corner and 150 parking spaces (Del Rosario recalled how impossible parking would be at their old site in the International District on days a game was held at Safeco and Qwest fields).

Though all that space seems like a luxury, it’s been a long time coming. The staff of ACRS found they needed more room almost as soon as they moved into their space at the ID Square Village in 1998. “We were converting conference rooms into work stations,” Del Rosario said.

It wasn’t until 2002 that a formal decision to expand was made, however, when the board began strategic planning to address how to best keep up with their growing clientele, resulting in the current location.

As Del Rosario conducted a tour of the building, the list of resources ACRS is now able to provide seemed countless. The list includes a computer lab, multiple comfortable counseling rooms complete with sofas and coffee tables, a gym that can be converted into a banquet hall, a commercial kitchen, a staff lounge, a space dedicated to the youth center and a garden.

DKA architects made special efforts to incorporate Asian design elements in the building, such as the bamboo-glazed glass adorning the reception desk. They were careful to select aesthetics common to all Asian cultures, rather than drawing from a few dominant ones.

Client art is mostly used to decorate the new building. A few professional and well-known Asian American artists have also donated works, including Mayumi Tsutakawa, who donated historical posters, and Johsel Namkung, a Korean American photographer who donated a print of Lake Julia, a tranquil scene that hangs overlooking the “quiet lobby” on the second floor.

Martha Dingus and Romson Bustillo are conducting art workshops with clients and the community in order to construct a community quilt that will eventually hang through all three stories.

The main lobby is named after Uncle Bob Santos, not only for his lifelong contributions to the Asian American community, but also specifically because he lent ACRS its first space inside of InterIm in the 1970s.

The staff moved in to the current location mid-June, closing the old space June 13 and reopening for business in their new space June 18. The grand opening, however, was planned for almost two months later in order to “work out all the bugs,” Del Rosario said.

“We wanted to make sure the toilets flushed!” she laughed. A week before the opening, there is still last-minute construction, but everything appears to be right on schedule for the festivities ACRS has planned.

After the “regular activities,” as Del Rosario dubs the ribbon-cutting and speech-making, the real fun will begin, with all manner of cultural performances — everything from Hmong martial arts and a Samoan hula lesson to a Filipino youth choir and a blessing by Laotian monks.

The program augurs to be all-inclusive, inspiring, nurturing and celebratory — very much in keeping with the mission of ACRS and the ethos of its new building.

The food bank is still in the same location in the International District. The grand opening of ACRS’ new site is Aug. 6, 3-6 p.m. For more information, visit www.acrs.org.

Eleanor Lee can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

Send correspondence to:
Northwest Asian Weekly • P.O. Box 3468 • Seattle • WA  98114
Tel: 206.223.5559 •  Fax: 206.223.0626 • Email: info@nwasianweekly.com
Please bookmark this site: www.nwasianweekly.com.