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WELCOME TO THE 41ST SEASON OF THE MERCURY NEWS WISH BOOK
Dear Readers,
This year, our award-winning journalists will introduce you to individuals, families and groups coping with significant challenges or helping to make our community a better place. Each possesses a wish you can help fulfill this holiday season.
We have been writing these stories since 1983 and continue our commitment to serving our community. We live, work, and raise our children here, and we consider Wish Book one of the most meaningful projects we do each year. We trust this year’s stories will inspire you to get involved, too.
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Please read about the people in the 2024 Wish Book starting Nov. 28, and continuing with full stories throughout the holiday season. You also can stay updated on the 2024 Wish Book program by visiting www.mercurynews.com/wishbook.
Your donations will help make our community a better place to live and thrive. The Mercury News is proud to come together with the community once again to improve the lives of Bay Area residents.
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ON THE COVER
Hebe Garcia-Bolio gets an assist from Michelle Shinseki, an executive with Avenidas, at the Rose Kleiner Center in Mountain View. Garcia-Bolio credits Avenidas for helping her maintain her independence as she recovers from a stroke last year. STORY, PAGE 5 KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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PICTURING THEIR SUCCESSES
By Jim Harrington jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com
Gabi Dedek is all smiles and excitement as she shows off her acrylic paintings during a recent session at AbilityPath’s Phil Egan Art Program in San Jose.
The first one is titled “Strike,” a colorful piece of art that places the viewer right in the midst of all the chaotic pin action at a bowling alley.
“I used to bowl,” she informs. “Not much now.”
The next painting is equally vibrant, mixing and matching a wide assortment of triangles and squares in striking fashions.
“My personality speaks through my art work,” Dedek comments. “I’m a whimsical type of person.”
The Palo Alto resident has been enrolled in this art program for eight years. But she’s been involved with AbilityPath — an organization that works to empower people with special needs through a variety of innovative and inclusive programs — for far longer.
“Forty-nine years with AbilityPath,” says Dedek, mentioning that she turns 50 this fall. “I was born into the program.”
Dedek is one of many aspiring artists with special needs who are prospering through AbilityPath’s art program, which offers structure and guidance — as well as a safe forum and a supportive community — for people to advance their artistic abilities and knowledge.
But the program doesn’t stop at the creative side of the coin. It’s also about the flip side — helping these artists learn how to sell and market their works to the public, so that they can move toward such goals as greater self-sufficiency and independence.
“I think what AbilityPath does is it gives people a push in the right direction and helps them see what it’s like to promote themselves,” says Shay Barnett, who runs AbilityPath’s art program.
For folks like Dedek, it’s been a godsend. “If it wasn’t for AbilityPath, where would I be?” Dedek wonders out loud. “I have prospered and advanced through AbilityPath.”
Gabi Dedek displays “Strike,” an art piece she created through AbilityPath’s Phil Egan Art Program in San Jose. “I have prospered and advanced through AbilityPath,” she says.
Donations will help Ability Path provide art supplies to participants, support stipends for workshops and digital art as well as pay for transportation costs so they can attend galleries, museums, and community art classes.
Goal: $15,000
NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
Avenidas
RECLAIMING INDEPENDENCE
By Ryan Macasero rmacasero@bayareanewsgroup.com
Each morning, as sunlight peeks through Hebe Garcia-Bolio’s bedroom window in her Palo Alto apartment, she opens her blinds, and takes a deep breath.
“Thank you for allowing me another day,” she whispers to God and exhales, beginning her morning with a quiet moment of prayer. She prepares a simple breakfast for herself — sometimes oatmeal, other times eggs. After changing the calendar, she prepares for another prayer and does her morning exercises.
For most people, these tasks might seem routine, but for GarciaBolio, they’re personal victories. Since a stroke in 2023 left her unable to use her right hand, each ability to manage daily tasks feels like a milestone.
After her stroke, Garcia-Bolio began attending Avenidas’ Rose Kleiner Center in Mountain View for physical therapy and group activities, which she credits with helping her maintain her indepen-
dence. “I am very grateful to the care partners at Las Avenidas and Palo Alto,” she said. “It was through the social worker, Paula Wilson, that I found this place.”
Now 70, Garcia-Bolio was born in Mexico City and moved to California at the age of 7. A Montessori teacher for 24 years, she is now retired and has lived alone for most of her life.
Since starting the program at Avenidas, her mobility has slowly improved. “In the beginning, after my stroke, I would only dare to go as far as the front of my apartment door. Now, I can walk to the front of the apartment building, which feels like a long way,” she said proudly.
As she shares her story, Garcia-Bolio beams, her joy evident as she smells the plants in the Rose Kleiner Center’s garden before speaking. She attributes her positive outlook to her strong faith, which has kept her grounded through life’s challenges. She has never married nor had children of her own.
“As a teacher, I always told my students, you have to have fun,” she said.
Donations to Avenidas will help support the agency’s emergency fund to cover critical needs, including wheelchair repairs, rent, dental care, new eyeglasses, mental health consultations and medical co-pays.
Goal: $15,000
KARL MONDON — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
Physical therapist Lee Safran, left, works with Hebe Garcia-Bolio at Avenidas’ Rose Kleiner Center in Mountain View. Garcia-Bolio is recovering from a stroke she had last year.
Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative
A LOVE OF SPORTS — AND SELF
By Caelyn Pender cpender@bayareanewsgroup.com
When Brisa Rojas was in elementary school, she was a rambunctious girl with lots of energy and busy immigrant parents who both worked two jobs.
Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, or BAWSI, was a “perfect” opportunity to keep her busy and in a safe place after school, said Rojas, now a young woman.
“My parents were always trying to figure out ways to get me involved and staying off the streets and keep me as active as possible,” Rojas said. “They couldn’t even afford a babysitter.”
For a young girl who was “super out there” — dressing in tutus and wearing rainbow socks to school — BAWSI gave Rojas an outlet to express herself and sparked a love of both sports and a talent for leadership that shaped her life.
“BAWSI really gave me the courage to be who I am,” said Rojas, who now serves as the organization’s first alumnus board member.
BAWSI was founded in 2005 by soccer stars Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain and sports executive Marlene Bjornsrud with the aim to inspire and empower girls in underserved communities to play sports through free after-school programs. BAWSI also serves both boys and girls with disabilities through its BAWSI Rollers program.
“There’s a comfort that you don’t necessarily have in co-ed programs, so that all girls will come out and play,” said Dana Weintraub, CEO of BAWSI. “Whether or not they’re drawn to play sports, they learn to love to move their body, and then hopefully raise their hand, gain confidence and continue to play as they go on.”
Girls are far more likely to continue playing sports into middle and high school if they begin at a young age, Weintraub explained.
“It’s not just about being active, learning to love physical activity, but also gaining those transformational lessons that happen on courts [and] fields,” Weintraub said. “We’re building in leadership into the activity that they’re doing.”
Girls participate in skills drills with volunteers from Gavilan College’s women’s basketball team during the BAWSI after-school program at Hubbard Media Arts Academy in San Jose in October.
Donations to Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative will allow 40 girls in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties to experience the program. Goal: $20,000
NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
California Clubhouse
A PATH FROM MENTAL ILLNESS
By Lisa M. Krieger lkrieger@bayareanewsgroup.com
As a healthy youngster, Leslie Roberts loved spending time in her father’s grocery store in Iowa, where she excelled at stocking supplies and balancing atop crates to reach fresh lettuce.
Now, recovering from years lost to manic depression, addiction and homelessness, she’s a grocery expert once again.
At California Clubhouse, a San Carlos-based sanctuary where those with serious mental illness can be people, not patients, Roberts is responsible for planning, shopping and cooking daily meals for 20 other members.
She also shares her food skills — teaching Clubhouse members how to read food labels, compare prices, take measurements, use utensils and safely cut with knives.
“It gives me a purpose, so I’m not just sitting in my apartment by myself,” said Roberts, 67, with a quick smile and chestnut hair. Her illness is controlled. She long ago quit alcohol, opioids, can-
nabis and American Spirit menthol cigarettes.
“It makes you feel good,” she said, “to see people sitting around a table, being happy and eating.”
Roberts cooks on hot plates and a skillet. Appliances are plugged into scattered outlets, because the room’s electrical circuitry is easily overwhelmed. Meals are served on paper plates with plastic utensils.
“It’s so makeshift,” Roberts said. “If we could sit down with real plates and real silverware, it’s a lot nicer experience for everybody.”
Helped by medication, self-care and subsidized housing, Roberts now devotes herself to the Clubhouse, founded to help those with mental illness by connecting them to job opportunities, education and friendships.
“People that have had their lives disrupted by a mental health condition, such as hospitalization, can come in to do work and have meals,” said Lisa Litsey, executive director of California Clubhouse. “It’s a collegial way of being together.”
Leslie Roberts, center, talks with Lisa Litsey, executive director of California Clubhouse in San Carlos. Roberts found the clubhouse a haven during her own mental-health struggles and now prepares meals there for others.
Donations will help improve California Clubhouse’s kitchen and be used to purchase small dining tables for more intimate conversations. Funding will also support new materials to help with Clubhouse’s back-to-work efforts and social outings.
Goal: $50,000
DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Camp Kaleidoscope
RESPITE FOR FUN AMID CANCER
By Ethan Baron ebaron@bayareanewsgroup.com
Six Skov’s mom fell victim to a neurodegenerative disorder at the time she was born and died when she was 13.
Now 24, Skov is a graduate student at Stanford University, and on the leadership team of a group of young people — many of them also deeply familiar with losing a parent — launching a new Bay Area program for kids and families affected by cancer, Camp Kaleidoscope.
The nonprofit plans to offer children the escape, companionship and community that they themselves largely had to do without as they experienced the bewildering isolation of a parent’s decline, then suffered through the grief and loss when a person who created them, loved and nurtured them, was taken away forever.
“More people than you think are facing this situation,” says Skov, “and they don’t have to be alone.”
The camp is open to children who have lost a parent to can-
cer, have a parent in cancer treatment, or whose parent had cancer but survived.
Services and programs for kids or older adults with cancer are relatively plentiful, and Camp Kaleidoscope aims to help fill a gap, Skov says. “There’s a real lack of support for families going through this experience together,” Skov says.
If all goes according to plan, 120 kids forced to grow up far too fast by a parent’s cancer diagnosis will escape their heavy emotional burdens for six days in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and come away with a supportive community that will last a lifetime. The camp, and related programming for kids and parents, is free.
“I wish I had something like this growing up,” says Carlson Marquez, the program’s executive director, whose mom battled pancreatic cancer for a year and a half before she lost the fight when he was 15.
“I wish I had someone to talk to. A lot of these kids deal with loneliness. And lots of them become caregivers for their parents. We primarily want these kids to enjoy being a kid.”
Camp Kaleidoscope team leaders, clockwise from top left, Rose Horan, Jacob Steffen-Brune, Carlson Marquez, Six Skov, Mary Frazier and Samuel Wu, are shown at Stanford University. Their program is for Bay Area children and their families who are affected by cancer.
Donations to Camp Kaleidoscope will help 130 children who have been affected by a parent’s cancer diagnosis attend the weeklong overnight camp for free.
Goal: $15,000
California Community Opportunities
A DRIVE FOR MORE WHEELS
By Jim Harrington jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com
Paula and Susan Piligian happily recount a number of the adventures they’ve been on since moving into a California Community Opportunities home in early 2023.
“We’ve been to Monterey, Carmel and San Francisco,” says Paula. “We use the van wherever we need to go.”
The van that she’s referencing is one of the CCO’s transport vehicles, which take the nonprofit’s clients living in 15 homes in the South Bay to a variety of destinations — from grocery markets and Starbucks to medical appointments and community volunteer commitments.
On this particular fall day, the two 65-year-old twin sisters — who live in a CCO home in Los Gatos — are excitedly getting ready to board the van for trips to the mall, library and Dollar Tree.
“They love to go to all kinds of places,” says Jerri Jensen, program director for CCO, an organization that supports and nurtures
adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities by providing opportunities to learn, grow and engage with the community. “Our goal is for everybody to be as independent as possible.”
The vans are a crucial part of fulfilling that goal, since they provide the means for CCO clients to leave the organization’s homes — which also are located in San Jose and Cupertino — and partake in such activities as bowling and shopping, as well as classes that the organization provides.
The significance of these vans was underscored last year during one trip that Paula and Susan took to Jack London Square in Oakland.
When they finished up at a festival, and walked back to where they parked the van, they discovered it had been stolen.
A call to the CCO office quickly followed, resulting in a GPS trace being put on the vehicle. It was recovered the next day — or, more accurately, some of it was recovered.
Fortunately, there was another van available to pick up Susan and Paula, but the need for more is great.
and
able to volunteer at Sacred Heart Community Center in San Jose with the help of transportation from the California Community Opportunities van.
Donations will help California Community Opportunities purchase one or two backup vans, which would come in handy if one of the organization’s existing vehicles breaks down or otherwise becomes out of commission.
Goal: $60,000
SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Twin sisters Paula, left,
Susan Piligian are
College of Adaptive Arts
FINDING POWER IN INCLUSION
By Devan Patel
dpatel@bayareanewsgroup.com
Whether they were at a table or in a Zoom window, the students took turns one by one asking each other questions at this College of Adaptive Arts “You Are Not Alone” class in Saratoga. Their goal: to foster a feeling of togetherness and support.
And, if some were feeling glum, fellow students would respond with a heart gesture using their hands and knew what else to ask to get their colleagues talking.
The class, otherwise known as YANA, was not created by an academic at the school whose mission is to support adults with special needs who haven’t had access to a college education.
Instead, it was the brainchild of Brighid Kohl, a student with autism and a stutter who has now transitioned into an associate professor role, showcasing the power of inclusive education and casting aside the limitations and perceptions of people with disabilities.
At the head of the classroom on West Valley College’s campus with her green highlights and black hat, Kohl’s infectious laughter and energy help others in the hybrid class engage.
As a social media influencer herself, who advocates for people with disabilities and helps CAA draw attention to its programs, Kohl drew inspiration from a Canadian YouTuber named Jessii Vee, who conceived creating a space for students who felt alone or bullied to feel safe without judgment.
“I wanted to start a YANA club to take care of mental health, isolation and anti-bullying,” Kohl said.
After receiving a PowerPoint proposal from Kohl, the school administration approved her request.
“We’ve discovered that through our programs, we can train and actually hire from our pool of students for positions such as associate professor and teacher’s aides,” CAA co-founder DeAnna Pursai said. “It opens up a new world to what is possible.”
Donations will support College of Adaptive Arts’ digital program by providing technology training, social media safety education and tools for creative expression.
Goal: $7,500
NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
Associate Professor Brighid Kohl, center, chats with Diego Esquivel-Zarate, left, during the “You Are Not Alone” class at the College of Adaptive Arts on the West Valley Community College Campus in Saratoga.
Fostering Promise
A LIFE BEYOND FOSTER CARE
By Steve Palopoli spalopoli@bayareanewsgroup.com
Life in the foster care system can be hard. But life after it can be even harder.
Breeaunna Lynn learned that as a nonbinary lesbian teen after they entered the system in the Bay Area at age 7 — moving several times over the years — and their homophobic foster mother kicked them out of her home on their 18th birthday.
In California, more than 1 in 4 foster youth experience homelessness after they transition out of the system. But unlike kids who grow up in a stable home, Lynn says, foster kids often get to transition age without learning crucial real-world skills.
“It’s purchasing a car, it’s getting a bank account — all these little things that you need to know that no one is going to teach you,” said Lynn, now, 26, who was born in Hayward.
Aleta Smith was born into the foster system while her mother was in jail. She lived in San Jose before moving to the Central
Valley with her grandmother — and then moved back in middle school when she re-entered the foster system.
Ultimately, Smith found the San Jose-based nonprofit Unity Care and at 28, she now owns her own business.
Using what they learned from their own experiences, both Smith and Lynn want to help other foster teens prepare for life after the system. They’ve been working with Unity Care founder and CEO Emeritus Andre Chapman — who left the organization after three decades in 2022 — with his fledgling nonprofit Fostering Promise.
With the new group, Chapman hopes to bring together a network of service providers who can help Fostering Promise provide guidance and resources to foster teens so that they are in a position to succeed as independent adults by the time they turn 18.
He expects to launch a pilot program in the Bay Area — focusing on teens from Santa Clara, Alameda, San Mateo, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties — in 2026.
Former foster youth Breeaunna Lynn, left, and Aleta Smith are hoping Fostering Promise can provide the support they lacked as teens. They took part in a strategic planning session for the organization at Sobrato Center for Nonprofits in San Jose.
Donations will help Fostering Promise, a group that seeks to help teens in the Bay Area transition from the foster care system to independent adult living through mentorship, consultation resources and more.
Goal: $50,000
DAI SUGANO — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
The HEAL Project
SEEDS OF A HEALTHY FUTURE
By Paul Rogers progers@bayareanewsgroup.com
It’s a beautiful autumn afternoon, and 21 third-graders are learning about nutrition and environmental science as part of their daily school lesson. But they aren’t sitting in a classroom. They are wandering through furrows of rich, dark soil, surrounded by rows of lettuce, onions, carrots and other produce on the sun-dappled San Mateo County coast.
“This is an organic farm,” says Sara Neale, their guide. “Do you know what organic means?”
“Original?” said one boy, shrugging his shoulders.
“It means we don’t use any chemicals,” she says, smiling.
For the next hour, the kids picked cilantro, tomatoes and other produce, learning about bugs, nutrition and environmental science, and ultimately cutting up what they harvested and eating it on tacos they made. It’s all part of a curriculum that continued for weeks after they returned to their class -
room at El Granada Elementary School in Half Moon Bay. For more than 20 years, The HEAL Project, a nonprofit educational group based in Half Moon Bay, has brought classrooms full of students to a two-acre farm just off Highway 1 across from the tiny Half Moon Bay airport and surrounded by the rolling hills of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The organization runs programs to help kids learn about science — like the parts of a plant — along with practical advice on where their food comes from and how to eat healthier.
“It’s a real hands-on experience,” said Brett Schilke, the organization’s executive director. “Kids touch and feel and try all kinds of foods they might not otherwise get to see. They harvest it themselves, and make it into something that they eat. Often it’s their first time on a farm, their first time cutting up vegetables, their first time eating some of these foods. It’s a way for kids to get in touch with the natural world and the foods they are putting in their bodies.”
Sara Neale, farm educator at The HEAL Project, takes a group of El Granada Elementary School students on a farm field trip in Half Moon Bay. The third-graders learn about bugs, nutrition and environmental science while harvesting vegetables on the farm.
Donations will help support The HEAL Project’s farm field trip program, including staffing, garden supplies, tools, kitchen ingredients and transportation stipends. Goal: $25,000
Healthier Kids Foundation
FOCUSING ON CHILDREN’S SIGHT
By Nollyanne Delacruz ndelacruz@bayareanewsgroup.com
When 11-year-old Destiny Hernandez broke her glasses while playing ball with the other kids at school, her grandmother struggled to get her a replacement pair.
Susana Trejo Martinez — Destiny’s legal guardian — said her granddaughter has needed glasses since she was five years old for nearsightedness and recalled how she often complained about headaches, pain behind her eyes and redness when she didn’t have her glasses for just a few days.
But although Trejo Martinez had vision insurance and could see a doctor to ask for another pair of glasses, the insurer declined her request, saying it wasn’t time for Destiny to get a new pair.
Trejo Martinez reached out to Healthier Kids Foundation on the recommendation of a teacher. The foundation staff spoke with the doctors and her insurance provider and were able to get
Destiny a new pair of glasses in just three days, much to their delight.
“I’m immensely grateful for the foundation and the people (who helped us). When I needed it most, they helped me,” Trejo Martinez said in Spanish. “In this case, I didn’t have work, I didn’t have money and I didn’t know what to do, right? But thank God I got what they (my granddaughters) needed, thanks to the foundation. And I’m immensely grateful because they concern themselves with the wellbeing of the children.”
Trejo Martinez’s story is a familiar one to the staff at Healthier Kids Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves kids in Santa Clara County and helps identify their unmet health needs to give them and their families the support they need.
“If your kids never had an unmet vision need and you haven’t been told about it, you’re probably not going to the eye doctor,” Healthier Kids Foundation CEO Melinda Snavely said. “The other thing we know is that kids can squint their eyes and see just well enough but not well enough to … read the textbook.”
Health
Donations will go toward Healthier Kids Foundation’s VisionFirst program, which ensures that low-income and underserved children in Santa Clara County receive vision screenings and services.
Goal: $40,000
NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
screener Melissa Valencia, right, checks the vision of Cindy Arellano, 15, during a Healthier Kids Foundation screening at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill.
Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen
SERVING HEALTHY FOOD, HOPE
By Linda Zavoral lzavoral@bayareanewsgroup.com
It was late morning on a Friday, as Mario Gonzalez surveyed the contents of the grocery delivery he had received at his San Jose apartment.
Making a decision based on not just the healthy assortment of ingredients but also the nip in the air that fall day, he declared: “It’s going to be a fish stew, with all of the ingredients of a salad in a soup.”
He started chopping vegetables — carrots, corn, onions, celery — and simmered them in a tomato broth with a little garlic until tender, then gently added large chunks of tilapia. He would later toss in some shredded cabbage and ponder whether the soup needed some oregano.
Voila, enough vitamin-packed, low-calorie soup for three or maybe four meals.
Gonzalez, 60, who has been struggling with Charcot Foot, a com-
plication from diabetes-related neuropathy, credits the Loaves & Fishes program and his medical team for the progress he has made.
“It’s a village effort helping me get back on both feet,” he said. “Without Medically Tailored Meals, I’d be shopping. And I’d be shopping for all the wrong things.”
The Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen, founded 44 years ago, has been expanding its reach as community demands increase. The mission statement is straightforward: “We provide meals to anyone in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties who does not know where their next meal will come from.”
These days that means free community meals at two serving sites in San Jose and 40 partner sites spread around the two counties; preparation and delivery of program meals for Meals on Wheels, Medically Tailored Meals and Groceries and the Jerry Larson FoodBasket; along with pickups of excess food via the A La Carte Food Recovery project.
Many clients like Gabriel Fernandez are thankful. Loaves & Fishes “helps me survive,” he said.
Gonzalez, of San Jose, who suffers from diabetes, prepares a soup using fresh food delivered to his home through the Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen Medically Tailored Meals and Groceries program.
Donations will help Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen provide more than 14,000 healthy meals to hungry and homeless families, children, low-income seniors, veterans, students, disabled individuals and people living with chronic diseases.
Goal: $50,000
Mario
DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Pacific Autism Center for Education
‘HE FELT SAFE AND CARED FOR’
By Grace Hase ghase@bayareanewsgroup.com
Even though Katrina Watters’ 15-year-old nonverbal son Matthew doesn’t have the words to express how he feels about attending the Pacific Autism Center for Education, she knows he’s happy.
Matthew has been attending the nonpublic school for five years now and lives at one of PACE’s group homes. His mother said his behavior has been like “night and day” since coming to PACE. In the past, he’s struggled with aggression and “elopement” — trying to leave whatever space he was currently in.
“When he started coming here, within a month and a half they all just bottomed out,” Watters said of his behaviors. “They weren’t existent anymore. That’s how we knew this was the right place because he was communicating that he felt safe and cared for.”
PACE is a nonprofit that’s been catering to individuals with
moderate to severe autism since 1989. They have five group homes as well as two schools — one in Santa Clara and the other in Sunnyvale — that serve more than 60 kids ages 6 to 22 years old.
At first glance, PACE’s Sunnyvale campus, which serves high school and post-secondary students, looks like any other school — the hallways are lined with lockers and classrooms have rows of desks and chairs. But the class sizes are much smaller and all the students are on Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, to ensure their specific needs are being met.
Emily Gogas, a teacher and the curriculum coordinator at PACE, said many of the students haven’t always had the most positive experiences at other schools.
“Getting these students who you know have had some challenges, maybe had some negative experiences and just trying to make school a place they want to go and want to be again is a huge part of my job and something that I keep in the back of my mind every day,” Gogas said.
Matthew Watters, 15, a student at Pacific Autism Center for Education, hangs in a swing as occupational therapy assistant Alex Vasquez interacts with him inside the occupational therapy gym in Sunnyvale.
Donations to PACE will help support and expand the various programs offered by the agency.
Goal: $10,000
DAI SUGANO — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
San Jose Day Nursery
A PLACE TO PLAY AND GROW
By Sal Pizarro spizarro@bayareanewsgroup.com
When the children at San Jose Day Nursery scamper around the center’s playground, they leap and bounce onto a dark rubber mulch that surrounds the equipment. It’s there to keep them from getting hurt. But what the youngsters don’t know is that they’re not the only ones who use it.
“The cats like to come in the middle of the night and use it for their litter boxes, so we’re constantly having to sift through and make sure it’s safe for the kids,” said Angela Gomez, who has been director of the downtown San Jose daycare center since 2021.
Gomez would love to have the black rubber mulch replaced with a poured-in-place rubber surface like the one they have at the Guadalupe River Park’s Rotary PlayGarden and other modern playgrounds.
While the playground equipment itself — installed during San Jose Day Nursery’s last major renovation in 2006 — is in good con-
dition, other elements to the outdoor courtyard could use an update.
“I would love to change the shape of the playground and remove some of these big boulders they have set in here that aren’t safe for the kids,” Gomez said. “If we could incorporate aspects back here that run with a theme so the kids can build their imaginations, that would be ideal.”
San Jose Day Nursery has been part of the community since 1916, occupying its current location on North 8th and Santa Clara streets since 1936. The outdoor areas — in addition to providing the energetic kids room to run, play and even pedal tricycles around imaginary tracks — are essential parts of the learning experience and development of motor skills.
Having an outdoor space that sparks their imaginations is a crucial part of that and has other benefits, too. “When they’re busy and exploring and engaged, you’re not going to have the behaviors that are going to be disruptive,” Gomez said. “We want all the kids to have a chance to be engaged, indoors and outdoors.”
Children try to catch a bubble at the San Jose Day Nursery playground in San Jose. The center’s last renovation was in 2006, and the outdoor area could use some upgrades in safety and to spark imaginative play, says director Angela Gomez.
Donations to San Jose Day Nursery will help revamp its outdoor play area for the 112 children, aged 6 weeks to 6 years old, who use it every day.
Goal: $50,000
SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Peninsula College Fund
MAKING COLLEGE POSSIBLE
By Molly Gibbs
mgibbs@bayareanewsgroup.com
Karla Cisneros never imagined she would be able to attend college. She knew her parents wouldn’t be able to afford the tuition and no one in her family had ever pursued higher education.
“Going to college was never in my plan,” she said, citing financial limitations.
Instead, the San Jose resident planned on graduating from high school and getting a job to help support her low-income family and raise her two youngest siblings.
Five years later, Cisneros holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology, works two jobs — as a substitute teacher and a program coordinator at Sacred Heart Community Services — and owns a small business creating events and floral arrangements.
“Knowing where I’m at currently, it just feels like a dream,” she said. “If you would have told 13-year-old me or 14-year-old me that I’d be here right now, she wouldn’t believe it.”
Cisneros was able to attend San Jose State University thanks to a grant from The Peninsula College Fund, a Bay Area nonprofit that provides first-generation, low-income students from San Mateo and Santa Clara counties the resources and finances to graduate from college and achieve their career goals.
The organization began in 2005 after San Jose teacher Charles Schmuck became concerned by the high college dropout rate of youth from this demographic in the San Mateo County and MidPeninsula area.
Schmuck and the Peninsula College Fund quickly realized that helping this group of students simply access college wasn’t enough, said the organization’s executive director, Christina Mireles.
“We’re not a college access organization. We’re about college and career success,” Mireles said. “There are so many challenges and obstacles that low-income students, first-generation students face that they really do require support in college if we expect them to graduate.”
Sisters Cindy, left, and Karla Cisneros, of San Jose, are both Peninsula College Fund scholars. “Knowing where I’m at currently, it just feels like a dream,” says Karla, who holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
Donations to The Peninsula College Fund will help one student in San Mateo or Santa Clara county complete four years of college.
Goal: $24,000
SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
The Record Clearance Project at San Jose State University
CLEAN SLATE, BETTER FUTURE
By Robert Salonga rsalonga@bayareanewsgroup.com
As he stood in the middle of the courtroom, Gabriel Ornelas Garcia told Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Erica Yew that after an arrest in 2018 — capping a rap sheet of nine convictions for drug, theft and gang crimes dating back to his teens — he was determined to break the cycle.
“I vowed never to return,” Garcia, 29, said on a recent October morning.
With the help of his family, including his wife Amanda and his now-1-year-old daughter, Garcia petitioned for his criminal record to be cleared.
There to help him was the Record Clearance Project — an undergraduate legal clinic operated out of San Jose State University. The unique program tasks criminal justice students with helping people expunge their criminal records as they rebuild their lives. Research has found that barely more than
5% of people seek the legal relief within five years of becoming eligible.
“I just assumed people knew the general possibility that they could clear their records,” said project founder and veteran criminal justice instructor Peggy Stevenson. “The information was just not out there. … People just don’t know and it makes all the difference in the world.”
The program started in 2008 as a class project for Stevenson’s students in a course on courts and society. Since its inception, more than 1,000 students have participated.
Garcia, who now works as a union laborer, said allowing the program an unvarnished look at his life was hard but therapeutic. Eventually, Judge Yew gave him the best news he would ever hear in a courtroom: “Your cases are dismissed. Congratulations.”
Outside the courthouse, Garcia exhaled.
“Goodbye to my past, welcome to my future,” he said. “It’s not impossible. But it takes a lot of courage and determination.”
Gabriel Ornelas Garcia celebrates outside Santa Clara County Superior Court after he was cleared of his past convictions with help from The Record Clearance Project at San Jose State University.
Donations to The Record Clearance Project at San Jose State University will help provide legal representation, mentoring and other support to over 1,000 low-income people, primarily of color, who have been impacted by the criminal justice system and are seeking a second chance.
Goal: $50,000
SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
Shine Together
EMPOWERING YOUNG MOTHERS
By Luis Melecio-Zambrano lmeleciozambrano@bayareanewsgroup.com
In a brightly colored childcare room in the heart of Stanford University campus, 2-year-old Javier Arellano pushes a starshaped button on a plastic machine until a steel drum rendition of Brahms’ Lullaby emerges from a hidden speaker on the toy. The music mixes with the wailing of another child nearby, and the dull cacophony is punctuated by the rapid tapping of Karen Arellano’s fingers on her laptop as she studies at a nearby desk.
“Mami!” interrupts Javier in his slurred toddler’s Spanish, pointing at his next object of intrigue in a bid for his mother’s attention. “Car!” he cries.
“Sí,” she says in Spanish, looking up to check on her son. “It’s a car,” she confirms, flashing a smile laced with weary enthusiasm before turning back to her studies.
The scene is just another in the life of Arellano, a senior at Stanford who has balanced raising her son and attending an elite
university with the help of a group called Shine Together in Milpitas.
Every year, Shine Together helps up to 200 mothers between 13 and 25 navigate parenthood, life and education by connecting them to the resources they need to succeed, helping young women like Arellano and their families thrive.
“Any mom that comes through the door, we meet them where they are,” said Sara Reyes, executive director of Shine Together — or Shine, for short.
Arellano learned she was pregnant the very same day that she had to confirm her enrollment at Stanford.
When she got home, reality hit as she faced down a stark statistic that told her the odds were stacked against her — only 2% of teen mothers finish college by age 30.
“I was like, ‘I can’t let that stop me,’ ” recalled Arellano, a child of immigrant farmworkers. “My parents crossed the desert, and if they could go through that experience … I knew that I was capable of doing it.”
Karen Arellano, an undergraduate student majoring in ethnic studies, takes care of her 2-year-old son, Javier, while trying to study in the Sydney Room at the Graduate Community Center in Stanford.
Donations will help Shine Together support at least 60 young mothers and their children in San Jose as well as help pay for the staff and facilities that serve them. Goal: $25,000
SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Silicon Valley Independent Center
HOPE IN LIFESAVING TECH TOOL
By Stephanie Lam slam@bayareanewsgroup.com
Andrea Miller longs for the day when she can go somewhere safely on her own.
After all, she is 37-years-old and should be able to take her dog out for a walk, shop at a grocery store, or collect mail from the mailroom of her family’s apartment building in Milpitas without her parent’s supervision. But in the past few years, Andrea has had no choice — her parents are her lifeline.
That’s because at any given moment, Andrea’s brain can unexpectedly release a burst of electric activity that causes her to temporarily lose control over her muscles, behavior and consciousness — a phenomenon know as a seizure.
If her parents are close by, they can move any nearby people or objects out of Andrea’s way, and turn her on her side to make sure she doesn’t choke on her tongue or saliva. If her symptoms last longer than five minutes, they call 9-1-1, which is the protocol for han-
dling seizures of that length.
Last year Andrea was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS), a rare and severe form of epilepsy that affects 1% to 2% of all adults with the condition.
Even with medication and an implant in Andrea’s chest and neck that can help regulate her seizures, the Millers never know when, where or how severe Andrea’s next seizure will be — and there are usually six per month.
The unpredictability has Andrea’s father, Greg, and mother, Cathi, watching their daughter like a hawk, and Andrea herself looking for a way to maintain a sense of independence.
Fortunately, there are devices that can help. The Millers are looking to purchase an EpiMonitor, an FDA-cleared seizure monitoring app that connects to a medical watch. The watch can track Andrea’s vitals and send data to the app downloaded on her phone, which then alerts her of any impending seizures.
“With this device, I know that if I do go down, there will be somebody there to be able to offer the help necessary,” Andrea said.
Andrea Miller, of Milpitas, center, and her parents, Greg Miller and Cathi See-Miller. Andrea Miller is diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy called LennoxGastaut Syndrome. Donations will help Silicon Valley Independent Living Center establish an Assistive Technology Fund that will be used to purchase an EpiMonitor for Andrea as well as similar assistive technology equipment for 10 to 15 families who have a member with a significant disability. Goal: $15,000
DAI SUGANO — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
Sourcewise
CARING FOR THE CAREGIVERS
By Julia Prodis Sulek jsulek@bayareanewsgroup.com
Jennifer Blalack had already nursed her husband back to health after a lymphoma diagnosis and helped care for her dying mother when her elderly father — now a widower with a host of medical and mobility issues — moved into her Morgan Hill home.
Like so many Americans thrust into full-time caregiving roles for their aging parents, Blalack, 66, was committed to her 96-year-old father by love and duty. She set up a guest room with a sliding door to the garden, arranged all his doctors appointments, maintained all his prescriptions, lugged his wheelchair in and out of the car, and every evening, played crossword puzzles with him to keep his mind sharp.
But during their first few months together, she found herself overwhelmed and “in a very dark space.” Uncertain where to turn, she called 211 — the mental health and community re -
source line — and asked for help.
That’s when she learned about Sourcewise, a nonprofit that has been providing support services for seniors and their caregivers across Santa Clara County for more than 50 years. It was the start of a journey for Blalack that included not only a caregiving support group, but also an unexpected gift that came when she needed it most: 40 hours of free respite. In other words, $1,000 to hire someone else to watch her father for a week.
Across the country, more than 43 million Americans serve in unpaid caregiving roles — and, like Blalack, half of them are caring for their parents or in-laws.
“The caregiver burnout we see is just unbelievable,” said Adrianna Stankovich, supervising case manager at Sourcewise.
It’s taking a toll. Unpaid caregivers tend to have more chronic conditions than their non-caregiving peers, Stankovich said, “and it’s strictly related to the stress involved in caregiving and not taking care of yourself.”
The nonprofit Sourcewise has provided resources to help her cope with the challenges of being a caregiver for an elderly parent.
Donations to Sourcewise will help pay for respite for up to 20 unpaid caregivers.
Goal: $12,000
KARL MONDON — STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jennifer Blalack, 66, sits with her father, Hamish Scott Knight, 96, at her home where he lives in Morgan Hill.
The United Effort Organization, Inc.
HELP TO FIND A LASTING HOME
By Ethan Varian evarian@bayareanewsgroup.com
For more than four years, Angela Montoya lived in a gutted shuttle bus in suburban Mountain View.
It was better than a tent, but the converted airport bus still lacked a bathroom or running water. And to avoid getting towed, she was forced to stake out new street parking every few days.
But the hardest part, Montoya said, was stepping through the piles of trash and used needles left by fellow vehicle-dwellers, worried that neighbors may be watching from inside their multimillion-dollar homes.
“It was embarrassing because I don’t know what these people think of me,” Montoya, 61, said. “I didn’t want to be lumped into the category. I always thought of myself as better than that, and I am better than that.”
Then about a year ago, a community outreach officer with the Mountain View police department connected her with The
United Effort Organization, and the nonprofit helped her sort through stacks of paperwork to get on a list for a low-income apartment. One volunteer even took time out of her day to drive Montoya to her housing appointments.
“We just keep following up, following up, following up to make sure the client is successful,” said Claire Hubel, a United Effort co-founder.
It wasn’t long before Montoya landed a one-bedroom rental in Santa Clara, not far from her job as an usher for concerts and football games at Levi’s Stadium. Montoya and her Doberman Pinscher mix, Lacy, have now been in their new home, decorated with tapestries of her favorite animals of the African Sahara, for about six months.
She has no plans to return to the street.
“I remember a long time ago I was in rehab, and I dreamt that all I want is a dog and my own apartment,” Montoya said. “That was 30 or 40 years ago. And here I am. I got my dog in my apartment, and I am not going to lose it.”
Donations will help The United Effort Organization, Inc., support client services, including helping them with benefits applications, housing searches, job training and a variety of other human services.
Goal: $25,000
SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Angela Montoya, who spent years living in an old shuttle bus, now has an apartment near her job at Levi’s Stadium, thanks to help from volunteers with The United Effort Organization in Mountain View.
Valley Health Foundation
ON A ROLL WITH FREE BIKES
By Katie Lauer klauer@bayareanewsgroup.com
For Aaliyah Rosete, the VHFlyer 700C bicycle was more than just a shiny new pair of wheels to cruise around San Jose — it was also her first opportunity to feel the joy and freedom of the cool evening breeze blowing against her face.
She never learned to ride a bike as a child. But the 18-yearold quickly got the hang of it, surprising herself by adeptly peddling and overcoming her nerves as she practiced in a hallway at home, bracing the walls to help her stay upright.
Aaliyah and her 10-year-old brother, Emiliano, received their bikes from Evergreen Valley High School, which partnered with TurningWheels for Kids, a nonprofit organization that has purchased, assembled and fixed bikes for youth in the South Bay for two decades — all free of charge.
“The people putting the time and money to build these bikes
give kids like me a chance to take it around and do what we want,” Aaliyah said, recalling the destination of her first official bike ride: Baskin-Robbins.
Growing up, her family couldn’t afford to buy her a bike, but she never thought to learn as she got older and busier. Now “given the opportunity to just appreciate nature and take in the present moment when I go for a ride, I don’t take it for granted. I know that sounds pretty cheesy, but it’s true.”
The idea started 22 years ago with Sue Runsfold. While working as a surgical nurse at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Runsfold realized that many of her patients didn’t have a bike at home, according to Tim Schoup, a longtime TurningWheels for Kids volunteer.
“Often, these kids just needed to get more exercise for health reasons, and so she put two and two together,” Shoup said. “Organically, word got around that this crazy nurse was raising money and building bikes, and it grew and grew.”
Nathaniel Beltran, 12, checks out a just-repaired bike at TurningWheels for Kids, a program that provides free bicycles and repairs in partnership with Valley Health Foundation in San Jose. Donations to Valley Health Foundation will help the nonprofit’s TurningWheels for Kids program provide 200 bikes to underserved children to promote aerobic exercise and enable it to continue its free bike repair clinics in neighborhoods with limited resources.
Goal: $50,000
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