A Dream No More : Chew Family Realizes Ambition of Opening Badminton Club
Don Chew is walking some guests through his spiffy, new 72,300 square-foot building and he keeps apologizing for the mess.
It’s difficult, you see, to unpack 24 years of sweat, sacrifice and dreams in just a few weeks.
It’s difficult to know where to put the boxes from China that your parents brought to Thailand when they fled the communists in the 1930s. Difficult to know what to do with the boxes you brought to the United States when you fled again in the early 1970s.
And then there is the first printing press you bought. Never mind that it is 14 years old and looks like a Model-T Ford next to the newer, $2-million presses. It still cranks out a nice flyer and besides, it’s what helped make the dream possible.
The dream, at last a reality for Chew, is the Orange County Badminton Club.
The state-of-the-art club occupies a little over half the space in the $6-million building Chew’s company, K&D; Investments, moved into last month. The rest of the space is occupied by K&D; Graphics, which Chew and his wife, Kim, started in their garage in 1981. K&D; Graphics generates more than $6 million per year in sales.
Don and Kim put much of what they earned from the printing business into the badminton club, which he says is the largest facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The club already has about 200 members and is open to the public.
The inaugural Orange County Badminton Club Open begins today at 6 p.m. after an exhibition by the Thai national team for the club’s grand opening at 3:45 p.m. The tournament, which will offer $10,400 in cash ad prizes, features some of the best players from the United States and Canada.
Chew, 55, began playing badminton at age 7 in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was the oldest of six children. He met Kim a few years later on a badminton court. Both the sport and the woman have stuck with him.
His idea of opening a badminton club began after moving in 1972 to Southern California, where he found a glaring lack of facilities.
“It has been a 24-year dream,” Chew said. “Finally, I made it.”
And he made it big.
The club’s subtle pink exterior, green-framed, tinted windows and palm-lined driveway suggest one of those fashionable and expensive athletic clubs. The plush interior is painted mint green to aid players’ vision of the shuttlecock.
There is an air of seriousness inside the club, where some of the world’s top players saunter around the courts. In the pro shop, Yao Ximing, a world-class player formerly of the People’s Republic of China, stands ready to give lessons. Ximing led China to the 1982 world championship Thomas Cup, badminton’s equivalent of the Davis Cup.
It’s easy to see why top players would want to play at the club.
More than 100 glare-resistant lamps hang from the 32-foot ceiling over 18 courts in two rooms. The larger room contains 12 beechwood courts with a shock absorption system in the floor and bleacher seating for 1,900.
The facility’s air conditioning units have a specially designed air-flow system to prevent interference with shuttlecock flights over the courts.
Men’s and women’s locker rooms each contain about 100 oak lockers. Three dormitory rooms accommodate members of traveling teams and a lounge that overlooks the courts converts into a large banquet room.
Bebe’s Cafe, named for Chew’s daughter, specializes in Thai-American food.
“Everything is high-quality stuff,” carpenter Steve Capps said as he put the final touches on oak trim along one of the stairways. “Everything seems to be well-organized. They definitely know what they want, that’s for sure.”
After thinking about something for 24 years, the details are clear.
A year after settling in Los Angeles in 1972, the Chews used their savings, $10,000, to buy a hamburger restaurant in Monrovia because investing in a business is one way to earn citizenship. The Chew’s three children, Montri, Bebe and Gus--all of whom were under age 6 at the time--had to remain in Thailand until the Chews became U.S. citizens. The Chews also could not leave the country to visit them.
Every day for the next 2 1/2 years, Don and Kim rose early to buy produce and open the store at 9 a.m. They worked until closing at 10 p.m. and usually ate dinner around midnight.
One rainy Thanksgiving, a man walked into the store with a gun, demanding their money. Gambling that the man was bluffing with a fake gun, Don lunged for it. A bullet grazed Don’s ear. The robber took all the money they had made that day.
“It was a hard time, but we survived,” Kim said.
Shortly after that, the Chews sold the hamburger shop, their children joined them in the United States and they decided to go into the printing business in Orange County. Don and Kim worked at several printing shops over the next few years, learning the trade and gathering ideas.
In 1981, the Chews bought their own press and put it in the garage of their Anaheim home, building a clientele in the off-hours from their other jobs. Three years later, they had enough business to open their own shop and three years after that, K&D; Graphics was generating $1 million in sales.
All the while, what little leisure time they had was devoted to badminton. In 1988, the Chews moved K&D; Graphics into a 12,300 square-foot building in Orange and built two courts next to the presses. They sponsored a team of local kids, paying for coaches and traveling expenses to tournaments.
K&D; Investments is a family affair. Don is the president and chief executive, Kim is the senior vice president, and Montri, Bebe and Gus, who spent most of their childhood working the printing press in their garage, are vice presidents. Many of K&D; Graphic’s 32 employees are the Chews’ relatives.
Both Bebe, 28, and Gus, 26, played badminton for Katella High and Montri, 29, also attended Katella. Bebe won the 1986 Empire League individual title and still has a passion for the game.
“When work allows, I’m on the court,” Bebe said. “My parents are great. That’s where it starts. We always take a vote on everything. We all agreed to go ahead with this project.”
Days are long--Gus keeps a sleeping bag in his office and the Chews often can be reached at the club at midnight. When they go home, Don, Kim, Montri, Bebe, Gus and Gus’ 2-year-old son, Phillip, all go home to the same, five-bedroom house in Anaheim they have lived in for 18 years.
“We have a good relationship,” Don said.
But when the family picks up its rackets, watch out. Chew won senior national championship in 1994 and 1995. His niece, Ying Chansawangpuvana, was 61-0 and won the Southern Section individual championship last year for Katella High.
Chew has high hopes for his niece for the 2000 Olympics.
And he’s a man who knows a thing or two about dreams.
Badminton Tournament
* What: Orange County Badminton Club Open
* Where: 1432 N. Main St., Orange
* When: Today-Sunday
* Cost: Free for spectators
* Information: (714) 639-6222