LW resident receives Kimi Sugiyama Human Service Award

LW resident Grace Kim was one of five people to receive the 2021-22 Kimi Sugiyama Human Service Awards from Grace First Presbyterian Church in Long Beach. Kim received the award for her diligent work to free an innocent Korean immigrant convicted of murder and continues to demonstrate the importance of speaking out against wrong over the past six years. In loving memory of their mother, Kimi Sugiyama’s children established the Kimi Sugiyama Human Service Award, which is presented annually to a member of the community in recognition of outstanding creativity and self-sacrifice in extending God’s love to others. Sugiyama was a pioneer member of the Japanese Presbyterian Church in Long Beach and a pivotal figure in the Japanese American community in Long Beach, where she was instrumental in helping many Japanese workers who had little or no understanding of the English language and of American labor rights.