Dorothy “Polka Dot” G. Chow Quock
Dorothy “Polka Dot” G. Chow Quock grew up in Chinatown single-room occupancy housings with seven other siblings and her two immigrant, illiterate parents. They shared communal bathrooms down one end of the hall and kitchens at the other with neighboring tenants. The building lacked heating, which meant all the water used for cooking or bathing needed to be boiled.
From a young age, Polka Dot attended Sunday School at the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Chinatown (now PCC), where she learned about a place called Donaldina Cameron House. In response to the growing number of families needing support and a safe place away from the racism of greater San Francisco, Cameron House began expanding its services to offer faith-based programs for youth in addition to social services for women. “We were on welfare and Cameron House’s social services helped with translating forms and supplying our needs. I remember some of the social workers like Lorna Logan, Tien Fuh Wu, and Mae Wong who knew my mother and our single-parent family’s situation.” In 1947, when Polka Dot was 13, she joined Cameron House’s youth program.
As a youth participant, Polka Dot learned a lot about herself. She attended the Friday Night Club program a part of the “Jadettes”, and on Sunday mornings she would attend worship service at PCC. “I taught Sunday School with the children who were sometimes hosted at Cameron House. I was a club leader and of course, that transitioned into the summer leadership program.” Another thing that kept Polka Dot coming to church was her desire to play the piano. Flora Hubbard was the pianist and organist at PCC and offered her free lessons. She would spend half an hour after church and took a summer’s worth of piano lessons.
Polka Dot went above and beyond in her volunteer roles at Cameron House. Her mother asked her frequently why she didn’t just move her bed over to Cameron House. Polka Dot was deeply involved in programs like Prayer Group, Bible Study, the annual Cameron Carnival, and Women’s/Mothers’ study groups on weekday mornings which Lois Wichman facilitated. Lois’ husband, Dick, was Cameron House’s Executive Director, whose first secretary (around 1947-48) was named Dorothy Choy. Whenever Dick hollered, “Dorothy, Dorothy”, needing her for dictation, both Dorothys would show up. When it happened several times, he finally said, “You are ‘Polka Dot’, and she is ‘Giant Dot’.”
Polka Dot identifies herself as an activist and says that her activism became more relevant with the influence of Cameron House, where she learned to better herself and in turn better the world. “At Cameron House, I learned the phrase ‘do unto others what I would want done unto me’ and it touched every area of my being.”
Forty years ago when Polka Dot began working on her will, she had to decide where her assets had to go, and Cameron House was one of the first places that came to mind. “Cameron House was one of the main organizations that gave me a foundation, along with the people that influenced me, to find my own identity. I felt like I will just be paying it back. Giving to the organizations that helped you can help someone who needs it like I did.“
