If you visit the Los Gatos location of Uplift Family Services on Loma Alta Avenue, you could easily miss the unassuming wooden archway near the parking lot. But that archway, built about 85 years ago, is filled with history and a reminder of another time when Chinese Americans faced discrimination in California.
The arch marked the entrance to the Ming Quong Home, an orphanage for Chinese girls that was opened around 1936 by Donaldina Cameron, who had previously opened homes in San Francisco and Oakland. The orphanage later allowed children — including boys — of all races by the mid-1950s. Uplift Family Services is a nonprofit behavioral health treatment provider that operates statewide and grew out of the merger of Ming Quong Home and Eastfield Home of Benevolence in San Jose.
Today, the deteriorating arch is about all that remains of the original orphans home but is infested with termites and needs to be stabilized. Uplift would like to restore it, clean up the area around it and create a space that pays tribute to its origins. Many “alumni” of the Ming Quong Home, as well as their descendants, are spearheading a campaign to raise more than $8,000 to make that happen.
“When I was growing up in San Jose in the 1930s, my family friend, Miss Hung Mui Chew was one of the missionary teachers there, having herself been brought up by Donaldina Cameron,” said Gerrye Wong, co-founder of the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project. She remembers that her father, Bill Kee, who owned the San Jose National Dollar Store would bring clothes, as well as holiday candy and cookies, to the Los Gatos home in the years following the Great Depression.
Wong sees the Ming Quong Home as another example of the forgotten history of the Chinese in the Santa Clara Valley. “In honor of those who led and lived their formative years at the Ming Quong Home, this is a historical monument to the dedication and care they were given during very important time of these young girls’ lives,” she said.
Anyone interested in helping the effort can make a tax-deductible donation at www.upliftfs.org/get-involved/donate and put “Ming Quong arch” in the comment area, or contact Darren DeMonsi, director of development for Uplift, at ddemonsi@upliftfs.org.
FUNDRAISERS WITH A SIDE OF ‘HAM’: Broadway productions still may be shut down, but the spirit of the smash hit “Hamilton” will be part of two school fundraisers this week.
Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School’s annual Rey of Hope event on March 25 will be a tribute to the show, with Sydney James Harcourt and Lexi Lawson reprising their Broadway roles of Aaron Burr and Eliza Hamilton for the virtual event. Tickets are $150, and you can get more details at www.cristoreysanjose.org.
Bellarmine College Prep also has a “Hamilton” connection for its virtual fundraiser March 27, which is being held in place of the annual Golden Bell auction. In addition to several student performances, the 7 p.m. event will feature a special appearance by alum Ryan Vasquez, a Drama Desk nominee in 2020 who had a turn at several of the major “Hamilton” roles on Broadway and was in the original cast of “Waitress.” There’s no fee to register for the auction event, which benefits Bellarmine’s Direct Tuition Assistance Fund, and you can get more information at www.bcp.org/auction.
SPEAKERS’ BUREAU: Judith Taylor will give an online talk on her book, “The Olive in California: History of an Immigrant Tree,” on March 29 for the Saratoga History Museum. What’s the connection with Saratoga? Taylor will talk about the first olive trees planted at a rancho in Saratoga in 1865, later purchased by Edward E. Goodrich who marketed El Quito Olive Oil. The 7 p.m. lecture is free to attend, and you can sign up at www.saratogahistory.com.
