2022: The Mercury News Wish Book Publication

Name (Please print): Address: Phone: City, state and ZIP code Email: ( ) Specific wish

WELCOME TO WISH BOOK 2022

Dear Reader:

This month, we embark on our annual Wish Book campaign. Our goal is to raise awareness by sharing stories of those facing challenges, and then meet their needs and grant holiday wishes totaling $850,000 by December 31.

❑ ❑ ❑

PAYMENT

Person or group in need Person or group in need $

WISH TO BE FULFILLED $ Specific wish $ General donation

Total (tax deductible): $

❑ Check (payable to: Wish Book Fund) ❑ Credit card

Please do not send cash

CC#: CVC:

Signature: Exp.:

Mail gift to: The Mercury News Wish Book PO Box 909 San Jose, CA 95106

Tax-deductible gifts of any amount are welcome. Tax ID 77-0229665

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 South Bay this year?

Name (Please print): Address: Phone: City, state and ZIP code Email: ( ) Specific wish

To donate online visit: wishbook.mercurynews.com Scan to give now

For questions, DAF or stock gifts, charitable bequests: 925-655-8355

wishbook@ bayareanewsgroup.com

Thank you!

❑ ❑ ❑

Person or group in need Person or group in need $

WISH TO BE FULFILLED $ Specific wish $ General donation

Total (tax deductible): $

PAYMENT

❑ Check (payable to: Wish Book Fund) ❑ Credit card

Please do not send cash

In 2021, Wish Book helped more than 56,000 local individuals and families. Your donations bolstered organizations including First Place for Youth, providing young people who grew up in foster care with safe, stable housing; helped Leonora Martinez, a client of the Ecumenical Hunger Program, make her home handicapped accessible and safe for her son; and the Park-It Market mobile food pantry program at Anderson Elementary School, and so many more.

Starting on Thanksgiving Day, please read the 2022 Wish Book 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.

Signature: Exp.:

Mail gift to: The Mercury News Wish Book PO Box 909 San Jose, CA 95106

Your secure and tax-deductible donation can be made online at wishbook.mercurynews.com/donate or checks can be made out to “Wish Book Fund” and mailed to Wish Book, P.O. Box 909, San Jose, CA 95106.

Thank you for your generosity this holiday season!

Sincerely, Sharon Ryan Publisher

any amount are welcome. Tax ID 77-0229665 ❑ ❑ Include a tribute to a person or group May we include your name on published donor list? ❑ Yes ❑ No

In honor of ❑ In memory of OR

P.S.: Administrative fees are covered by Bay Area News Group so all of your gift goes directly to providing local help.

ON THE COVER

For questions, DAF or stock gifts, charitable bequests: 925-655-8355

To donate online visit: wishbook.mercurynews.com Scan to give now wishbook@ bayareanewsgroup.com

Collin Jackowski, a 13-year-old with cerebral palsy, enjoys listening to classical music at his San Jose home with his mother, Julie, right, and Coastal Kids registered nurse Heather Trail. Read their story on page 4.

CC#: CVC: Thank you!

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

People Assisting the Homeless

THEIR HOME SWEET HOME

By Gabriel Greschler >> ggreschler@bayareanewsgroup.com

When Rose Barajas celebrated her daughter’s fourth birthday last year, she desperately wanted to hide a secret.

They were living in a homeless shelter in San Jose at the time and Barajas didn’t want people to know. So she held the child’s party at a restaurant.

“That way, if people could come, they wouldn’t see that I’m not housed,” she said, sitting beside her daughter who shares the same name. “That was very stressful. I was afraid.”

But a year later, much has changed. Barajas is now living in a house in San Jose through the help of PATH, a statewide nonprofit that works directly with local unhoused populations with the goal of ultimately finding them a permanent home.

But more importantly for little Rose, she celebrated her fifth birthday in October at home with friends, a bundle of brightly colored pink and blue balloons and a bouncy house that she was still playing with a day after her party.

“We’re finally here,” said Barajas, 42, watching her daughter jumping up and down with a smile. “We finally made it.”

The Barajas’ journey — from the instability of living on the streets to a bedroom, kitchen and mailbox they can call their own — is a testament to the power of PATH’s persistence in finding a way to crack the state’s seemingly intractable issue of homelessness. Established in 1983, PATH — People Assisting the Homeless — is connected with roughly 700 unhoused residents within the Silicon Valley area.

“It gave me that physical break that I needed, as well as mental, because I was so long on the run and on the go,” said Barajas.

After years of homelessness, Rose Barajas was able to celebrate her daughter Rose’s fifth birthday in their own one-bedroom apartment in San Jose with the help of PATH, a nonprofit dedicated to finding homes for the unhoused.

PATH is seeking donations to help clients rebuild their lives and pay for housing security deposits, clothing, shoes, cleaning supplies and other essential items.

Goal: $15,000

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

MEETING MEDICAL NEEDS

By Jim Harrington >> jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com

Thirteen-year-old Collin Jackowski usually lights up when he hears music.

Yet on one scary day in February, even one of his favorite country artists couldn’t bring a smile to the face of the San Jose boy. That’s when his shift nurse Heather Trail knew something was wrong.

“He really enjoyed listening to Merle Haggard,” says Trail. “So, when we noticed that he wasn’t really responding (to the music) I helped the parents take him into the hospital.”

It turned out to be an urgent medical situation for Jackowski, who suffers from a severe form of cerebral palsy known as spastic quadriplegia (which means it affects all four of his limbs). And Trail’s ability to spot the situation early on — due to both her training and familiarity with the situation — may just have saved

Collin’s life.

“Even though he is nonverbal, he does smile and laugh and has his own way of communicating,” says Trail. “He’s just a very bright and happy kid.”

Trail came to the Jackowski family through the Salinas-based Coastal Kids Home Care, a nonprofit organization that works to meet the needs of medically fragile children in the comfort of their own homes.

Coastal Kids has been nothing short of a game-changer for Collin’s family, who say that the organization’s responsiveness and attentiveness really set it apart from many other agencies.

“I think it was so easy, when we had other providers, to feel marginalized,” says Collin’s mom, Julie Jackowski. But with Coastal Kids it’s been different.

“If one person steps away from the case, you don’t feel ghosted,” she says. “And I would say we’ve very much felt ghosted with other providers.”

Coastal Kids registered nurse Heather Trail helps 13-year-old cerebral palsy patient Collin Jackowski get comfortable as Collin’s father, Matt, looks on from the doorway to the bedroom at their San Jose home.

Donations will help Coastal Kids Home Care improve inhome medical care for 350 children with complex medical needs, including those with cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, congenital and other rare diseases.

Goal: $50,000

HOWTOHELP

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

OFFERING A LIFT

By Jason Green >> jason.green@bayareanewsgroup.com

Seventy-five-year-old Lillian Squiers no longer drives and macular degeneration robbed her 74-year-old husband Larry of his ability to pilot a car years ago. They had nowhere to turn for transportation. Until they found Sourcewise — a nonprofit in Santa Clara County that offers free rides to medical appointments for adults 60 years old or disabled.

“I don’t know what we would do without them,” Larry said during an interview at the couple’s apartment in Gilroy.

The couple estimated they use the service two to three times a month. Lillian described the drivers as “very friendly, caring and understanding.”

But funding for the vital service is running thin.

Sourcewise added the medical appointment rides to its existing transit service program during the pandemic. South County Services Director Rosie Jimenez said the agency formed a partnership with Morgan Hill Taxi and used Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding to help cover the cost of more than 650 rides between July 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022.

“Morgan Hill Taxi has been a great partner,” Jimenez said. “They know why we’re doing it and they give us a discounted rate.”

Lillian Squiers, 75, of Gilroy, and her husband, Larry, use Sourcewise for medical transportation several times a month.

“I don’t know what we would do without them,” Larry says.

Donations will help Sourcewise pay for roundtrip rides for seniors in Morgan Hill, Gillroy or San Martin with Morgan Hill Taxi, and will coordinate rides for those seniors who need transportation to medical appointments in northern Santa Clara County.

Goal: $10,000

www.pacificclinics.org

@pacificclinics

SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley

HELPING HAND FOR REFUGEES

By Julia Prodis Sulek >> jsulek@bayareanewsgroup.com

The frantic call came in on a Thursday afternoon. The mother with the thick accent had recently fled Ukraine with her two young boys and wound up in San Jose with no one to turn to.

“I have no food,” she said. “I have no money.”

Michelle Lee understood the desperation. As the director of refugee resettlement at Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley, she and her colleagues had heard it in the pleas of hundreds of Afghan refugees who fled when the Taliban took over more than a year ago, and from nearly 50 Ukrainian families searching for safety since Russia invaded their country in February.

“Come in,” Lee reassured her. “Let’s see what we can do for you.”

Like so many Ukrainian refugees, Mariana Garmash, 37, and

her boys were “trapped in the gap,” refugees without refugee status, unable to qualify for certain federal services, and — with her husband back in Ukraine helping the war effort — terrified in a country she didn’t know.

As the war rages on, the agency is expecting to serve more than 250 Ukrainian families in the coming months.

“They come here with a backpack on their back with their most valuables, pictures of their families,” Lee said. “I’ve seen children that have come into our office that are scared to go to the bathroom by themselves because there may be a bomb that goes off.”

Mindy Berkowitz, CEO of Jewish Family Services, too, has seen it all.

“So we handle each newcomer with care and give them the best possible start in life so that they can turn around and be self-sufficient — that they can turn around and help other people. And that’s what they all do.”

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

It’s been a struggle for Ukrainian refugee Mariana Garmash, 37, who fled her home country with her sons Vladyslav, 10, right, and Dariy, 2. Her husband remains in Ukraine helping the war effort.

HOWTOHELP

Jewish Family Services is seeking donations to help pay for food, gas, bus passes, household goods, clothes and housing subsidies for up to 250 very low income refugees as well as to provide other services to help these families gain self-sufficiency.

CLOTHED IN KINDNESS

By Brittany Delay >> bdelay@bayareanewsgroup.com

Nyla Dowden sits with her fussing newborn, Casilda, cradled against her shoulder.

There’s no shortage of needs when it comes to newborns. They need onesies, diapers, cribs and more. But with Casilda’s unexpected arrival a full five weeks before her due date, there was a shortage of time to prepare.

Thankfully, Loved Twice, a charity that repurposes baby clothes to give families in need, stepped in and gave Dowden’s family more than 30 items for tiny Casilda.

“There was a lot of small clothing I just couldn’t have prepared for since she was so early,” says Dowden, 41, pausing to answer in between Casilda’s soft cries. “It was all very much needed.”

Dowden and Casilda aren’t the only ones who have benefited

from the work being done at Loved Twice. To date, the Oakland-based nonprofit has provided 32,575 newborns with a full year’s worth of baby clothes, worth more than $8.5 million.

The idea was born in 2005, as founder Lisa Klein watched news coverage of Hurricane Katrina as it hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

“I was watching it on CNN,” she says. “There were all these displaced families at the Superdome, and they had absolutely nothing.”

Klein emailed her new moms group and asked the 15 or so new mothers to drop off any old baby clothes they had.

“I told them, I’m collecting clothes, and I went to bed,” she says. “The next day, there’s 100 pounds of clothes on my porch, which is a lot of clothes if you think about how little a onesie is.”

Nyla Dowden, of East Palo Alto, adjusts her daughter Casilda’s clothes that were donated by Loved Twice. The baby’s premature birth left Nyla unprepared with essentials. “It was all very much needed,” she says.

Wish Book donations will allow Loved Twice to provide 400 boxes of baby clothes to 500 newborns in need in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Goal: $20,000

SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Hearts & Minds Activity Center

LIVING WITH DEMENTIA

By Aldo Toledo >> atoledo@bayareanewsgroup.com

“They’re coming for me! They’re going to kill me!”

Frantically, Minerva Aguilan ran to her daughter Myra Tanting in the wee hours of this particular morning screaming, as she had done so many times before.

Aguilan would say people outside her window were warning her they were going to kill her, and describe how she saw and heard violent things she couldn’t explain. She felt monitored, watched and crazy.

She demanded her windows stay closed and that something be done about “these people.” She called the police multiple times, EMT’s too. She begged for help. She felt a fear she’d never known before.

But Tanting knew no one was in the window, no one said they were going to kill her 80-year-old mother, and no one was watch-

ing, just as there weren’t the other times this happened. After losing sleep and calming her mother down time and time again at their San Jose home, Tanting knew something wasn’t right.

“First I thought she was just dreaming,” Tanting said. “It’s like in the horror movies, where the child says they saw something and you just brush it off. But it kept happening. That’s when I realized something was wrong with my mom.”

Then in February 2022, Aguilan was diagnosed with dementia.

She turned to Hearts & Minds Activity Center — a San Jose clinic specializing in caring for dementia patients and caregivers. And, the love and care she received there truly helped her, she said.

“February was when I heard one of the most difficult things in my life,” Aguilan said of the diagnosis. “But February was also when I started to feel happy again. I remember feeling so scared, so depressed, and so alone. Now I’m taken care of.”

Minerva Aguilan, 80, with her daughter Myra Tanting at the Hearts & Minds Activity Center in San Jose. “I remember feeling so scared, so depressed, and so alone. Now I’m taken care of,” says Aguilan, who has dementia.

Hearts & Minds Activity Center is seeking donations to provide 300 days of adult social day care and caregiver respite services for their lowest and most economically vulnerable clients who suffer from dementia.

Goal: $35,000

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Friends for Youth

CHANGING YOUNG LIVES

By Aldo Toledo >> atoledo@bayareanewsgroup.com

Growing up, Juan Cuevas didn’t have many dreams or aspirations.

Like many other immigrant children who come from poverty, Cuevas could see how his family lived day to day, week to week, year to year.

It just wasn’t in his nature or upbringing to think long-term. So when asked that proverbial question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” as a child, Cuevas lied.

“I made something up,” he said. “All I knew was I didn’t want to be a gardener like my dad, but I never had any goals, never had any dreams like that.”

In middle school, Cuevas struggled with grades. And, his parents, who didn’t have much schooling themselves, couldn’t help him. A shy kid, he struggled to make friends, and isolated him-

self socially, not being able to participate in sports, extra-curriculars and other outside-of-school activities all his peers excelled at. He knew not to even ask his parents, he already knew the answer — they didn’t have any money.

But one day everything changed for Cuevas. On an off chance, in the hallway at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Redwood City, he was approached by a friend boasting about all these new things he got to do with his new “mentor” through a program called Friends for Youth.

Going to the movies? Kayaking? Camping? Making friends? It all sounded like exactly what he’d been missing.

“He told me all the things he would do, that he would get one-on-one help and talks,” Cuevas said. “I said, ‘oh man, I want that.’ I never got that one on one with my parents. We never went out anywhere because of financial stuff. To this day I’m so thankful for that friend because it turned my life around.”

As a child, Juan Cuevas, found connection and hope at Friends for Youth. Cuevas credits the organization with turning his life around and now he is paying it forward as a mentor for others.

Donations will help Friends for Youth expand its mentoring services within San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Goal: $30,000

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Live in Peace

EMPOWERING YOUTH

By Vandana Ravikumar >> vravikumar@bayareanewsgroup.com

Gerardo Maldonado is no ordinary cyclist.

The 19-year-old East Palo Alto teen can be seen cruising around the South Bay, pulling off gravity-defying wheelies and eye-popping swerves at the drop of a hat. His skill and unwavering passion for cycling stands out to anyone who catches a glimpse. And his confidence that he can pull off the tricks is equally matched by his determination to get back up whenever he makes a wrong move or takes a tough fall.

Maldonado wasn’t always the bubbly, outgoing young man he is today. When he first arrived at the doors of the nonprofit organization Live in Peace, he was quiet and nervous about approaching new people. But that changed soon after he became involved with the nonprofit’s bike shop.

“When I first came here, I was too scared to even go to the

other room to get food, but then I started meeting people, becoming friends with everyone,” Maldonado said. “It’s been a comfortable place to open up, and there’s never judgment on who you are.”

Live in Peace wants to empower young people by connecting them to their talents, validating their strengths, and making them feel valued and seen. They want to provide teens and young adults in East Palo Alto with whatever they need to thrive, no matter what it may be.

Live in Peace’s bike shop was an ideal place for Maldonado to plant roots and grow into the young man he is today.

Maldonado’s not sure yet where the future will take him.

What he does know for sure is that he wants to stay involved with Live in Peace as much as he can.

“I see Live in Peace doing way bigger things that I really want to be a part of,” he said. “This is a really good place to be.”

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Gerardo Maldonado, 19, of East Palo Alto, center, at the Live in Peace bike shop with staffers Nico Sandi Espinoza, left, Kenneth Williams and Heather Starnes-Logwood, executive director of Live in Peace.

Donations to Live in Peace will help fund its SWAG program, which focuses on young people at risk of not graduating from high school. SWAG provides them with access to tutoring, mental health counseling, life coaching, field trips, meals and more.

Goal: $50,000

Reading Partners Silicon Valley

TURNING THE PAGE

By John Woolfolk >> jwoolfolk@bayareanewsgroup.com

Mateo Hernandez gazed at the shelf full of colorful books at San Antonio Elementary School in San Jose, reached for Syd Hoff’s “Danny and the Dinosaur: The Big Sneeze” and settled into his chair alongside tutor Jasmine Kaur.

“Danny’s mother…” the second-grader began, then paused.

“Let’s sound it out,” Kaur suggested. “Buh… Ruh… Ah… Tuh.”

“Brut?” Mateo, 7, asked, before correcting himself. “Brought!”

“Him chicken soup,” Kaur continued.

“Him chicken soup,” Mateo echoed.

The back-and-forth is part of a twice weekly ritual for Mateo and several other students who receive extra help to read at grade level. Since 1999, Reading Partners Silicon Valley has been providing one-on-one tutoring to help children from kindergarten through fourth grade at local elementary schools who fall be -

hind in reading.

Originally launched as YES Reading, the nonprofit began expanding beyond Silicon Valley 15 years ago. Rebranded in 2008 as Reading Partners, the program now operates chapters in nine states and the District of Columbia.

Reading Partners Silicon Valley serves Santa Clara and San Mateo counties and provides reading tutoring to about 240 students at certain schools in the area.

The program operates in what are known as Title 1 schools where at least 40% of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Reading Partners Silicon Valley Executive Director Felicia Webb said students who cannot read at grade level by fourth grade are 13 times less likely to graduate from high school on time.

“Unfortunately, a lot of our students in our area are reading six months to two years below grade level, and only 37% of our third graders are reading at grade level,” Webb said.

BY JOSIE LEPE

Mateo Hernandez, 7, reads with Reading Partners

Silicon Valley literacy tutor Jasmine Kaur at San Antonio Elementary School in East San Jose.

HOWTOHELP

Donations will help Reading Partners Silicon Valley maintain and expand its program. The funding also will enable the program to become involved with more schools and buy more books for students to encourage them to read at home.

PHOTO

Pacific Hearing Connection

LISTENING AND HELPING

By Austin Turner >> aturner@bayareanewsgroup.com

For five years, Peter Giordano’s hearing was in steady decline. Nearly all facets of the 74-year old La Honda resident’s life suffered — his work as an audio engineer, his social life and his relationship with his wife, Deanna Anderson, who recalled increasing tensions with her husband at home as his ears deteriorated.

“It was constantly ‘what?,’ to me,” she said. “Peter would say ‘what? I didn’t hear you,’ and I would say it really loud, and he’d say ‘well I don’t need you to do that.’ ”

“You just get annoyed with someone that can’t hear constantly,” she added.

Giordano eventually ordered a hearing aid device from a television advertisement, but his experience with the product was shoddy. He struggled to troubleshoot the device and over-the-

phone customer service simply wasn’t helpful. Through his wife’s friendship with Pacific Hearing Connection co-founder and Vice President Dr. Jane Baxter, Giordano was set up for an appointment with Dr. Becky Dolan, the agency’s director of audiology.

Dolan herself suffers from hearing loss. Her experience with that condition allowed her to connect with Giordano in a way few others could, and through Pacific Hearing Connection, he received treatment and hearing aids that he never would have been able to afford before.

“Peter would have ended up with an inferior product,” Anderson said.

Those behind the nonprofit hope to expand the organization’s efforts outward.

“We want to go out into the community where the people live,” Baxter said. “Our hardest thing is having people know about us because they don’t live near our office. … We really want to get a van that we can just go out and see where these people are.”

Audiologist Dr. Becky Dolan of Pacific Hearing Connection gives Peter Giordano an ear exam. Giordano, whose hearing was declining, received treatment and hearing aids through the nonprofit.

Donations will help Pacific Hearing Connection improve and expand outreach efforts and patient care, helping serve at least 200 people, providing hearing aids and screenings.

Goal: $20,000

Center for Employment Training

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

By Jim Harrington >> jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com

Maria Sanchez-De Los Rios is grateful for all the jobs she’s had over the years.

“Every job is a blessing,” reflects the San Jose resident.

Yet, she still knew there had to be a better way to help support her family than by putting in work days longer than 15 hours.

“I had to have two jobs to make enough for my family,” she remembers back to 2019. “I use to work at this company from 5 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. From there, I would go home, change and then start my other shift, from 5 to 10 p.m.”

That kind of intensely demanding schedule left Sanchez-De Los Rios little time to spend with her family. So, she began looking for a way to go back to school and get some training that could lead to a higher paying job and a brighter future.

Unfortunately, the schools wanted applicants with a high school diploma, which Sanchez-De Los Rios lacked.

Then she learned about San Jose’s Center for Employment Training (CET), which has spent the last 55 years helping people acquire the skills needed to find employment in the Bay Area.

“We have deep roots in social justice,” says Rosanna McDonald, CET’s chief development officer. “It’s just a matter of creating opportunities for people who might otherwise slip through the cracks or be stuck in really low-paying jobs with no benefits.”

It certainly worked for Sanchez-De Los Rios, who enrolled in 2021 and sought the training necessary to become a HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) technician.

“The common theme is that they have obstacles in life — barriers to employment — and (we help) them overcome some of those obstacles and give them the self confidence and technical expertise that is going to help make them marketable,” says Hermelinda Sapien, CET’s president and CEO.

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Maria Sanchez-De Los Rios, center, with her husband, Richard De Los Rios, and their children, JJ, 1, left, Itzely, 11, and Julian, 14, in East San Jose. Sanchez got training and a better job as a HVAC technician with help from CET.

HOWTOHELP

Donations will help Center for Employment Training provide students with hands-on job training as well as bolster them with support services, including rental assistance, groceries, clothing and more.

Goal: $50,000

African American Community Services Agency

ADVOCATING WITH LOVE

By David E. Early >> dearly@bayareanewsgroup.com

Amber Mopress, a community worker at San Jose’s African American Community Service Agency, is funny, sassy and bossy — in the best ways. As a co-worker put it, “Amber is a natural, born leader. If she wants to get up and dance? Everybody wants to get up and dance! That’s just the way it is.”

In her work at the AACSA Family Resource Center, Amber mentors an array of needy people with her own brand of strong advice and kindness.

She provides them with donated groceries, grooming products, toys and even books for kids while offering help with child care, education and mental health services. And, just as importantly, Amber also gives firm guidance from her own lived experiences.

“A lot of moms come here with heavy hearts,” says Amber,

35, born and raised in San Jose, “so we do our best with them. But if anyone comes in and the emotions are too high, we contract with seven licensed therapists to help — and we pay the bill. Same with kids, or fathers, or anyone who needs assistance.”

In many ways, Amber is a prime role model for the vital work at AACSA.

Not very long ago, she was a just-released ex-con and recovering addict in dire need of help that ranged from food to emergency housing. AACSA landed at the epicenter of Amber’s complicated backstory.

“I will always be an advocate for those who are formerly incarcerated and for those who suffer from addiction,” says Amber about the special job at AACSA she has loved for 15 months. “Those issues are in my heart and this place is filled with dedicated people helping others, but also giving out plenty of respect and love.”

Amber Mopress, a community worker at the African American Community Service Agency, is a “natural born leader” according to co-workers. Here she helps unload a food delivery from Second Harvest Silicon Valley at AACSA in San Jose.

Donations will help African American Community Service Agency provide $1,000 to 50 families that they can use for food, housing, and utility bills. Money raised will go toward AACSA CARES to provide funds for temporary housing and shelter.

Goal: $50,000

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Bay Area Community Health

COMING TO THE RESCUE

By Harriet Blair Rowan >> hrowan@bayareanewsgroup.com

For years, Michell Rubillos has taken care of the cats in her Japantown neighborhood in San Jose, feeding, fixing and fostering them. She is inspired by the joy her rescue cats bring her. “He’s helped me with my mental health,” Rubillos said, smiling about Chaplin, her chunky black and white fluff ball rescued from around the corner nearly a decade ago.

Suddenly, she was the one who needed a helping hand.

Over the last year, Rubillos found herself navigating a series of life-changing predicaments when she lost her full-time job as a content writer right before the 2021 holidays, and then suffered a serious knee injury in March 2022, requiring surgery and rehabilitation. She realized: “I’m not going to be able to pay my rent.”

For a while, she paid rent on her one-bedroom apartment by

scraping together a combination of savings and income from babysitting, homeschooling, and voiceover work.

“I did not want to ask for help,” she said. She has family in Napa who could take her in, but after working for over 20 years, she is turning 38 in December, she didn’t want to lose her community and her access to health care. Or her cats. When she got injured “everything just went out of control.”

Her piecemeal income wasn’t enough, and her savings had run out. So she Googled “low-income rental assistance in the Bay Area.”

After many dead ends, Bay Area Community Health’s Homelessness Prevention System, was the first avenue that opened up.

Cheryl Petersen Pine, the wife of Bay Area News Group Executive Editor Frank Pine, is Chief Financial Officer for Bay Area Community Health. Frank Pine plays no role in the selection of Wish Book grantees.

A series of life-changing events left Michell Rubillos of San Jose unable to pay her rent. She found assistance through Bay Area Community Health’s Homelessness Prevention System.

HOWTOHELP

Donations will help Bay Area Community Health provide financial support to 80 households that need help paying overdue PG&E, water, trash, internet, and cell phone bills.

Goal: $40,000

SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

FEEDING FAMILIES IN NEED

By Sal Pizarro >> spizarro@bayareanewsgroup.com

On this particular afternoon, Diana Bacho is strolling past a row of food, picking out the best for her family. She selects a plastic container of strawberries, a treat that’ll she use to make agua fresca and freses con crema for her three children. She balances it out with vegetables — carrots and sweet potatoes — plus a chicken fryer to prepare chicken tinga or serve with mole.

It’s a shopping trip like thousands of other moms and dads make in Silicon Valley. But this isn’t food from Safeway or Lunardi’s. She’s in the parking lot of Santee Elementary School, picking up a weekly supply of groceries along with more than 300 other people from one of Second Harvest of Silicon Valley’s farmers market-style distribution centers.

Clients receive lean protein like chicken and ground turkey, as well as eggs, dairy, pasta, rice, beans and other dry goods. The week Bacho was there, the produce options included lettuce and squash and a bounty of Driscoll’s strawberries — donations from an unexpectedly strong harvest this summer.

“It helps, especially right now because of inflation,” said Bacho. “This helps my family eat at least for two or three days a week, and alleviates the pressure of spending money on groceries.”

Among its distribution points and partner agencies, Second Harvest is at 81 K-12 schools, several community colleges and 50 affordable housing sites.

“Generally we’re trying to locate our services where people are already going and are comfortable and are known partners in the community,” said Leslie Bacho, CEO of Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, who is not related to Diana Bacho.

With her daughter, Keyla, 7, Diana Bacho picks up groceries at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley’s giveaway in San Jose.

Donations will help Second Harvest of Silicon Valley purchase fresh fruit, vegetables, proteins and grains — enough for 60,000 meals — and distribute the food free of cost to low-income clients at more than 900 program sites throughout Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

Goal: $30,000

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

HOWTOHELP

BEATING BACK CANCER

By Ethan Baron >> ebaron@bayareanewsgroup.com

Everywhere you turn at Jacob’s Heart, you find love, compassion, joy and hope rising above the sickness, struggle and sorrow that are the reasons it exists.

Walk down a 30-foot hallway through a mosaic of photos showing hundreds upon hundreds of children, with parents, siblings and staff from Jacob’s Heart, each image holding a story that starts with cancer and ends in triumph or in grief.

Take a look at the mural in the Full Hearts room where volunteers bag groceries. The artwork shows a majestic lion, its mane surrounded by a heart.

After Johnny Robledo died at 16, his cousin painted the mural, inscribing beside the lion some words Johnny left behind so people would know he didn’t depart this world in defeat: “I want people to know that I was here and that I fought.”

Sebastian Van Deren of Gilroy was diagnosed in August 2020 with a rare brain cancer, a week before his sophomore year in high school was to start.

The diagnosis sent the Van Deren family into “hell on earth,” says Sebastian’s mother Andrea, 43. “Your whole world just falls out from underneath you,” she says. Sebastian’s father James recalls watching his healthy and active son turn sick and weak from the cancer and the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy.

Today, after two surgeries, trips as far as Ohio for precision radiation treatment, and six rounds of chemotherapy, Sebastian, 17, is cancer free, on the honor roll in high school, loves studying physics, rides his bike for miles around his Gilroy neighborhood, and continues attending teen events at Jacob’s Heart. “I’m just really glad to have who I have with me, especially my family, and Jacob’s Heart,” Sebastian says. “Everybody there is so kind.”

Andrea Van Deren hugs her 17-yearold son, Sebastian, now cancer free, during a family camping trip at Mount Madonna County Park near Watsonville. Jacob’s Heart helped Sebastian and his family navigate his devastating cancer diagnosis in 2020.

Donations will help Jacob’s Heart expand support services and offer aid for a minimum of 50 families, caring for children with cancer in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Funds will pay for weekly deliveries of food, basic living supplies, crisis counseling, transportation to medical appointments, rental assistance and much more.

Goal: $40,000

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen

SERVING MEALS AND HOPE

By Linda Zavoral >> lzavoral@bayareanewsgroup.com

They come on foot, by bicycle, in battered cars that hold their life’s belongings.

They are Silicon Valley’s hungry.

On weekday afternoons, they find their way to a Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen pickup site, like this one tucked away on a large nonprofit property in industrial North San Jose.

Here, away from judgmental eyes, cheerful volunteers greet them and load them up with as many hot meals and sack lunches as they need. No questions asked, no proof of income or eligibility required.

“We know if you’re coming to us, you need our help,” said CEO Gisela Bushey, who has documented the shocking growth in need, and the tragic impact the pandemic economy has had on the working poor and the homeless population. “In the richest re -

gion in the country, no one should go hungry.” Yet more and more do.

“In 2019, we were doing 540,000 meals a year. By June 2020 we were at 1.2 million, by June of this year, 1.8 million,” she said, citing numbers that make Loaves & Fishes the largest preparedmeal distribution program in the Bay Area. “The need is dire. It’s worse than it’s ever been.”

By year’s end, she expects 2 million meals to have been served. But the outcomes can be heartening for this highly efficient staff of 22 who, with just 10 or 12 volunteers a day, manage to cook, assemble and deliver thousands of meals to 135 locations in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

One former recipient who is paying it forward is Adrian Jaime, 40, who landed a job at Goodwill Industries and soon after discovered the free Loaves & Fishes meals.

“I would go every day for over a year when I first was homeless,” he said. “I’m in a better place now.”

Adrian Jaime, a former recipient of meals from Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen, pays it forward as he picks up food for his company, Dream House Incorporated that houses formerly incarcerated people. “I would go every day for over a year when I first was homeless,” he said of the food giveaway.

HOWTOHELP

Donations will help Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen serve 20,000 meals.

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

DreamPower Horsemanship

HELPING HUMANS HEAL

By Lisa M. Krieger >> lkrieger@bayareanewsgroup.com

At first, Nicole Duarte was not the person that Scooter needed her to be. Scarred by a violent stint in the U.S. Marines, she was angry and impatient.

But Scooter was equally disappointing. A 1,400-pound horse with the attitude of a toddler, he was careless and imperious. He bit. He ran away.

Together, at DreamPower Horsemanship in Gilroy, they’ve taught each other how to walk in step, with kindness and respect.

“It’s a partnership,” said Duarte. Scooter’s large dark eyes gazed back at her, his ears tipping back and forth at the sound of her voice.

The horses at DreamPower aren’t polished, posed or perfect. The people aren’t there for ribbons, money or applause.

Rather, they come for healing and hope. The organization’s 20 different horse-based psychotherapy and mental health programs serve more than 800 Bay Area residents, such as military veterans, children with autism, teens with anxiety and depression and elders experiencing mental and physical decline. It offers free support groups for children whose siblings have cancer, who lost a parent during the pandemic or who were affected by wildfire.

Far from urban stress, clients are taught to lead, groom and ride. They help take care of chickens and goats, sweep a shed or clean a paddock. Sometimes the best therapy is just stroking a velvety nose.

But horses are expensive.

“When therapy horses are sponsored and the costs for their basic care is covered, we can offer more scholarships and ‘sliding scale’ programs,” said Martha McNiel, founder and director of DreamPower. “Our free groups are possible because the basic care for the therapy horses is covered.”

Nicole Duarte, a veteran of the U.S. Marines from San Martin, nuzzles Scooter, a gelding she has been working with for three years through DreamPower in Gilroy. “It’s a partnership,” Duarte says of her relationship with the horse.

HOWTOHELP

Donations will help DreamPower Horsemanship pay for food, paddock space, fuel, veterinary and farrier costs for three therapy horses for one year.

Goal: $18,000

SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A LIFELINE TO HOUSING

By Ethan Varian >> evarian@bayareanewsgroup.com

Before Jennifer Goins fell into homelessness, she owned a house in San Jose and a successful hair salon with more than a hundred clients. But as addiction took hold of her life, she lost the home and the business, eventually finding herself living out of hotel rooms with her two middle school-aged sons.

Her partner, Danny Hays, who was also struggling with addiction, stayed with them, as did his 9-year-old daughter. When the money eventually ran out, the entire family moved into the couple’s car. And when the car was towed, the kids went to stay with relatives, while Goins and Hays were left on the street.

The couple spent their days looking for their next meal or their next fix, and their nights huddled in the doorways of downtown businesses, guarding their few possessions.

After about three months on the street in 2019, Hays learned his daughter could no longer stay with her mother in Santa Cruz. Desperate, he called a veterans crisis line, which connected him with the homeless services nonprofit LifeMoves. Within a few days, his daughter moved in with his aunt, and the couple had their own apartment at LifeMoves’ Haven House interim shelter in Menlo Park.

“We’re proof of what can happen to somebody or a family that gets a (shelter) like this,” Hays said.

Each day, LifeMoves serves around 1,200 homeless or formerly homeless people, either through street outreach or in one of its 26 shelter sites across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

“With all of our programs, we try to build trust with our clients,” said Nacole Barth-Ellis, a senior grant writer with LifeMoves. “We try to get them on a path to stable housing.”

SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Struggling with addiction, Jennifer Goins lost her successful business, home, her children and her car before finding shelter and a fresh start in Menlo Park through LifeMoves, which serves about 1,200 people a day.

Donations will help LifeMoves pay for critical services for clients staying at one of its 26 family shelters in Santa Clara or San Mateo County.

Goal: $40,000

CityTeam Ministries

RENEWING LIVES, PURPOSE

By Robert Salonga >> rsalonga@bayareanewsgroup.com

“January 4, 2020 was the day I died.”

Austin Reagan is not reciting metaphor or drafting a song lyric. He’s clinically retelling how the night before, addled from meth use while living on the streets of Salinas and desperately trying to fall asleep, he unwittingly consumed a hotshot of fentanyl.

He says he woke up in the hospital, and that it took 10 days for him to regain his full motor skills. He learned that a bicyclist found him lying in a roadway unresponsive, and flagged down help.

Meanwhile, Rachel, his wife, was being held in a Monterey County jail after being arrested and charged with petty crimes fueled by her own drug addiction while living on the same

streets. She wouldn’t learn about Austin’s death, and revival, until receiving a cryptic letter in jail that she had to study for a while to realize it was from her husband.

Eventually, the courts presented Rachel with a new chance: Admission into CityTeam Ministries’ House of Grace in San Jose, a residential program from the San Jose-based nonprofit that offers “intense in-depth addiction recovery and economic empowerment.”

For Rachel, the combination of a Christian faith-based support system, life skills and job training offered through CityTeam’s Renew program, gave her hope that it could be the foundation of the sobriety and stability she and Austin were seeking.

“When probation brought me and the gate closed behind me I was like, yup, this is it,” Rachel said. “I didn’t have anxiety anymore of whether it was going to happen, it was a matter of when.”

Austin and Rachel Reagan, a formerly homeless couple whose path to stability led them through CityTeam’s House of Grace and Renew programs, are now working for the nonprofit.

Donations will help CityTeam Ministries serve more than 75 homeless and destitute clients at its House of Grace and Men’s Recovery Renew programs, enabling them to become responsible, productive members of society.

Goal: $50,000

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Peninsula Food Runners

TACKLING FOOD INSECURITY

By Katie Lauer >> klauer@bayareanewsgroup.com

José León quickly popped open the trunk of his Mazda, smoothed out a blue tarp and started stacking 35 steam pans chock full of roasted Brussels sprouts, flaky chicken pot pies, hearty rice noodles and delicate chocolate desserts into his vehicle on an autumn afternoon.

Parked outside a loading dock on LinkedIn’s sprawling Sunnyvale campus, León and his wife, Marie Pham, arrived to pick up leftovers that were weighed, packaged and donated after tech employees had their fill of the 1,050 pounds of protein and 630 pounds of vegetables chefs spent four hours prepping for lunch — free of charge.

The duo are volunteers with Peninsula Food Runners, and that day’s assignment was Life’s Garden Apartments, a senior affordable housing complex only 10 minutes down the road.

“We live in such a wealthy area,” León said, “but food insecurity is just a hop and a skip away.”

In 2021, Peninsula Food Runners moved more than 3 million pounds of food to hundreds of organizations across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

The goal is to help the roughly 8 million Californians — 1 in every 5 people — who lack consistent access to food.

At Life’s Garden, more than 200 low-income seniors who are living with limited mobility, ability and money lined up for togo boxes of LinkedIn’s leftovers. Nina Tan, resident activities director at the housing complex, said these donations help provide meals that residents may not otherwise have access to — physically and financially.

“It doesn’t matter what it is, whatever I am able to get for them I’m just happy, because I know they need it,” Tan said. “This food cooked for employees would otherwise be wasted. You are feeding good food to good people. It’s like a perfect combination.”

José León, a volunteer with Peninsula Food Runners, picks up donated food from Siria Rose at LinkedIn in Sunnyvale to be delivered to a nearby housing complex for low-income seniors.

HOWTOHELP

Donations will help Peninsula Food Runners expand its staff to help connect more donors, volunteers and recipients of food recovery efforts.

Goal: $30,000

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Easterseals Central California

HOPING TO REOPEN CAMP

By Paul Rogers >> progers@bayareanewsgroup.com

Every year in California, hundreds of thousands of children head off to summer camps. They ride horses, sing songs, go swimming, roast marshmallows around campfires, sleep in cabins, meet new friends and form memories that last a lifetime. For generations, a week at overnight camp has been part of growing up.

But only a handful of camps are set up for kids with disabilities. Often they can make an even larger difference, boosting confidence and self-esteem.

Michael Griggs knows. He was a teenager in a wheelchair, born with cerebral palsy. He was depressed. He felt aimless and sorry for himself when his family encouraged him to visit Camp Harmon, a 40-acre camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Boulder Creek that has served people with disabilities since its

founding in 1964.

The week in the redwoods changed his life.

“I was struggling to find my place in the world. I thought ‘nobody will miss me if I was gone,’ ” Griggs recalled. “But I went to camp and started hearing from everybody, and sharing stories and just being one of the guys. I realized you just have to keep on being you, and people who really matter will stick around. It won’t be because they feel sorry for you or want to take care of you. People will stick around because of who you are. I started to find value in who I was. It gave me confidence.”

But now Camp Harmon, which has helped lift up so many people like Griggs, needs some help of its own.

The coronavirus pandemic forced the camp to close in 2020, and other rising insurance costs also kept it shuttered in 2021 and 2022.

“It’s devastating,” said Erica Ybarra, executive director of Easterseals Central California.

SHAE HAMMOND — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Jim Castelli, of Fremont, is excited about being announced as a camp ambassador at Camp Harmon in Boulder Creek. Castelli was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder that occurs before birth and can lead to developmental disabilities.

Camp Harmon will use donations for tree maintenance and other fire prevention efforts, a new roof on the animal barn, replacing old fencing and signs, new curriculum, and upgrades to sports facilities.

Goal: $50,000

Everyone deserves joy this time of year. Help spread the love this holiday season with a gift to Wish Book.

7 REASONS TO DONATE

Contributions are a vital part of the economy.

1. Challenging times for so many

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.

2. Make a change

Every request from Wish Book 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.

3. Inspire others

When you take action and share the importance of giving, you change lives. Be a giver and a motivator.

4. Give and receive

All of the Wish Book recipients are people right here in the Bay Area. One action can keep a family warm.

5. Compassion

Our lives can change in an hour or a day. Experience the power of gratitude by sharing with those who need a helping hand. Lift someone up, so they can pass it on.

6. Be happier

7. Tax deductible

All of your gift to Wish Book goes directly to the nonprofits and your donation is completely tax deductible. Just remember to keep your receipt for tax season.