Cambodian natives feel welcomed by community

By Donnie A. Lucas

When their parents moved their families halfway around the world in search of a better life, they probably weren’t thinking that a small West Texas community like Albany would provide its own version of the American Dream.

Most folks in Albany or passing through have noticed the new building housing the Donut Shop, just a block east of the original location on Main Street.

Owners Kimsan Mao and his wife Bon Hem opened the doors to their new building at the beginning of the new year. At the same time, they closed the doors to the first building’s  storied past of attracting more than its share of traffic accidents because of its location on a sharp curve on U.S. 180 where Hill Street changes into North Main Street.

The couple were both born in Cambodia, coming with their families to the United States as young teenagers but not meeting until later after their families settled in the Boston area.

Both were working at a movie theater when they first met, but it wasn’t until a few of years later that they became more than acquaintances.

Kimsan graduated high school in his suburban Boston home and even attended a semester of college before moving to Houston to join his brother who was working for a donut shop owned by another Cambodian immigrant from the same state in his home country as Kimsan’s parents.

He spent a year learning the business before returning to Boston.

Kimsan then joined his sister in San Antonio to help open a donut shop there, but the location wasn’t successful. That led to the move to Albany.

Kimsan and his sister came to Albany 10 years ago, opening the Donut Shop in 2012. He later took over the Albany store when his sister moved to Stamford and later Haskell to open shops in those communities.

“We decided to move to a smaller town without competition,” he said. “Cambodian people do better in smaller towns because we have very low budgets to start. The chance for surviving is much higher than in a big city.”

Currently, three of Kimsan’s four siblings own donut shops, including his sister now in Haskell, a brother in Floydada, and another brother in Louisiana.

When asked why they picked the donut business, he said that at first it was due to a connection his brother had made in Houston with someone who owned a donut shop, providing the chance to learn a business from someone who spoke their native languaage.

“It was a business that didn’t require a special knowledge of English to learn,” he said. “We could learn a business in our language and get experience in speaking more English while we were working.”

At the end of 2012 after opening the Albany store, Kimsan proposed to Bon when he returned to Boston for the Christmas holiday. She moved to Albany to help in the store just a month later, and the couple went back to Boston in August 2014 to be married in a traditional ceremony among the large Cambodian community where their families settled and where many of their relatives live.

The couple now have three children – Ellee, age 5, Ellaa, age 3, and Ethan, who is 18 months old.

Their family includes Bon’s mother, who moved to Albany to help care for the children while they work in the shop.

The average workday starts at 3:00 a.m. with the mixing of the dough, which has to rise prior to frying and glazing. The store opens to the public at 5:00 a.m. and closes at 12:00 noon on Tuesday through Sunday. Monday is the only day the shop is closed.

“Sometimes we start earlier than 3:00 a.m. if we have big orders,” Bon said. “It really helps if people call the day before they have big orders of more than three dozen. We are also very busy during hunting season.”

New Building Opens

While the average customer surely enjoys the new building that opened in January, the construction was not just to have a newer store.

The main reason for a new building was the location and safety concerns.

“We had been hit by cars or trucks two times since we started and flooded once,” Kimsan said. “We weren’t in the store when it was hit, but we were concerned for ourselves and our customers.”

Then a big truck took the sharp turn in the road too fast and skidded right up to the front of the building.

“We were there that time and heard the brakes and the tires making noise,” Kimsan said. “We decided it was time to build somewhere else and not just wait for someone to hit it while we were there or open with customers.”

He said that it was something that had worried the couple, and the near-miss while they were on site was the deciding factor.

“We are lucky that we found a lot so close to us,” he said. “Thankfully, one of our good customers owned the house that was there and offered to sell to us.”

The couple still owns the former location just a block away, and they have had inquiries about renting it to someone else.

“People still want to rent it, but it isn’t safe,” Kimsan said. “We have no plans right now to rent it.”

The building has a history that span decades of being involved in accidents on the curve, including once when a car went airborne and crashed through a set of windows to end up completely inside the what was then a grocery store.

Possibly the most spectacular mishap was about 15 years ago when  an 18-wheeler loaded with cattle turned over on the curve and crashed into the front of the store, dumping its load of steers into the building and out on the roadway.

Couple Feels at Home

The donut shop owners feel at home in Albany.

“We love Albany,” Bon said. “Everyone is nice, and people care about other each other. We love being here and want our kids to grow up here.”

Kimsan said that he feels the community is a safe place to raise his family.

“It is a lot safer here than in big cities,” he said. “And it is much safer than in Cambodia.”

He admitted that there have been minor adjustments to living in a small town in Texas.

“I was confused when I first moved here,” he said. “Everyone put their hand up when we passed in the car, and I didn’t know what this means. Then I found out they were waving ‘hello’, which never happened in Boston or Cambodia. People only honk at you there.”

They said that they appreciate how the community has welcomed them and supported them.

“We thank everyone for the support that has been given us in our new home,” Bon said.