Service

CauseConnext and Asian American Googler Network

Several members of the Asian American Googler Network led by Community Service Chair Tae Eun Kim participated in a June 27 service project for Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) arranged by CauseConnext.

Instead of the usual hands-on activity involving painting, cleaning or other manual work, CauseConnext’s Keith Kamisugi worked with Tae to create a project combining education with the application of the members’ knowledge and skills that would result in a longer term impact on Angel Island Immigration Station. AAGN was CauseConnext’s first “client” in an effort to assist corporate Asian American employee groups.

CauseConnext proposed AIISF as the beneficiary of the service project because of the current state budget crisis that threatens to shut down all state parks and beaches, Angel Island State Park among them.

Angel Island Immigration Station, a national historic landmark, re-opened for public tours in February 2009, nearly 70 years after the “Ellis Island of the West” shut down. Leading up to WWII, about one million immigrants were detained on the island for months, sometimes years, trying to get into the U.S. Chinese immigrants were especially singled out because of the fervent anti-Chinese sentiment that existed in the U.S. at that time. Humiliating exams and poor, crowded living conditions led many Chinese detainees to carve heart-wrenching poems into the barracks’ wooden walls.

AAGN received personal attention from AIISF executive director Eddie Wong, who arranged for a custom tour by Park Ranger Casey Lee of the immigration station’s hospital building, which is off-limits to the public, and a personal guide, Grant Din, for the group. Grant’s family includes descendants of detainees of the immigration station.

The project site was not easy to get to. The island is only accessible via ferry, which was a 30-minutes trip there and an hour-long trip in return. The immigration station is a 15-minute hike from the docks.

Following a mini-tour led by Grant, the group participated in a lunch brainstorm facilitated by Keith on how AAGN might be able to lend its members’ skills, expertise and corporate community relationships to further AIISF’s efforts. The brainstorm was intended to be a launching pad for ideas and creating project opportunities that would be shared with the broader AAGN membership.

The brainstorm resulted in several ideas:

(1) AAGN would host representatives from AIISF to speak on campus about the historic importance of Angel Island Immigration Station, the current threat of closure and the capital fundraising needs for the hospital, and how the immigration issues of the 19th century that led to the immigration station being a de facto detention facility relate to the immigration issues that our country faces today.

(2) A possible Google Maps/Earth project where the journeys of select Chinese immigrants would be mapped; from their departure of China, across the Pacific, to Angel Island, through San Francisco and their resulting homes. The project would leverage Earth to illustrate how difficult it was for many Chinese and other Asian immigrants in their quest to live in this country.

(3) The following idea is actually one that influenced the way that CauseConnext might better fulfill its mission. Tae and others had asked if AAGN was the first Asian American employee group served by CauseConnext. It was the first, but not by design. The AAGN-Angel Island project was created ad hoc after a friend of Tae’s connected him with CauseConnext. Through the process of working with AAGN, Keith may be proposing to CauseConnext organizers that Asian American employee groups be a defined part of the project’s programming since it would be more scalable than the current one-to-one consulting offered.

CauseConnext appreciates the opportunity to serve AAGN on this project and would like to continue and expand our relationship in other ways. If AAGN members would like to personally or in groups volunteer or explore service of the boards of directors of Asian American nonprofits, please contact Keith Kamisugi at keith@keithpr.com or 415-874-5550.

© 2009 CauseConnext.