C.A.C.A 40 Plus Club

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History

The Chinese American Cultural Association (CACA) was established in 1974. Beside the Mid-Jersey Chinese School, the CACA Board of Directors decided to create three additional units: Teen Club; Women’s Club; and Evergreen Club (長青社), to serve various groups of Chinese Americans in Mid-Jersey area. The Evergreen Club is to provide programs for our senior citizens. Our then CACA Board member Pauline Lau’s father, Mr. Yang, became the first Chairperson of the Club. Pauline and her husband Roland were instrumental in getting the Club started and running. They provided transportation and other essential services. In 1978, Professor Paul Chu of Rutgers University succeeded Mr. Yang to become the next Chairperson. He tried to keep the Club going but there were not as many seniors than as now, and most of our seniors were somewhat shy about making new friends and meeting people. Membership of the Club dwindled and the Evergreen Club gradually became inactive in 1980.

In the following decade, CACA was successful in running programs for our younger generation through our Chinese Schools and Teen Club. Within those activities, their parents had amble opportunities to get acquainted to each others and participated in group activities. As another decade past, many veteran CACA members, whose children outgrew the Chinese School and Teen Club, began to loss contact to each others. Hence, on November 24, 1991, about 70 CACA members gathered at Dennis Lai’s residence and overwhelmingly agreed that there is need to reactivate the Evergreen Club to include the 40+ generation as well as the seniors. The idea is that most of the 40+ generation have children who are either already grown up, in college or about to go to college. They are more established, have more leisure time to enjoy life and take part in larger social issues. Hence, the name of the Club has been changed to “Forty-Plus Club” embracing the generation with age of 40-70 and beyond.

The Club’s objectives include social, cultural, professional and community related activities that benefit members as well as the well being of Chinese Americans in general. Through activities and dinner gatherings, members would get to know each other better and deepen the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood among our members. This sense of fellowship becomes more important as one gets older and near retirement.

At the November 24 gathering, Dennis Lai was elected President of the Club; George Chang was elected Secretary; and Bernard Chen the Treasurer. Other Club Committee members included Arthur Tso, Keith Wong, T.C. Chao, May Lee-Chen, and Oliver Tang. Membership has been handled by Margaret Lai. On June 22, 1996, in order to spread out the administrative responsibilities evenly among Club Committee members, a Steering Committee is formed in the 40-Plus Club as the sole administrative office. Members of the Steering Committee are elected from the general members of the Club for two-year term. For the sake of continuity, each year half of the total number of the Committee members is up for election. The emphasis is to get more 40-Plus members participating in the committee. However, the incumbent members of the Committee are also eligible for re-election. To delineate the functions of the Committee, each year the Committee elects a Chairperson, a Treasurer and a Representative for 40-Plus club to the CACA Board of Directors. For the rest of the members in the Committee each one is responsible to organize at least one activity per year for the Club. Currently, the 40-Plus Steering Committee consists of Sing Lin, Chairperson; Phyllis Tang, Treasurer, Ing-Tai Shyu and Keith Wong, representatives to CACA Board; Chieh Lan, Joseph Luk, Suphie Tang, and Charles Lee Tsui.

Various activities have been offered by the Club including dinner parties, usually combined with an after-dinner speaker covering a wide-variety of topics. For more important issues, such as health maintenance, retirement planning, long-term care insurance, etc. series of workshop on those topics have been organized. Specialists from outside were invited as speakers. Varieties of outing, such as attending regional flower shows, Broadway shows and plays, as well as group traveling are also offered by the Club. In the recent years, to promote physical fitness among our members, hiking trips have become increasingly popular. In general, the club sponsors most of activities suggested by our members as long as a volunteer organizer is found. The idea is to provide a broad spectrum of activities for our members to choose in participation. In order to encourage more people to join, the Club set a policy of minimum membership fee. In fact, membership fee becomes optional for members of age over seventy. Expense of each activity is divided and charged to those who participated in, on a base of pay as you go.

Besides the leisure activities, the Club also participated in charitable activities. In the summer of 1993, the Club launched a fund drive for the Midwest flood victims and raised a total of $880 from our Club members. The money was sent to the American Red Cross for the relief effort. The idea soon spread to other CACA organizations and they raised an additional $1000 for the cause. In early 1994, we established a relief fund for the Zhang family, considered to be one of the most severely affected victims of the Edison gas explosion. The drive raised $865 from our Club members plus $300 from the NJ chapter of Phi Lambda. In addition, Elmer and Grace Hsu donated one of their cars to the Zhang family.

It is our hope that this article may provide a general view of CACA Forty-Plus Club. Like any organization, our Club constantly needs new members to maintain its vitality. Our main targets of recruitment are members of CACA, especially the parents of CACA Chinese Schools. Once their children have graduated from the Chinese Schools, they need not to “dropout” from CACA. Members of CACA 40-Plus club will welcome you to join their activities and to participate in a fellowship for the rest of your life.

For more information, send email to cacanj@ureach.com,
April 29, 2005  © All rights reserved.