Andrea Maoki for J-Sei

Grateful.  I am so grateful for what the J-Sei community has been for my family, and my father in particular.  Through a rough couple of years, we have had so many calls to check in, offers of rides, emails to invite, treat deliveries, and kind visits from friends from J-Sei.  And now that we're in a more stable place, J-Sei is once again a community where my father is joining in classes, sharing lunch and conversation, and enjoying friendships and new acquaintances.

As a member of the board at J-Sei, I continue to be impressed by the dedication and creativity of our staff and volunteers working together to serve seniors in our community. And as a daughter and mother, I am grateful for the resilient fabric of community that J-Sei embodies.

This summer, J-Sei continues our partnership with Daruma-no-Gakko, a Nikkei heritage school for elementary-aged kids.  I'm excited that Luc Ryu will be in the third(!) cohort of 7th graders who will volunteer weekly with the meal program and participate in shared learning with seniors from J-Sei.  This program has been a way for our students to learn about the richness of our community from J-Sei staff, volunteers, and seniors participants, while also developing a deeper commitment to service, advocacy, and social justice.

In a time when caring for others seems to be a radical act, J-Sei is reupping our commitment to serve our elders.  In-person senior lunch has grown to multiple days a week at J-Sei, in addition the delivery of hundreds of meals each week to seniors in the Richmond-El Cerrito area, Berkeley-Oakland, south Alameda County, and more recently, in Alameda and East Contra Costa County.  After years of caution and confinement due to the pandemic, many senior classmates come to enjoy time together in person, while hybrid activities over zoom are the new normal.  And we are exploring new ways of engaging younger generations as well as older to care for our most vulnerable community members. 

So many Japanese-American organizations are struggling to redefine themselves as founding Issei and Nissei communities are becoming more diverse and integrated.  J-Sei has agilely navigated these shifts, maintaining its mission while expanding to build connections across our diversity.  It has given me so much hope to see how younger members of our community have stepped up to volunteer, continuing a longstanding tradition of service and care in the local Japanese-American  and API community.  I am so grateful for the chance to contribute to J-Sei.  I hope you will join me.