Dear Reader:
This month, we embark on our annual Share the Spirit campaign. Our goal is to raise awareness by sharing stories of those facing challenges, and then meet their needs and grant holiday wishes totaling $500,000 by December 31.
We’re reaching out to you, our readers, because you’ve already demonstrated your compassion for others. We know this year poses economic challenges for donors as well as recipients, but each and every donation is needed, and deeply appreciated. Would you be willing to help those in need right here in the East Bay this year?
In 2021, Share the Spirit helped more than 40,000 local individuals and families. Your donations bolstered organizations including Hijas del Campo, four working moms who help farmworkers; Rainbow Community Center, which works with youth in crisis; and Veterans Accession House, which supports homeless military veterans and so many more.
Starting on Thanksgiving Day, please read the 2022 Share the Spirit stories — crafted by reporters, editors, photographers, artists and staff who are honored to help our community. Every dollar of your donation stays here in the Bay Area. Your generosity will be acknowledged in the newspaper on a donor tribute list, if you choose.
Thank you for your generosity this holiday season!
Sincerely,
Sharon Ryan
Publisher
P.S.: Administrative fees are covered by Bay Area News Group so all of your gift goes directly to providing local help.
Seventeen-year-old Jordan Taylor, of Richmond, participates in Battle-Tested Kids, Inc., an organization that focuses on helping kids through sports activities. “It helped me take my mind off of what was going on with COVID and everything and got me living again,” Taylor says.
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Nita Simpson’s first interaction with the tall teenager who later would become one of her best basketball players did not come on a court. It came in church, and the discussion had nothing to do with the fact that Jordan Taylor was bigger than almost every kid his age.
“She noticed that he was very quiet, very much an introvert, and that he struggled to connect with others,” Jordan’s mother, Tia Taylor, said. “It wasn’t about sports or what he could do for her team. It was about his life, what could she do for him? And I just think that says so much.”
That was four years ago. Today, Jordan Taylor is an emerging basketball talent and a standout senior at De Anza High in Richmond. More important, his mom said, he has discarded some of the shell that kept others away.
“When COVID happened, I didn’t want to go out of the house. I kind of really didn’t want to do anything. It was hard,” Jordan Taylor said. “But Nita would come and get me and we’d go and we’d practice or whatever, and it just really helped me a lot. It helped me take my mind off of what was going on with COVID and everything and got me living again.”
Mom and son point to the influence of Battle-Tested Kids, Inc., and Simpson, its founder, CEO and basketball coach. The Oakland-based nonprofit organization provides sports training and mentoring for low-income youth.
“I grew up in Oakland. I grew up in the ’hood,” Simpson said. “A lot of kids were directionless. I always saw my parents work extremely hard. So I look at the work ethic and what it can do for you, even in extremely difficult circumstances. I always had the picture of hard work and being the best you can be, and that’s what I want for these kids.”
Donations will help Battle-Tested Kids, Inc. subsidize tuition for low-income participants. It will also go toward sponsoring participants in camps and paying rental fees for gym time and for equipment. The funds would serve approximately 150 youth.
Goal: $25,000
Battle-Tested Kids, Inc.
JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Jordan Taylor, 17, is a talented basketball player and standout student at De Anza High in Richmond. He credits Nita Simpson and BattleTested Kids, Inc. for drawing him out of his shell and teaching him how to connect with others.
Just a five-minute walk from Berkeley’s Downtown BART station, around a quiet corner by a local fire station, a modern but unassuming building stands six stories above the street. Inside sits the aptly named Hope Center, a new Berkeley Food and Housing Project development that will help house hundreds of people in need.
People like Michael Williams, 62, who moved to the Bay Area from Washington in 1988. He had a job, a home, a business diploma and a car. But drugs took him down a dark path, one that led to prison time for theft, a divorce and, eventually, 30 years of sleeping on the streets.
Williams stopped using drugs in 2013. To survive, he hawked the Street Spirit newspaper, returned recyclables, and every so often, tried to make people laugh.
“I would stand in front of the grocery store and say ‘Sir, can I tell you a joke in exchange for a couple of dollars?’ ” Williams said. “If people didn’t have time, I would say ‘No problem, ma’am. You have a good day and if you have a moment, please say a small prayer for Michael.’ ”
He connected last year with the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, which provides emergency food, shelter and housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. In September he moved into his own apartment in the Hope Center, which offers shelter beds, permanent supportive housing units, transitional housing beds for veterans, and on-site medical and mental health services.
“God blessed me with this place. If I want to be alone, I can just close my door. If I want to talk to someone, I just go downstairs,” Williams said. “The staff here are incredible. You can tell when someone goes to work and their heart is in it. Everyone will give you the time of day or stop to check if you’re OK. You won’t get that anywhere else. People here really need this place.”
HOWTOHELP
Donations will help the Berkeley Food and Housing Project purchase ingredients for special holiday meals and gift bags with personal necessities for more than 400 people experiencing food insecurity.
Goal: $10,000
In early 2020, as health officials throughout the Bay Area doubled down on shelter-in-place orders asking residents to stay at home to avoid spreading COVID-19, foster youth Celena Johnson reached out to her caseworker at Beyond Emancipation, a nonprofit that assists foster youth. She had a more immediate concern — avoiding homelessness.
“I was … about to be homeless,” said Johnson. “It was really extremely stressful.”
Johnson was forced to scramble for housing because she had reached an otherwise celebratory marker in a young American’s life: turning 21. For foster youth in California, this occasion corresponds with aging out of most foster care services.
At the time, Johnson was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in public health at Cal State East Bay in Hayward and had spent months applying to housing programs. But she was struggling to get a spot as demand for public housing surged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s when Beyond Emancipation stepped in. The Oakland nonprofit assists young people transitioning out of foster care or probation by providing one-on-one counseling and group workshops to sharpen practical life skills and to help these young adults secure housing and employment.
Julia Lakes, Beyond Emancipation’s director of development, said that foster youth aging out of the system would often be kicked out on the street with nothing but plastic trash bags containing their life’s possessions.
The organization’s staff helped Johnson navigate through a slog of bureaucratic paperwork to apply for a new public housing voucher program. Months later, she received notice that she had been granted a voucher, which helped her secure a one-bedroom apartment in Fremont.
“It was like a blessing from God, truly,” Johnson said. “I just needed … to be grounded and only focus on school.”
HOWTOHELP
Donations will help Beyond Emancipation pay for holiday gift cards, rent support, food and other essential support services for foster youth through the winter.
Goal: $20,000
ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Celena Johnson, who is pursuing a degree in public health at Cal State East Bay in Hayward, found herself on the cusp of homelessness when she aged out of the foster care system. With help from Beyond Emancipation, she moved into a Fremont apartment.The stereotype of a high-school classroom — kids falling asleep at their desks, or stealthily texting their friends, as a teacher drones on about calculus — is a long way from here.
A roundtable seminar that ran 20 minutes late one afternoon produced scarcely a yawn from the dozen or so teenagers assembled, their eyes locked on the instructor, their heads buzzing with ideas about civil rights, racial justice and social mobility.
The students of Centro Legal de la Raza’s Youth Law Academy, nestled in the Fruitvale neighborhood’s shopping village in Oakland, are keenly aware of how structural disadvantages — immigration barriers, food deserts, lack of voting access — can make their community feel like a world apart from neighborhoods across town.
“People who are in power only want people to vote who can afford to miss work for a day,” Jazmin Suarez, a high school senior and daughter of Mexican immigrants, offers during the peer discussion.
Centro Legal de la Raza has been defending the legal rights of immigrants, or tenants facing eviction for over five decades. The law academy was built to be a training ground for homegrown attorneys who could fight for their own community. The program offers academic and career support to low-income youth of color, starting in the sophomore year of high school and continuing through college and beyond.
Students enter a mock-trial program in their first year, a social justice-oriented education of history in their second, and then, as high-school seniors, prepare and apply for college with mentors on hand.
“When we’re talking about working with young people of color, there’s of course a history of distrust of the police, of the court system,” said Mara Chavez-Diaz, a program director at the youth law academy. “So to be able to take Oakland youth to a courtroom for the first time, not because they’re in trouble or for a relative who’s committed a crime, but they’re there to defend a case — it’s a really powerful, very empowering experience for our students.”
Centro Legal de la Raza will use the donations to support the expansion of Youth Law Academy’s wellness and mental health programming. The funds will support 30 students attending weekly after-school sessions.
Goal: $5,000
Dreams can come true. Judith Verdin can attest to that. Thanks to local nonprofit organization Civicorps, she is seeing her dream of a career in wildfire mitigation coming closer to reality.
The 27-year-old Hayward resident was placed into the inaugural Community Trainee Program at East Bay Municipal Utility District, a unique one-year pilot program that hires trainees from partnering workforce development agencies like Civicorps that serve underutilized populations.
The program provides handson training plus experience. The goal is to prepare trainees to qualify for permanent civil service jobs at EBMUD or other agencies in the water/wastewater industry, said EBMUD spokesperson Andrea Pook.
“I’m doing something I like and I am going to see how far I can go,” Verdin said. “My family is proud and happy for me and that is what matters the most.”
It’s only one example of the ways in which Civicorps helps young people find their footing. Every year, the organization helps 250 young adults aged 1826 in Alameda and Contra Costa counties earn their high school diplomas, gain job skills, pursue college, and embark on family sustaining careers, said spokeswoman Rachel Eisner.
Eisner said Civicorps is “extremely proud” of Verdin.
“She seized every opportunity presented to her,” Eisner said.
“She really became a model of the work we do.”
Donations will help Civicorps pay the salary of a lead case counselor, who provides trauma-informed counseling, conflict resolution, social services support, and case management to its participants annually.
Goal: $15,000
JANE TYSKA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Civicorps trainee Judith Verdin, 27, prunes a tree at East Bay Municipal Utility District’s Moraga Reservoir in Moraga. “I’m doing something I like, and I am going to see how far I can go,” said Verdin, who hopes to have a career in wildfire mitigation.Dozens of people stood in line on a recent crisp, fall morning for free food that St. Vincent de Paul of Contra Costa County gives away outside St. Callistus Catholic Church in El Sobrante. Many were immigrants who spoke little English, but that mattered not to volunteer Arlesa Miles, who welcomed them with a warm smile, a hug or fist bump, and set about filling their bags with exactly what they needed.
“We’ve got waffles here, sweet potatoes, pizza bites or you want some chips?” Miles asked a woman wheeling a grocery cart. “Where are your grandbabies?” she asked an older woman slowly walking past. “They’d like these (oatmeal energy balls); they have blueberries in the middle.”
Miles, once hungry herself, has made it her mission to get to know the people who come to St. Vincent de Paul for help — including several living in tents atop the steep hill behind the church. She may have little in common with the South Asians, Chinese, Latinos and others in line, but she has made a connection by learning what foods they like, what they would never eat and sharing with them in a way to make them feel special.
Since 1958, St. Vincent de Paul of Contra Costa County has provided food, shelter, rental and utility assistance, medical and dental care, transitional employment and training, auto assistance, clothing, furniture and referrals to other services.
Sometimes Miles, a U.S. Army veteran, offers advice and resources to fellow veterans in line and encourages them as she can. But that easy rapport was not always the case. Miles has suffered with anxiety, depression and PTSD, which spiraled downward after a series of challenging events.
“She is an example of how St. Vincent can make changes in people’s lives,” said Claudia Ramirez, St. Vincent de Paul executive director. “Basically, we helped her with food initially; we also helped her get in touch with some services that the veterans (administration) offers. And she is now a volunteer. It’s like we gave her a purpose.”
Donations will help St. Vincent De Paul of Contra Costa County provide $75 gift cards to 200 needy families struggling to pay for basic items — milk, diapers, fresh produce or ingredients for a holiday meal.
Goal: $15,000
St. Vincent de Paul of Contra Costa County
JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
St. Vincent de Paul volunteer Arlesa Miles, of San Pablo, sits outside St. Callistus Catholic Church in El Sobrante. The U.S. Army veteran once waited as a recipient in the same food lines where she now serves the needy with warmth and a good word.
As Kathleen Fraser sits curled up on her couch in her San Francisco apartment, describing the daily challenges of living with Type 1 diabetes, her black Labrador Ransom reaches up a paw and pats her knee.
Fraser and Ransom lock eyes, and she wonders if he’s alerting her to a sudden dip in her blood-sugar levels. From her front pocket, she pulls out her insulin pump, which is connected to a continuous glucose sensor on her arm and which displays her bloodsugar levels on a small screen. She shows Ransom that her numbers are in a safe range. “It’s OK,” she says.
Reassured, Ransom returns to his spot on the floor. But if he continued to give her “that look” and started drooling, Fraser would worry that he sensed something her device hadn’t. He was trained by the Concord nonprofit Early Alert Canines to be persistent in alerting her anytime he sniffs out chemicals in her body that signal a worrisome rise or drop in her blood-sugar.
Fraser was paired up with Ransom in 2016 by Early Alert Canines, which, since 2010, has located, trained and provided 78 medical alert dogs to adults and children who are insulin-dependent.
Clients receive the highly valuable service dogs for free, with EAC charging only for the rigorous application process and the clients’ training with their dogs. During those two weeks, EAC helps clients learn to care for their dogs, take them out in public and work with them on monitoring their conditions. Following a placement, EAC provides ongoing support and annual recertification.
In addition to this added sense of security, 8-year-old Ransom also provides companionship and “the feeling of not being alone,” said Fraser, who lives in a small apartment. “Having diabetes, because it’s invisible, it can be very isolating.”
Donations will help Early Alert Canines support training and dog care and provide supplies to volunteer families who look after the animals before they’re placed with clients.
Goal: $5,000
JANE TYSKA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Kathleen Fraser, who has Type 1 diabetes, demonstrates how her dog Ransom detects worrisome blood-sugar levels by raising his paw. Fraser became an Early Alert Canine client in August 2016 when she was given Ransom, who has provided her caring and companionship.On a partly sunny midweek afternoon, Leroy Morgan sat in his Fruitvale District apartment and greeted visitors, took a phone call from a friend’s daughter, called out a window to tell a building visitor that a friend he was looking for wasn’t in right now, and accepted a Meals on Wheels delivery.
None of these normal, everyday actions would have been possible without the help Morgan received from East Bay Innovations, which works to provide supportive services to more than 500 adults living with cognitive, developmental and medical disabilities with the goal of helping them live independently. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Leandro nonprofit worked to securely house groups of at-risk people in a region known for a severe shortage of low-income housing.
Morgan who has chronic health problems made worse by years of homelessness and poor diet, said East Bay Innovation’s counselors guided him away from insecurity and vulnerability toward shelter, health care and greater peace of mind during the very worst of the pandemic. He was housed first in the OakDays hotel, and then more permanent housing in an apartment of his own when they realized he might thrive in an independent living situation.
“Not only that, they helped me get my birth certificate,” Morgan said.
Ondrea Doss, an aid worker visiting Morgan at his apartment on a recent day, praised his volubility, energy and resilience.
“He’s had a lot of challenges, had to evict his neighbor or his roommates. You know, just come up with payment plans for past bills and things like that,” she said. “And you know, he’s always open to hearing it, and ready to make those changes if necessary. I would say he’s just a really good client.”
HOWTOHELP
Donations will help East Bay Innovations purchase basic emergency items and supplies for more than 175 OakDays facility residents’ medical needs, including oxygen, evacuation chairs and mobility aids, client- and diet-specific food supplies, go-kits, battery packs and chargers.
Goal: $15,000
When Geo Dinoso travels around in his role as program coordinator for the Food Bank of Solano and Contra Costa, distributing food to hundreds of people in need, it’s easy for him to appreciate how, as a young man, he was on the other side of the line.
Dinoso benefited from a reduced lunch program as a child, and from a pantry program for students with food insecurity at San Jose State University. He understands how the guilt that comes with food insecurity can keep people in need from seeking help.
“I felt shame saying, in my mind, ‘All these people in line, are they suffering more than I am? Am I taking food away from someone who deserves it more than I do?’ ” Dinoso recalls. But he said the welcoming staff helped him overcome the guilt. “I was able to transform that shame that just consumed me and it made me feel accepted.”
Today, Dinoso and other food bank staffers like him have their hands full. Dinoso helps schedule and distribute food dozens of times each month for an organization that serves an estimated 275,000 people every 30 days, roughly 25 percent of whom are children.
The food bank has a paid staff base and approximately 6,000 people volunteer annually, donating 98,000 hours of their time. The nonprofit relies heavily on employers, donated food, and agreements with local grocery stores that allow them to pick up food for free or at reduced prices.
The demand for food has skyrocketed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and recent inflation has only made things worse. A recent Census Bureau survey says 25 million adult Americans reported not having enough to eat, and over the past year prices for certain foods have increased 10% or more across the nation.
“Some months have been more than 300,000 people,” said Cassidie Bates, public affairs manager for the food bank. “We anticipate this need to be there for at least three to five years.”
HOWTOHELPDonations will help the Food Bank of Solano and Contra Costa obtain, transport and distribute food to thousands of people monthly through direct service programs, providing about two meals for every dollar contributed. Goal: $10,000
Food Bank of Solano and Contra Costa JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Geo Dinoso, a distribution coordinator for Food Bank of Solano and Contra Costa, interviews a client waiting to pick up a food donation in Richmond. Dinoso benefited from food programs as a child and a college student. “I was able to transform that shame,” he says.“Mork & Mindy” played a big role in igniting Jarod Lyke’s passion for acting.
His grandfather introduced him to the famous ABC sitcom, which made its debut in 1978 — several decades before Lyke was born. He was immediately taken with legendary Bay Area comedian Robin Williams, who played Mork from Ork in the series.
“He was my introduction into, I guess you could say, wacky acting,” says the 22-year-old Crockett native.
Now Lyke, who is on the autism spectrum and has ADD, is pursuing his dream of an acting career with the help of Futures Explored, the Bay Area nonprofit that works to create equitable access to programs, support and advocacy for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Lyke is one of 45 students enrolled in the organization’s Film and Media Studios site in Livermore. The program, which offers both classroom curriculum and hands-on educational training to prepare people for vocational opportunities in TV, film and other forms of media and entertainment, also has locations in Stockton and Sacramento.
“All together, we are supporting over 100 students to fulfill their goals in film and media,” said Hester Wagner, director of media services for Futures Explored.
About 25 percent of the participants go on to get work in the industry — mostly gig work, from one-day jobs to longer stints.
“We’ve had a few students get some pretty awesome opportunities,” Wagner says. “We’re looking to network and grow and make more connections. Right now, it’s kind of the precipice of the disability movement in representation in film and media. There are a lot of production companies now that are mandated to be more inclusive in their hiring. We’ve been kind of at the forefront of that for the last decade and really helping (move) that needle to be more inclusive.”
HOWTOHELP
Futures Explored will use donations to help students pursue their ambitions in film and media. The funds will go toward new equipment and instructor training for the program.
Goal: $10,000
Elsa Hernandez’ brown eyes are luminous as her thoughts turn to the possibilities that beckon now that she has a green card.
Cradling her newborn son, the 24-year-old Pittsburg woman recalls her high school aspirations of becoming an FBI agent, a goal she had to abandon when she realized that U.S. citizenship is a prerequisite.
After four years of trying to get her papers in order, the window of opportunity finally widened this year.
Hernandez owes her shot at the American dream to the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that provides immigrants with free and low-cost legal help.
“Now … I have higher hopes,” said the mother of two, who has been working as a medical assistant but is thinking about nursing school, and after that, perhaps a master’s degree to become a nurse practitioner.
With offices in seven cities from Napa to Brentwood and Redwood City, IIBA touts itself as the largest provider of immigration legal services in Northern California, with clients representing a dizzying array of countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Last year, the organization submitted applications to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of 2,828 clients; this year it had held 3,646 consultations with prospective clients and opened 2,855 cases as of October.
Two of IIBA’s most common services are for people wanting to become naturalized citizens and individuals seeking to apply for a green card on behalf of a relative. And then there are those, like Hernandez, who lacked the proper papers when they came to the United States as children and are seeking protection against deportation and the work permit that’s provided under the 10-year-old federal policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
“With DACA you feel a little safe because you don’t always have to be looking behind you, but having my green card, I have an official status here — a step closer to becoming a citizen.”
Donations will help Immigration Institute of the Bay Area pay salaries without dipping into reserves after an unexpected loss of revenue from a local foundation that had been funding the nonprofit for more than a decade.
Goal: $25,000
Immigration Institute of the Bay Area
RAY CHAVEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Victor Hernandez, left, hands newborn Ezekiel to his wife, Elsa, during mealtime at their Pittsburg home. With the help of the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, Elsa got her green card, opening up opportunities for citizenship and more education.
Ms. EMaia recalls how she burst into tears when she witnessed a judge’s ruling over a guardianship fight that had become a daily ordeal for her.
The 68-year-old Oakland resident had been battling for about a year to gain guardianship over her grandson, a legal struggle she would have been ill-equipped to wage had it not been for the advice, combativeness and professionalism of Legal Assistance for Seniors.
EMaia (who goes only by one name) said she tried one law firm after another to see if they would help her establish guardianship. Complicating matters, the effort began during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. The result was weeks of utter futility.
“I couldn’t get anybody to respond to me,” she said. “We were in the middle of COVID at the time, so that made it worse. It was very hard to even get someone to phone back.”
By happy chance, a Google search brought EMaia to a nonprofit with a straightforward name: Legal Assistance for Seniors.
“Legal Assistance for Seniors was amazing,” EMaia said. “They responded right away. They first had to intake my case and see if I qualified for their assistance. The next day they assured me they could take my case.”
The organization was launched by Willie James, Jane Welch and Doka Clausen in 1976, providing legal services to seniors from a storefront office in downtown Oakland. Over the years, the nonprofit organization began to steadily widen its portfolio of free legal offerings for seniors in Alameda County. It now handles cases linked to elder abuse, guardianship of minor children, public benefits, health law, legal services for immigrants, conservatorship and housing.
“These kinds of cases are a lot of work for an individual to do,” said Kristen Boney, a supervising attorney with Legal Assistance for Seniors, of guardianship cases. “You have the complexity of the paperwork. And going to court can be very intimidating.”
HOWTOHELP
Donations will help Legal Assistance for Seniors provide individual legal services and community education programs to 500 people.
It only took minutes for Marvin Saravia to go from budding entrepreneur to unemployed handyman.
What began as a quick errand inside a Concord Home Depot store in September 2021 ended when he emerged to find nearly every tool in his truck — the lifeblood of his humble handyman business — stolen. All he could do was stand in shock and think, “I’m just going to give up.”
“I was hopeless,” said Saravia, who spent the next several months unable to work.
That is, until the nonprofit Monument Impact stepped in. Using a grant program to help small businesses — particularly those run by immigrants living on poverty’s edge — the Contra Costa County-based organization cut Saravia a check to begin restocking his tool chest. The nonprofit wants to expand that program, all while continuing its mission of helping low-income residents prosper in the Bay Area despite high housing costs and difficult language barriers.
For Saravia, that single, $1,500 grant helped him remain in business and off unemployment.
His business was among 13 last year to receive grants from the nonprofit. The organization also provides reimbursements for certain business fees, which can prove a challenge to companies getting off the ground.
Monument Impact’s roots date back more than two decades, when it largely focused on providing day labor opportunities to immigrants. The nonprofit often serves more than 10,000 low-income people each year, the majority immigrants and refugees, often from Central America or Mexico. Many also come from wartorn countries halfway across the world, including Afghanistan and — more recently — Ukraine.
“We want to help them establish small business — whatever they feel they could succeed in, we want to be able to help them,” said Judith Ortiz, Monument Impact’s executive director. “A lot of them already have ideas — they already know what they want to do. They just need a little push to get started.”
HOWTOHELPDonations will help Monument Impact boost its day labor program and Emerging Business Support Program that it started last year.
Goal: $10,000
ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Handyman Marvin Saravia assembles a shelf at Ygnacio Valley Presbyterian Church in Concord. When all his tools were stolen, the entrepreneur got a grant from Monument Impact to replace them — and preserve his livelihood.
Sherie Williams was working a job she loved and approaching the home stretch of parenthood, with two preteens and a 19-year-old, when her life was turned completely upside down.
Her sister, who was going through a rough patch, could no longer take care of her own children, and Williams felt like she had no choice but to step up and adopt her two little nieces. So she quit her job of 11 years as a security guard at Wells Fargo to take care of the girls. Three years later, her sister had a son, and Williams adopted him too.
It wasn’t how Williams pictured her life turning out. Just as she should be preparing to become an emptynester, she instead is now 45 and raising 3-year-old Shawn, 7-year-old Renyce and 9-year-old Makalah as a single mom.
It might have been impossible if it weren’t for one organization: Saint Vincent’s Day Home. The West Oakland daycare, preschool and kindergarten offers affordable care and education for low-income children while their parents work or search for jobs.
To Williams, Saint Vincent’s is an oasis of stability in what could easily become a chaotic life.
“I know that my baby’s in a really good environment,” Williams said of Shawn, who is in the “dragonfly” class at Saint Vincent’s. “I leave him in good hands and I feel good and I have no worries.”
For the past 111 years, Saint Vincent’s has been serving Alameda County parents who can’t afford the exorbitant cost of private childcare. The center’s 133 kids ages 2 to 6 spend their days playing, listening to story time, napping and learning numbers and letters — but they also get a nutritious breakfast and lunch each day.
Saint Vincent’s stopped charging families during the pandemic, and doesn’t expect to start again until at least July 2023. There are more than 100 kids on the center’s waitlist.
Donations will allow Saint Vincent’s to give the families of 200 children a $50 gift card, to augment donated toys and books, to help families buy winter clothes, food, or other necessities during the holidays.
Goal: $10,000
Majorie Ritchie is 98 years old and perfectly willing to share the secret to her longevity.
“I am so attached to this house — that’s the reason I’m still here,” Ritchie said. “I don’t want to leave it.”
The house, in the Fremont Terrace neighborhood of San Leandro, has been her home for 75 years. But Ritchie isn’t shy about admitting that her advanced years have added difficulties to still be able to stay there. She stopped driving around 2010 and she hasn’t been able to cook for about five years.
It was then that Service Opportunities for Seniors Meals on Wheels (SOSMOW) stepped in.
“I don’t know what I’d do without Meals on Wheels,” Ritchie said.
Service Opportunities for Seniors Meals on Wheels started in 1966 in Hayward and has expanded north over the years to serve San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, San Leandro and Oakland. Whatever the place, the objective remains the same.
“The overarching mission is to keep people in the homes that they enjoy for as long and as safely as possible,” said Dan Ashbrook, the nonprofit’s development director.
Ritchie said she gets around 15 meals a month from Meals on Wheels, all delivered directly to her door. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for meal deliveries to fellow seniors has exploded, and the organization has struggled to keep up.
SOSMOW served more than 550,000 meals last year, up from 350,000 meals two years ago. At the same time, the organization is dealing with the same staffing and supply-chain issues so many other businesses are facing.
Ashbrook remembers being warned on Friday, March 13, 2020, about the pandemic lockdown that was about to come — and the added reliance so many would have on SOSMOW.
“That next week, our phone lines doubled,” Ashbrook said. “The phone lines just went off the hook.”
Donations to SOS Meals on Wheels will help pay for special meals for Thanksgiving, Christmas and other cultural holiday celebrations, and also help the nonprofit continue to connect with members of their community and help the seniors keep connected.
Goal: $15,500
JANE TYSKA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Meals on Wheels development associate Tessa Baxter, left, delivers a meal to Marjorie Ritchie, 98, of San Leandro. “I don’t know what I’d do without Meals on Wheels,” says Ritchie, who receives food about 15 times a month from the organization.Jimmy Burris never thought he’d be homeless. A cascade of bad decisions mixed with bad luck meant he became one of thousands of people who live on the streets, unable to look any farther than surviving for another day.
The Antioch native spent a short time in the military before being booted out. He married, had six children and traveled around, but after returning to Antioch to help his ailing mother, he found himself living in his car.
Burris spent his time wandering from one handout to another, until he met Ken Rickner, who was offering more than a weekly sermon and meal. With a towel and some soap, Rickner and ShowerHouse Ministries gave him back his dignity.
“A shower doesn’t mean a lot to a lot of people, but it does to me,” he says. “Being clean means a lot. It makes me feel like I’m worth something.”
Rickner, who has experienced homelessness himself, started ShowerHouse Ministries in 2018, offering showers, food, clean clothing and a message of faith to a growing flock. Rickner fully believes he was called by God to create the ministry, but it started with a simple idea.
While he was living on the streets, the one thing Rickner says he desired more than anything was to wash away the grime of that life, to have people see him not as this dirty creature grubbing on the streets, but as a human being. He wanted to wash his body and hair, change his clothes and not have to smell his own stink. He wanted to be clean.
Those in need of a shower, food, spirituality or just a place to be, show up at midday every Saturday.
“We see people who look like they just crawled out from under a rock,” Rickner says. “They get a hot shower, get a hot meal, and they come out looking like brand new person. They’re all smiles, even if it’s just for that afternoon.”
Donations will help ShowerHouse Ministries pay for operating the showers, supplying items for hygiene kits and clean clothes, purchasing food and putting gas in the truck and filling propane tanks for hot water and cooking.
Goal: $7,000
Della Dixon had always felt out of place, as if she didn’t belong. Growing up developmentally disabled in an abusive household and then bouncing in and out of the foster care system can have that effect on a person.
From physical abuse leading to her deafness as a small child, to living on her own at 16, to raising three daughters by herself after a troubled marriage dissolved, life has thrown a lot Dixon’s way.
“I’ve had a tremendously hard life,” Dixon said recently through an American Sign Language interpreter. “But I’m a survivor.”
More than merely surviving, Dixon, 56, is thriving in her new one-bedroom home at Sunflower Hill, an organization that helps adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as autism, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and other chromosomal differences live independently.
“She’s a very, very special lady who hasn’t had an easy life, and honestly, she’s very inspiring,” said Pamela Zielske, the advancement director for the nonprofit Sunflower Hill.
Dixon’s face clearly conveys what her muffled words and rudimentary signing sometimes can’t. Traces of past pain and struggles are often obscured by a smile so big it pushes her eyeglasses upward.
Asked about living in one of the 30 affordable rental units at Sunflower Hill at Irby Ranch in Pleasanton, she is ecstatic. “I love it! I love it!” she said through the interpreter. “There’s nothing that feels wrong here.”
Unlike other assisted public housing Dixon has lived in over the years, idyllic Irby Ranch offers a safe environment for her and her 12-year-old Chihuahua named Dumpling, Residents can learn about cooking, painting and even sign language. Dixon specializes in all three programs and works to share her expertise with others.
Donations will help Sunflower Hill provide programming and activities at Irby Ranch to help intellectually or developmentally disabled adults develop skills for independent living.
Goal: $7,500
Sunflower Hill
ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
“I’ve had a tremendously hard life. But I’m a survivor,” says Della Dixon, left, speaking through an American Sign Language interpreter. Living at the Irby Ranch community in Pleasanton, she also has thrived. Here she works on an art project with her friend Jennifer Crandall.
It has been a whirlwind few years for Jessie Kohgadai. In January 2020, she had an unfulfilling desk job in Oakland. So she quit and found temporary work at Walgreens, unsure of where life would take her. Then the U.S. Navy called.
Kohgadai is a reservist and in May 2020, when the Navy needed a skilled hand to fix submarines she jumped at the opportunity, hauling her husband to Washington state just months after they tied the knot. After a 15-month stint keeping submarines afloat, Kohgadai didn’t know where her career path was heading, but she knew it would no longer be behind a desk.
“We were coming home with no job and no place to live,” said Kohgadai. “We ended up moving in with my in-laws. It was wild . . . Between August and March, I was just trying to find work and I was selling flowers. I did an accounting gig.”
That’s when Kohgadai connected with Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco nonprofit that helps struggling veterans find everything from housing to employment and legal support. The organization placed Kohgadai in a 10-week training program with PG&E called PowerPathway, with the goal of becoming a gas utility inspector.
“It’s very intense. It is like a semester in a master’s or undergraduate degree,” said Justin Real, the PowerPathway Program Manager. “This is an occasion where an A-minus doesn’t pass.”
While the coursework is demanding, one of the toughest parts is the training is unpaid, leaving financially strapped veterans scrambling to juggle their families and dwindling savings. Swords to Plowshares provided students with hundreds of dollars in gas and food stipends helping to defray costs, and paid for hotel rooms for some veterans who lived hours away.
“We’ve had students that are really on the verge of being homeless, if not homeless,” said Real. Without Swords to Plowshares, “we would be nowhere near as successful.”
HOWTOHELP
Donations will help Swords to Plowshares support veterans with emergency housing, food, gas vouchers and hygiene items.
It was one thing after another. Lea Esqueda had two little mouths to feed along with her aging mother, when she lost her job.
Esqueda found brief refuge at her aunt’s house until her sudden passing. Unable to keep up with the utility bills, the electricity was shut off and PG&E told her it wasn’t safe to stay.
She was offered a spot in a homeless shelter, a big room with other families. There were only so many beds, so her family slept on the floor.
“It all happened so fast,” Esqueda said. “It’s kind of hard to look for a job when you’re trying to figure out where, you know, you’re going to live.” Knowing in her heart that her children and her mother deserved better, she called 211. She was connected with Bill Shaw, executive director of Winter Nights Family Shelter. That same night, they were taken in.
“I owe them everything, we wouldn’t have survived without them,” Esqueda said.
Esqueda and her family rotated every two weeks to a new location at a partnering faith community or church. The organization offered her kids tutoring, rides to school, a sense of security and dignity. They drove her mother to dialysis appointments while Esqueda worked with a life coach to come up with a game plan and secure a job.
After five months, Esqueda got a job as a paralegal at a Walnut Creek law firm and soon after was able to afford a place of her own.
The concept of Winter Nights began 19 years ago as the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County responded to a growing need for resources for homeless families and seniors. Money raised by the nonprofit also helps pay for items such as driver license fees, car registration, or security deposit for a new apartment, said Ann Lawrence, treasurer for Winter Nights.
“We believe this is really critical; a little bit of financial help makes such a big difference,” she said.
Winter Nights Family Shelter will use donations to help families move into permanent housing by covering rental deposits, and pay for motel stays for families sleeping in vehicles.
Goal: $20,000
RAY CHAVEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Lea Esqueda, her children and her mother got help from Winter Nights Family Shelter in 2019 when a series of life crises suddenly left them homeless. “I owe them everything. We wouldn’t have survived without them,” says Esqueda, who works as a paralegal.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jessica Madrid and her daughter, now 6, lived out of a car, in motels and anywhere else they could find. Both of Madrid’s parents and the father of her daughter are deceased.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of things in my life,” Madrid said, “and that left me homeless.”
Madrid found stability in a homeless family shelter facility run by SHELTER Inc., a foundation she needed to help her get back on her feet and into a residence of her own.
SHELTER Inc. provides support for struggling families and individuals in Contra Costa, Solano and Sacramento counties, providing shelter and assistance to prevent homelessness and help people become self-sufficient and find more permanent housing. Last year, its programs served more than 3,700 individuals representing 2,200 families in three counties. Of those, 32% were children, 10% were seniors and 7% were veterans.
Mountain View Family Shelter exclusively provides a safe, stable place to stay, along with food, transportation and onsite services, for homeless families that have at least one child under 18. It is open around the clock, 7 days a week.
Those who are accepted into the shelter are guaranteed a stay of at least 90 days. After that, residents who can show they are working on setting goals and making progress are given 30-day extensions, said case manager Victoria Houchins. Most residents stay between six months to a year, she said.
“Sometimes, people go through struggles in life and don’t have families and friends who can help them,” Houchins said. “SHELTER Inc. can give them a second chance to start over and do it on their own.”
After two years in the shelter, Madrid and her daughter moved into an apartment in August.
“People go through things,” Madrid said. “Even if it takes a long time to get back on your feet, you can still get back on your feet eventually.”
HOWTOHELPSHELTER Inc. will use donations at its Mountain View Family Shelter in Martinez to help with the cost of housing operations, food, client needs and supplies for one month.
Goal: $20,000
Everyone deserves joy this time of year. Help spread the love this holiday season with a gift to Share the Spirit.
Contributions are a vital part of the economy.
Inflation, pandemic recovery, isolation. Yes, life is still difficult as we cope with economic and COVID-19 related issues, but remembering we’re all in this together can help us feel more connected to others.
Every request from Share the Spirit comes from people you might see on a bus, at the store or at a neighborhood event. A community is stronger when everyone has what they need to thrive. Your donation helps create stable and improved vital programs.
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One of the most wondrous things in the world is to make others smile. You have the power to light up your community. And for that, we thank you. TO DONATE Please visit sharethespiriteastbay.org or send a check to Share the Spirit at Share the Spirit, P.O. Box 3491, Walnut Creek, CA 94598.
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