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2 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
WELCOME TO WISH BOOK 2020
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Dear Readers, In a year of so much change, we all need more hope to inspire us. Welcome to the 38th season of The Mercury News Wish Book. This year, unlike any other, proves that we can adapt, assist and endure. This is a thread that runs through the stories our award-winning journalists are sharing with you. These stories highlight individuals, families and groups who are experiencing an even more profound loss. To ease their hardship, whether it be financial, emotional, their careers or their health, is the best gift we can think of. The Wish Book edition is a joy for us to write and present to our readers. The holiday stories, which have been improving lives since 1983, address problems big and small. So far, readers have donated more than $11 million and for that we thank you so much. We hope you can help make more dreams come true this year. We are a community newspaper and supporting one another is especially crucial this year. Yes, we are Silicon Valley, but we are also small-business owners, delivery drivers, grocery workers, teachers, nurses, day care providers and more. We are a part of this community and with your help, can make it better this holiday season. You may help two ways: Make a secure donation online at wishbook.mercurynews.com or fill out the donation coupon, attach your check or credit card information, and mail it to: Mercury News Wish Book c/o MediaNewsGroup, PO Box 909, San Jose, CA 95106. Contributions of all sizes are welcome and are tax-deductible. All costs of the Wish Book program are paid for by the Bay Area News Group, which means 100 percent of your donation goes directly to helping people in our community. One way to enhance the effect of your gift is to use your company’s matching donation program, if it has one. Your human resources department should be able to help with forms. If more money comes in than is needed to grant a specific wish, we will use the extra funds to pay for other wishes. Thank you for your generosity. Happy Holidays!
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ON THE COVER
Laura Cunningham, right, was inspired to enroll in a JobTrain medical assistant program after her mother, Luz Garcia, left, suffered an illness. Here, the two enjoy a sunny morning at Orange Memorial Park in South San Francisco. KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 3
College of Adaptive Arts
‘SO HUNGRY TO LEARN’ By Lisa M. Krieger lkrieger@bayareanewsgroup.com
Excitedly, the college students clustered on Zoom to announce their favorite classes. “Acting!” said Javier. “Reading!” added Danny. “Writing — it expands your brain,” declared Chris. As lively as typical students at a typical campus gathering, these students are far from typical. They have cognitive, physical, mental and emotional disabilities — and are pioneers in a new approach to academia, called the College of Adaptive Arts. The school, based at Saratoga’s West Valley College, is preparing to open its doors in a bigger and better location on campus in January to people who have been denied the opportunity that so many of us take for granted: Higher education.
Already, its ambition and skilled management has earned support for major construction costs from civic organizations and private businesses, as well as officials at West Valley, where it is renovating a vacant building. But so many smaller things are still desperately needed. Wish Book donations would pay for fresh paint, wall mirrors and new “walkie-talkies” to guide the transport of disabled students around campus. Greater funding would also support student scholarships, COVID-19 protections and so much more. “This is a labor of love,” said co-founder and executive director DeAnna Pursai, a professional educator who conceived of the idea after witnessing the loneliness and boredom of a beloved younger sister, born with Down syndrome, who felt left behind as her peers headed off for advanced studies. “Our students are so hungry to learn,” said Pursai. With additional support, “they’ll just keep growing, and stretching.”
NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Bernard Smith, who is a student as well as an assistant professor at the College of Adaptive Arts, practices piano at his San Jose home.
HOWTOHELP Donations will support the College of Adaptive Arts’ instructional program for students with special needs and help provide scholarships to give students the opportunity to study in fields like the visual arts, business, technology, and science. Goal: $20,000
4 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School
NEED TO FEED FAMILIES By Fiona Kelliher fkelliher@bayareanewsgroup.com
Life was already hectic enough for Leonela Villalobos before the pandemic. Every day at 4 a.m., the 17-year-old would wake up and get ready to make the long drive with her parents from their home in Los Banos to San Jose. She would arrive at Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School on East Santa Clara Street at 7:30 a.m. before the doors even opened as her mom — who worked at a factory in Fremont — and her dad — a construction worker — went on to their jobs. After school, she worked retail at Eastridge Mall before heading home with her parents. The days dragged together with the repetition of long drives, classes, work and school assignments, but it was manageable. Then the pandemic cost Leonela’s’ mom her income — and fi-
nances tightened fast. “Having my mom lose her job because of COVID made me feel like I had to pick up more — I started picking up more shifts, more hours,” Leonela said. “It’s really like, okay, I’m going to get home at ten and just stay up till I finish my homework.” For many families at Cristo Rey, an experience like Leonela’s is the norm, said Aurora Aceves, the school’s director of counseling. With more than 70% of students eligible for free- or reducedlunch, the threat of hunger among students deepened by the day. “The need that arose from the pandemic was even higher than even I thought, being a school serving a community that’s underserved,” said Adolfo Guevara, assistant principal of student life and dean of students. “This really brought it to light. There’s a big number of our families that are struggling to put food on the table.”
DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The pandemic upended an already challenging family life for Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School student Leonela Villalobos, 17, when her mother, Bertha Hernandez, lost her income.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School continue to provide food boxes and family-style meals for its students and families. Goal: $20,000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 5
HomeFirst Services
SHELTERS NOW SCHOOLS By Maggie Angst mangst@bayareanewsgroup.com
Ana Vazquez doesn’t have access to a tutor or even a parent equipped to help her much with schoolwork. Most days, she counts it a success if she can just ignore the distractions around her long enough to retain the lessons that her teachers are giving on the other side of her laptop screen. The 12-year-old lives in a homeless shelter with her mother and attends her virtual sixth-grade classes from a cubicle previously used as office space. On many days, Ana shares the same room with anywhere between six to 12 other students — all in different online classes and most without headphones to block the others out — and a half dozen employees in the shelter’s administration.
The abrupt transition to digital learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year was challenging enough for parents and students across the nation to navigate. But it has posed an even greater hurdle for homeless students like Ana who not only depend on schools for education but for food, shelter and adequate technology as well. “For many of the children in our families that are struggling, the school is a safe haven,” said Andrea Urton, CEO of the shelter operator, HomeFirst. “They need a place where they can be children, they can focus on what they need to do, which is learning and experiencing life. “Whether someone’s going outside for a break or doing their laundry in the background or another student’s on their device trying to do work next to her, shelters are a very distracting environment,” Urton said, noting that the shelter is “not optimal for learning for any child.”
RANDY VAZQUEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Twelve-year-old Ana, left, who is homeless, does school work at HomeFirst Services in Sunnyvale as her mother checks on her progress.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help HomeFirst Services provide young learners in its shelters with Chromebooks, internet hotspots, monitors, science and art supplies and pay for enhancement services from an agency like Schmahl Science Workshops. Goal: $25,000
6 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Pivotal
‘KIND OF LIKE A FAMILY’ By Emily DeRuy ederuy@bayareanewsgroup.com
When Jasmine Terranova became sick with the coronavirus recently, the 26-year-old couldn’t climb into a cozy bed to recuperate or count on loved ones to deliver soup to her front porch. That’s because the Gavilan College student found herself sleeping alone at night in her 2002 Toyota Camry. She struggled to breathe as she prayed that police wouldn’t boot her from a parking space near a gas station in Morgan Hill. “I sometimes feel like I’m holding it together with chewing gum and old newspaper,” she said. Enter Pivotal, a San Jose-based nonprofit that helps Silicon Valley’s foster youth succeed in high school, college and beyond. The organization, which provides coaching, scholarships
and career readiness programs, had already been helping Terranova with school. But when she tested positive for COVID-19 and confided the story of her sleeping arrangements, Pivotal arranged for her to stay in a nearby hotel, giving her time not only to recover but to save up enough to put down a deposit on a rented room in downtown San Jose. “They are so supportive,” she said. “It’s kind of like a family.” In response to the pandemic, the nonprofit has launched an emergency assistance program to help young people pay for everything from rent and groceries to laptops. “These students really are living on thin margins as it is, and the pandemic has made those margins even thinner,” said Christine Salinas, Pivotal’s grants manager. “There’s no family to lean on,” Salinas said. “They system really has failed to take care of these children in a way that is equitable and fair.”
DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Gavilan College student Jasmine Terranova, 26, was living in her car and had contracted the coronavirus when Pivotal stepped in to help. “They are so supportive,” she said.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Pivotal provide foster youth with financial support to cover basic necessities like rent, groceries, utilities, and laptops. Goal: $15,000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 7
School of Arts and Culture
RANDY VAZQUEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
NEEDS, MISSION CHANGE
sica Paz-Cedillos. “They may not be earning a living wage. They may lack health insurance. They’re living in multi-generational households — usually three to four families in a house. It makes In early March, the School of Arts and Culture was gearing up sense why the pandemic would have a great impact on this comfor its annual César Chávez celebration — a beloved San Jose party munity.” that typically draws 1,500 people for dancing and performances. “At La Plaza, we know that. We see that,” she added. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, bringing plans to a screechIn partnership with Second Harvest of Silicon Valley food bank, ing halt and forcing the group to pivot. The nonprofit could no lon- the School of Arts and Culture started handing out boxes of free ger fulfill its main mission of hosting cultural events and classes food twice a month at the plaza. Then in August, the nonprofit at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in East San Jose’s Mayfair neighbor- launched a weekly COVID testing program with Gardner Health hood. Services and Santa Clara County. But neither could it stand idly by as the virus spread through its On a recent Wednesday, María Teresa Esquivel lined up for largely Latinx community and put scores of people out of work. So COVID tests with her six children, the youngest in a stroller. Esthe organization quickly turned its focus to two of the things its quivel had already caught the virus and recovered earlier this year, people needed most — food aid and COVID-19 testing. but she wanted to make sure her kids were safe. “Our community, which is working-class, has been disproporEveryone got tested, including the baby, and Esquivel said the tionately impacted by the pandemic,” said executive director Jesprocess was fast and made her feel “calm and safe.” By Marisa Kendall mkendall@bayareanewsgroup.com
Matias Robles, 2, left, sits in his stroller as his grandparents Aurora and Eladio Cedano receive a box of goods during the School of Arts and Culture’s recent food distribution at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose.
HOWTOHELP Donations will support the School of Arts and Culture at MHP’s bi-monthly food distribution and daily COVID-19testing at La Plaza. Goal: $25,000
8 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Sunnyvale Community Services
A FAMILY SAFETY NET
my kids.” When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Vasquez lost her job as an office custodian. And, it couldn’t have come at a worst time as she had just given birth to her youngest daughter. When Belkin Yojana Vasquez lost her Sunnyvale apartBut SCS stepped in again to help the family of five. They ofment in a November 2019 fire, the pregnant mother of four had fered holistic support geared toward helping clients deal with no idea what the family was going to do, or even where they an immediate crisis and “not just survive, begin to thrive,” would sleep that first night. said Maria Buenrostro, a financial literacy coach for the Then a police officer connected her with Sunnyvale Commu- agency. nity Services — a nonprofit that helped pay for a hotel room for For Vasquez, Buenrostro became a key source of emotional her and her children. Vasquez and her kids stayed at the hotel support, beyond the financial and material aid the nonprofit for a few weeks until SCS helped her move into a two-bedroom provided the family, which included furniture, kitchen supapartment in Santa Clara. plies, food and rental assistance after the fire and later, help “They helped a lot with my kids, with the rent, with getfiling for unemployment benefits. ting an apartment,” Vasquez, a Honduran immigrant and sin“For me, she is like a mother, she is like my sister, my friend gle mother, said in Spanish. “They helped me giving me the and more than anything, a therapist because when I lost my beds, blankets. They gave me a lot of things to get ahead with job I became depressed,” Vasquez said. “She helped me a lot.” By Leonardo Castañeda lcastaneda@bayareanewsgroup.com
RANDY VAZQUEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Belkin Yojana Vasquez, center, holding her daughter Emelyn Perez Vasquez and with her other children, clockwise from top left, Axel Vasquez, 4, Yenifer Mejia, 7, Dervin Mejia, 11and Cristhian Mejia, 10, in their Santa Clara apartment. The family received assistance from Sunnyvale Community Services.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Sunnyvale Community Services provide low-income local families with one-time emergency rental assistance. Goal: $25,000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 9
Teen Success, Inc.
HELP FOR YOUNG MOMS By Joseph Geha jgeha@bayareanewsgroup.com
Lesly Henriquez is only 20, and has already faced down challenges that could shake even the strongest among us. She grew up in a single-parent home, and through her adolescence and young adult life has experienced abuse, poverty, and homelessness. In the middle of high school at age 17 — while working service jobs in the evenings to help support herself, her mother, and her younger siblings — she became pregnant. “I felt so terrible. I felt so frustrated,” Henriquez said, recalling the day she learned about the pregnancy. “I felt sad, I felt angry. I felt like I was just going to fail.”
For many young women in similar situations, the pregnancy might have heralded even more rough times ahead. But with the support of Teen Success, Inc., a San Josebased nonprofit, Henriquez was able to power through. “Honestly since I had no support from (her child’s) dad, no support from my family, they’ve literally been my support,” Henriquez said. Society at large stigmatizes young women who become pregnant, only adding to their challenges, said Karin Kelley, the executive director of Teen Success. “One thing (young mothers) hear the most from schools, from parents, or from other public systems that they might be engaged in, is that you’ve ruined your life,” Kelley said. “That, to me, is not only a horrible message, it’s not true.”
NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Lesly Henriquez, 20, and her daughter, Addilyn, in San Jose. Henriquez received a Teen Success, Inc. scholarship to pursue post-secondary education. “They’ve literally been my support,” she said.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Teen Success, Inc., provide young mothers a laptop to access distance learning, monthly parenting education kits, diapers and wipes for a year, and an educational stipend to pursue post-secondary education. Goal: $25,000
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Friends from Meals on Wheels
A SERVING OF FRIENDSHIP By Elliott Almond ealmond@bayareanewsgroup.com
It did not take long for Bob Chapman’s alter ego to surface inside his 1936 wood-framed bungalow in San Jose’s Luna Park neighborhood. The transformation took place the moment Alyssa Bastovan appeared for her weekly visit as part of Friends of Meals on Wheels. Chapman, aka Bobby Dean, grabbed one of his microphones and slowly got out of his favorite recliner to start a karaoke machine. Wearing blue-and-white flannel pajamas, he began singing Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable.” Chapman, 87 and blind, might no longer have the looks of a suave Las Vegas entertainer. But his personality has outgrown physical limitations as a first-rate crooner of pop classics. “He has just blossomed since “Friends” like Alyssa have come into his life,” said Michele Lew, chief executive officer of the
Health Trust. Friends from Meals on Wheels is an extension of the popular Meals on Wheels program that began in the 1950s to deliver food to homebound seniors. Visits from staff and volunteers have breathed life into the homes of some of Santa Clara County’s most vulnerable residents who often suffer loneliness and depression from a lack of social contact. The situation has been exacerbated this year by the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic that has led to shelter-in-place orders. As a result, seniors have become more isolated than ever to avoid contracting the deadly disease. But isolation has its own set of serious issues. Medical experts say it can lead to heart disease, anxiety, depression and cognitive decline. “When you’re just sitting around with nothing to do, you get to the point that nobody cares,” Chapman said. “Why should I even be living?”
NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Alyssa Bastovan, left, program coordinator with Friends from Meals on Wheels Food & Nutritional Services, brings a food box to Bob Chapman at his home in San Jose.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help The Health Trust continue Friends from Meals on Wheels — a program that provides homebound seniors with regularly social distanced visits from staff and volunteers who also provide meal delivery, regular phone calls, exercise activities and referrals to resources. Goal: 60,000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 11
LifeMoves
A HOME WITH SCHOOLING
“I work, so I can’t be here all day with them,” Flores, 32, said through an interpreter. She said she is grateful to LifeMoves staff like Children’s Services Yuri Cruz Flores and her four kids already had endured so much, Coordinator Marika Buchholz who have helped her children while fleeing violence-plagued El Salvador and journeying north through she’s working. “I feel good because Marika is always here to make Guatemala and Mexico to find asylum in the United States. She was sure the kids are always in school and to help with the homework as able to land a job, but after an illness, lost it and their apartment too. well.” She caught a break when LifeMoves, a Menlo Park-based nonNow the COVID-19 pandemic has put new pressures on the nonprofit that helps homeless families in San Mateo and Santa Clara profit, which relies on donations to fund its work. counties with shelter and services, put them up in its tidy Villa shel“Since March, when the coronavirus closed schools and increased ter in downtown San Jose in July, and she was able to find new work our clients’ sense of uncertainty, the children in our shelters have exat a supermarket deli. hibited increased stress,” said Jeannie Leahy, LifeMoves’ grants diBut with three of her four kids in school and already struggling rector. “Many are having difficulty focusing on schoolwork. For stuto adjust to learning in a new, English-speaking country, they now dents with learning differences and those who are non-native Engfaced not only the added upheaval of homelessness but the curveball lish speakers, the situation is even more difficult because they are of the coronavirus pandemic that has forced students into remote not receiving the additional support typically provided by their online classes. schools.” By John Woolfolk jwoolfolk@bayareanewsgroup.com
RANDY VAZQUEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Yuri Cruz Flores, center, watches as her kids Jorge, 9, left, and Sharon, 14, take their online classes in one of the educational rooms at LifeMoves Villa in San Jose.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help bolster LifeMoves’ Children’s Education Program in each of its six family shelters. The program aims to enroll all of the children it serves in school and assist them in distance learning as well as provide them with health care referrals and treatment and other special needs. Goal: $25,000
12 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Martha’s Kitchen
DEMAND UP FOR MEALS By Sal Pizarro spizarro@bayareanewsgroup.com
It’s nearly 5 p.m., and Bruce Factor and Sigrid Roemer are handing out meals packed in clamshell containers from a makeshift window at Martha’s Kitchen. In just about an hour, the married couple has distributed 160 dinners to people who lined up at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish hall on Willow Street in San Jose. “Volume like this is considered to be a slow day,” says Roemer. She and her husband began volunteering at Martha’s Kitchen when San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo called on the public to help the city’s nonprofits that were responding to the deepening crisis wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The folks that come are grateful. They know each other, and they’ve gotten to know us,” Factor said. “We get a certain set of
regulars, but really it’s across the board. Some days we get families, we get veterans, young people, old people.” As the pandemic has cratered the Bay Area economy, Martha’s Kitchen Executive Director Bill Lee says the demand has doubled for the nonprofit’s services, which include preparing meals distributed by 77 partner agencies and providing grocery boxes for families in hard-hit areas like Gilroy and Hollister. By the end of the year, Lee expects Martha’s Kitchen to have given out more than 2 million pounds of groceries and prepared over 1 million meals, at a cost to the agency of about $2.50 a meal. “When COVID popped up, we saw some changes in the homeless population in San Jose. Some folks got housed, and we saw a reduction in some of the usual spots like St. James Park,” Lee said. “But a lot of people also ended up on the street. The worst of it has been in the South County, but we’re even seeing an uptick in Sunnyvale and the West Valley.”
ANDA CHU — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Martha’s Kitchen volunteer Bruce Factor, left, distributes meals to the needy at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish hall in San Jose recently.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Martha’s Kitchen provide hot meals to the homeless population, the unemployed, and families struggling to pay rent and buy food. Goal: $25,000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 13
My New Red Shoes
PERFECT FIT IN A CRISIS
tive director. “It has literally come down to, ‘Do I pay rent or do I pay electricity? Can I get food or can I get diapers?’ ” Ngo’s organization knew the best way it could help was the simplest — cash. By October, For more than a decade, the Redwood City nonprofit My New Red My New Red Shoes had distributed $39,000 in grants. Shoes has provided shoes and clothes to struggling families, boostNaomi Robinson is one of those who has benefited from the new ing the self-esteem of kids who are homeless or in other unstable sit- grants. A single mother who before the pandemic was working as a uations and ensuring parents don’t have to worry about one more ex- truck driver hauling asphalt, dirt and rock at Bay Area construction pense in the ever-pricier Bay Area. sites, Robinson had previously received shoes and clothes from My But as the coronavirus pandemic took hold this spring the agency New Red Shoes. realized it needed to make a pivot, and fast. Many of the clients it But the pandemic has made things even tougher. When California helps lost their jobs or saw their paychecks shrink as restaurants cut locked down in March, Robinson and her 7-year-old son Robert were back hours and fewer people called for Uber rides. Others were front- visiting her adult daughter in Fresno. They sheltered in place there line workers who stayed on the job, which meant they not only faced for a few weeks, and in the meantime lost the single bedroom in ana heightened risk of contracting the virus, but also had to pay rising other family’s San Jose house where the two of them had been living. child care costs because schools were closed to in-person learning. “We’re just basically tumbling in the wind,” Robinson said, “tum“The same families that were struggling are now being pushed bling and tumbling until I can get a foot up and get into a place of further to the brink,” said Minh Ngo, My New Red Shoes’ execuour own.”
NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Naomi Robinson helps her son Robert Palomino, 7, try on shoes at the My New Red Shoes warehouse in Redwood City.
By Nico Savidge nsavidge@bayareanewsgroup.com
HOWTOHELP Donations will help My New Red Shoes provide new shoes, clothing and $500 to $1,000grants to 25or more children and struggling families in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties who are experiencing economic hardship. Goal: $25,000
14 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Pajaro Valley Shelter Services
PROVIDING A HOME, HOPE By Paul Rogers progers@bayareanewsgroup.com
For four months last year after they were evicted, they had nowhere to go. Nohemi Ramirez and her mother lived in their car, wondering each day what the next would bring. “We would sleep in front of Kmart, and places that were open 24 hours,” she said. “We would go to places where the bathroom was open, like McDonald’s. We would go to the YMCA or to beaches to take showers.” The weather added to the burden. One day they were near their breaking point. “It was so cold,” Ramirez said. “We went to the shelter. Thankfully, they had a bed for us. They welcomed us with love.”
Since 1983, Pajaro Valley Shelter Services has provided emergency housing for roughly 7,000 people who have been in similar desperate straits. Often single mothers with children who have been evicted or who have suffered domestic violence with no place to go, the shelter embraces them and gives them hope. But the nonprofit charity doesn’t just provide handouts. It requires people to become self sufficient by teaching everything from financial literacy to English as a second language, and also helping them get their GEDs, connecting them with jobs, or helping them qualify for college or vocational training. “We’re really trying to build a foundation under a family’s feet for long-term sustainability and happiness,” said Mike Johnson, the shelter’s executive director. “We’re trying to teach families skills, abilities and attitudes that they can leverage to build a great future.”
RANDY VAZQUEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Santos Ezekiel MendozaIbarra, 2, plays inside a miniature house at Pajaro Valley Shelter Services in Watsonville.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Pajaro Valley Shelter Services provide families with tuition assistance for job training and placement programs at Cabrillo College and elsewhere. Families also will be assisted with financial literacy training as well as taught how to budget and save. Goal: $10,000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 15
Peninsula Family Connections
RAY CHAVEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE
By Aldo Toledo atoledo@bayareanewsgroup.com
Yadira Mederos de Cardenas had been in the United States for three years when she found out she was pregnant with her first child, a boy she awaited with joyful anticipation. Two years later, Mederos de Cardenas’ joy had become clouded with anxiety. Though her son Isaac had been born a happy, healthy and playful baby, he hadn’t said a word by the time he was two-and-a-half. Mederos de Cardenas knew something was wrong when she saw younger kids happily blurting out the “goo goo gaga’s” all mothers eagerly await knowing that soon “mom” would come out of the jumbled gibberish too.
But Isaac hadn’t gotten there yet, a common sign of the autism spectrum. “It was weighing on me,” said the Mexican immigrant. “The fear of whether he was going to speak or not. The not knowing what was going to happen. I couldn’t sleep.” Several weeks later, Mederos de Cardenas was finally on the path to helping Isaac thanks to Peninsula Family Connections, an agency dedicated to helping low-income families on the Peninsula with educational resources and aid. “What happened with Isaac made me a more strong and courageous person,” Mederos de Cardenas said. “That shy person that I was once slowly turned into losing that shame and seeking out help. I realized that I was waiting for everyone else to do things for me. I had to learn that I am the mother and that I am the best advocate for my kids. I had to make the call. It took months, but I did it.”
Isaac Cardenas, 16, left, his 22-month-old brother Nikolaas Cardenas and their mother Yadira Mederos de Cardenas of Menlo Park. Isaac, who was diagnosed with autism as a child gets help from Peninsula Family Connections.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Peninsula Family Connections provide “Learning Kits” to 120underserved children twice a year as well as other enhanced services. Goal: $20,000
16 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County
KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A LIFELINE FOR SENIORS
“It’s an option to get to see other people and to do something during the day,” the Spanish-speaking Mejia said through an interpreter. “I really appreciate that I get to see For seniors like 80-year-old Jose Mejia, the isolation people that I know.” brought on by the coronavirus pandemic can be especially But Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County is hurting. The lonely and frightening. pandemic has turned its budget upside down as staffers have Many crave a safe place to see familiar faces, to share a tried to accommodate the needs of a growing number of sehello or a goodbye, to find a balanced meal — even if it’s only niors who seek amenities offered at Catholic Charities’ centers for a short time each day. — Eastside in the Alum Rock neighborhood and John XXIII Mejia — who lives in San Jose’s Alum Rock neighborhood Multi-Service Center in downtown San Jose. — and others like him find a glimmer of joy at the Eastside “The reason why we picked the senior center (for Wish Neighborhood Center, run by Catholic Charities of Santa Clara Book) is that it’s so much more than just giving them a meal County. or giving them enough food for the week,” said LaDonn DuFor Mejia, the center is a place where he can take part in Bois, the CCSCC’s senior director of communications. “It’s besocially-distanced outdoor exercise classes and receive nutriing able to see somebody and even though they can’t touch tional take-home meals which the agency provides — among or dance or anything like that, it’s just being recognized and many other services — for its registered guests. looked after so to speak.”
An early morning chair yoga class is offered to seniors at the Catholic Charities’ Eastside Neighborhood Center.
By Darren Sabedra dsabedra@bayareanewsgroup.com
HOWTOHELP Donations can help Catholic Charities fund a growing gap of $15,000per month for senior meals. Without funding, Catholic Charities might have to limit the number of seniors it serves. Goal: $50,000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 17
Gilroy Compassion Center
LAUNDRY WITH LUNCH By Ethan Baron ebaron@bayareanewsgroup.com
We often hear that many homeless people were just like the rest of us until they could no longer get by and wound up on the streets. Juliana Padilla, who runs the front desk at the Gilroy Compassion Center, knows the truth of that better than most. “My biological father is homeless,” Padilla says. “I always think of places like this and people like my dad visiting them.” On a recent Friday, several dozen unhoused people were coming for lunch — and laundry. Most of the center’s 40 to 50 regular clients live in tents and ramshackle shelters on the banks of a now-dry creekbed a stone’s throw from the center, which also provides showers and a range of other services, including Friday visits from a medical van. Breakfast, often eggs with fruit and bacon, and a hot lunch
— usually spaghetti with meatballs, rice and curry, or stew and noodles — are served five days a week. While people used to be able to eat, relax and socialize indoors, coronavirus has ended that. During mealtimes, some of the center’s clients stay in and around the parking lot to eat. Others leave, some returning to their tents. “It’s pretty important to me in my life,” Sally Broshear, 60, says of the center, which is a short walk from her tent by the creek in an industrial-park area of Gilroy. She lost her home more than four years ago after her husband died of cancer. Her car became her home, and then she lost her car, she says. She’s been coming to the center ever since. “I’m getting older,” says Broshear, a former retail worker. “I can’t get around like I used to. It’s a lot of things in one spot. The laundry’s really important.”
KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Jude Castenada, a deaf homeless client of the Gilroy Compassion Center, picks up his laundered clothes from Juliana Padilla.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Gilroy Compassion Center buy commercial quality washers and dryers to enable staff to wash more laundry for clients each day. Goal: $10,000
18 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Healthier Kids Foundation
CARING FOR CHILDREN By Jason Green jason.green@bayareanewsgroup.com
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in California was a little less than a month away when 40-year-old San Jose resident Vicky Zarzosa Valencia gave birth to her second child, Dennis, on Dec. 28, 2019. The first few months were a struggle for mother and son. Born with a respiratory condition, Dennis spent the first 27 days of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit. And he returned to the hospital within two weeks of being released, to be treated for bronchitis. Valencia’s concerns for Dennis’ health only grew in March, when the pandemic was in full swing and a state of emergency was declared in California. The thought of venturing to a grocery store to buy baby supplies filled the single mother with fear. “I’m scared of this pandemic,” Valencia said during a socially
distanced interview at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden in mid-October. “I’m scared of putting my child close to the people.” But help was on the way. A caseworker with the Healthier Kids Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in San Jose, called Valencia with an offer to purchase roughly a month-and-a-half worth of baby supplies of her choosing, at no cost to her, and with no strings attached. Within days, a package filled with diapers, wipes, lotion and shampoo arrived at her doorstep. The package is one of roughly 770 the foundation has distributed to families during the pandemic. “Imagine coming home (from the hospital) and you don’t know how you’re going to get out and get these supplies,” said Healthier Kids Foundation CEO Kathleen King. “That was the thought behind it. Maybe we could just make it a little easier for a little while for some parents going through some very stressful times.”
DOUG DURAN — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Vicky Zarzosa Valencia of San Jose, plays with her two children, 9-month-old Dennis and Sebastian, 6, in San Jose. The Healthier Kids Foundation provided the single mom with necessary baby supplies.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help the Healthier Kids Foundation continue to provide care packages — which include necessities like diapers, diaper wipes, shampoo and even small toys — to mothers with newborns. Goal: $27,600
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 19
Hunger at Home
LOADS OF HELP IN A BOX By Linda Zavoral lzavoral@bayareanewsgroup.com
The rosary beads dangling from the rear-view mirror sway ever so gently as Nabor Yepez pulls his car into the North San Jose parking lot early on this particular Wednesday, as he has virtually every week since he was furloughed from his job in March. After he pops the latch for the trunk, volunteers and employees at the Hunger at Home nonprofit scurry to load a week’s worth of groceries and premade meals for him to bring back to the small room he rents. And then they load more boxes, enough for him to deliver to a few other families. Yepez may be without a paycheck, but he’s doing what he can to help needy friends and neighbors who are too fearful during these COVID-19 times to venture out. “I don’t have money right now, but I can give rides, bring food,”
he said through his mask. “I’m not afraid.” For years, Yepez has worked in the facilities field for the hospitality/tourism industry, most recently setting up events at the city’s convention center. As the pandemic stretches on, he expects to keep depending on Hunger at Home to get through the tough times. “We need the help. They give us the help,” he said. That need has increased exponentially this year for Hunger at Home, a San Jose-based nonprofit originally conceived as a way to transfer to Silicon Valley’s needy the excess food from convention halls, hotels, stadiums and tech companies that otherwise would go to waste. When those venues had to turn out the lights, their employees went from being part of the Hunger at Home production network to its growing base of recipients. “The same chefs who were producing meals are now in our weekly distribution line,” said Ewell Sterner, the founder and CEO of Hunger at Home. “It’s so sad.”
RANDY VAZQUEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Richie Alcocer, left, carries a box of groceries as P.J. Denyer, center, talks with a client who is lined up to receive food being distributed by Hunger at Home in San Jose.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Hunger at Home support its COVID-19response food preparation distribution program, which is currently distributing 10,000 meals a day — a number expected to double or triple in 2021. Goal: $25,000
20 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
JobTrain, Inc.
KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ON A NEW CAREER PATH By Harriet Blair Rowan hrowan@bayareanewsgroup.com
Laura Cunningham remembers watching in awe as the team of specialists worked tirelessly to save her mother’s life after she was struck with a mysterious illness five years ago. “If it wasn’t for all the care that they gave her, I don’t think she would be here still,” Cunningham said of her mother, who suffers from a rare inflammatory condition called Dermatomyositis — a disease marked by muscle weakness and a distinctive skin rash. With those indelible images seared in her mind, an inspired Cunningham ultimately decided to give up her fiveyear job at a large cosmetic chain and in early March began
training to become a medical assistant through JobTrain, Inc. — a 55-year-old nonprofit that provides free career training and education to low-income workers in Silicon Valley, helps their clients find jobs and assists them with a wide-range of support services. “I just want to do that for someone else.” said Cunningham, 28, a life-long resident of South San Francisco, as she recalled the compassionate and attentive care her mom received during her three-month hospital stay. But no sooner had she started training, then the coronavirus pandemic turned everything on it’s head — especially, impacting the folks that JobTrain serves, and increasing the need for its services more than ever. So, the agency is pressing on. “The goal is to get people into new careers,” said Patty Rally, “not just a first job.”
Laura Cunningham, center, decided to change careers and enroll in a JobTrain medical assistant program after seeing the care given when her mother Luz Garcia, left, became ill.
HOWTOHELP Donations will bolster JobTrain’s Crisis Relief fund and provide 25clients with financial support for critical needs as well as help the agency support 125clients by directing them to public services, such as referrals to food and housing aid, and job readiness and job placement assistance. Goal: $8,000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 21
Friends of Grace
CLOSING A DIGITAL GAP By Louis Hansen lhansen@bayareanewsgroup.com
For nearly 50 years, the Grace Art and Wellness program has been a refuge and community for mentally ill and developmentally disabled San Jose residents. It’s offered these folks therapy, a place to talk and gather support through life’s troubles. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the program was forced to shut down its Japantown office, leaving dozens of troubled residents without their regular lifeline. “The typical person on the street says, ‘Look at that guy talking to himself,” said Ari Capogeannis, president
of the nonprofit, Friends of Grace. “These people need help.” The community center, funded by the city of San Jose with additional support from the nonprofit, wants to bridge the gap between patients and the community during the pandemic with a Silicon Valley solution — better technology for poor residents to reconnect with friends and social workers. The San Jose-based nonprofit wants to build a new, digital bridge to their clients, many of whom are indigent or homeless. “For this population, there is no family center anymore,” said Capogeannis. “These people, left to their own devices, don’t do well.”
DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Reggie Howard, a client of the Grace Art and Wellness Program, poses with his drawings at home in San Jose.
HOWTOHELP Donations will be used to help Friends of Grace buy 40tablets that members can use to reconnect to community meetings, exercise and art classes, and therapy sessions otherwise missed during the pandemic. Goal: $10,000
22 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
WomenSV
FREED FROM VIOLENCE By Robert Salonga rsalonga@bayareanewsgroup.com
About three decades ago, Sandy found herself in the throes of a disintegrating marriage with a high-level Bay Area tech executive, as the outside world saw her living a bucolic life in Woodside. She first dismissed his angry outbursts as manifestations of his job pressures, but the outbursts morphed into insults and threats against her and her children. She once ducked a punch so powerful that his fist pulverized the drywall near her head. Eventually, she moved out and the couple reached an agreement that allowed him to spend more time with their 5-year-old son. Then one day on a nondescript weekend, her estranged husband fatally shot their son then killed himself, leaving
a note that expressed a wish to be buried with their son. “I thought I was finally safe, and then I had to live with all this, and then take care of my (surviving) kids,” said Sandy, who did not want her last name used, fearing for her safety and that of her children as the company where her husband worked is well-known and thriving. Through the entire ordeal, Sandy said she never considered herself or her family to be suffering from domestic violence. “When you don’t have a physical component, you keep trying to figure out what’s wrong and try to fix it,” she said. Some 26 years later, she discovered WomenSV — a small group in Los Altos that made her completely reframe what she endured, and identify it as domestic violence. “I had moved on, but I was still broken. Being able to identify these things really made a difference,” she said.
DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Sandy is a domesticviolence survivor who has become a volunteer advocate for WomenSV, the organization that helped her through her own trauma.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help support WomenSV’s general program as well as provide $1,500 in aid to Sandy, the domestic violence abuse survivor named in this story. Goal: $13,500
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 23
Valley Churches United
REBUILDING THEIR LIVES
them to go. The tiny redwood cottage with the big picture window was one of nearly 1,500 structures destroyed in August by the CZU Fire that swept through the Santa Cruz mountains and BONNY DOON >> Two weeks before the fire, Alberta and Peter into the towns of Bonny Doon and Boulder Creek. Young celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary from the oneThe only thing left standing was a 12-foot water tank. bedroom house that Alberta built herself, with hammer and “It’s heartbreaking,” said Alberta, choking up. handsaw, the year they married. “It’s OK, hon, don’t cry,” Peter said. “It’s hard to talk about They counted their blessings that warm summer evening and what you don’t have anymore.” watched the sun sink into the Pacific from the wrap-around A few days after the fire, a man at Costco with his young son deck they widened over the years to fit Alberta’s wheelchair, offered to give the couple money. But Peter told them to donate then his. instead to Valley Churches United, a food pantry in nearby Ben For years, their two daughters had urged them to move off the Lomond that had helped Peter and Alberta in the lean years of top of Empire Grade in the Santa Cruz Mountains and closer to their retirement and with gift cards and clothing in the disoritown. Peter, who still carries a trace of the British accent of his enting days after the fire. youth, turned 89 in October. Alberta is 86. Neither could bear “I said, you have a great daddy, but you have to give it to the the idea of leaving. churches,” Peter said. “There’s somebody who needs it more than Until one of the blazes from this record year of wildfire forced me.” By Julia Prodis Sulek jsulek@bayareanewsgroup.com
KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Peter Young visits the ashes of the Bonny Doon home he and his wife, Alberta, built 66 years ago. The Youngs lost almost everything in the CZU Lightning Complex fire.
HOWTOHELP Donations will help Valley Churches United support wildfire fire victims with food, gift cards, gas cards, and rental, mortgage and utility assistance as well as aid in long term needs for people who have to rebuild. Goal: $30,000
24 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Newsroom @ Home COMING UP NEXT
Dec. 3 @ 4 PM SIP, SAVOR, & CHAT A CONVERSATION & Tasting with Amici Cellers Dec. 17 @ 10 AM Wish Book and Share the Spirit Register for these virtual events by visiting
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