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Rudy Alvarez
Rudy Welcoming Serrano Residents With a Smile Alvarez
by MARK BILLINGSLEY photography by CHARLENE TAYLOR / CHARM PHOTOGRAPHY R udy Alvarez has a penchant for Pepsi, Lemonhead candy and other sweets. Yet, somehow, he is still 140 pounds after nearly two decades of construction workers and residents handing him plates of holiday food as he checks them through the gate entrance at Serrano. He is the welcoming face at the main gate.
“My best memory in my 19 years here has to be when a group of ladies came up to the gate with a birthday cake,” says Alvarez, 49, who commutes from Rocklin to El Dorado Hills on weekdays. “It’s the people that live here, the residents that I’ve come to know and how they’ve made me feel over the years that keeps me coming back and makes my job a lot easier.”
“He’s a Serrano institution,” says Serrano El Dorado Owners’ Association General Manager, Kathryn Henricksen. Alvarez could just give a disinterested wave of acknowledgment as residents have come and gone all these years, but he’d rather walk out and greet them, and he always shares something more than just a hello. at has gone a long way in his career and has made those who live and visit Serrano feel special.
“When I’m on the gate by myself, residents will drive up and the first thing they ask is, ‘Where’s Rudy?’” says Marlon Parrish, Alvarez’s co-worker with Allied Universal. “Recently there was a line of about five cars with well-dressed older women coming through the gate; I mean they had brightly colored hats on and everything. I asked Rudy what that was about, and he said they were visiting a resident who’s battling cancer. To know all that stuff is amazing, and it says a lot about him. He cares.”
Parrish says some residents shared with him that before Allied Universal was hired as the current security company, all but Alvarez were fired. at just never happens, Parrish said.
“ at really made me feel good,” Alvarez says of the residents rallying to keep him. “I know (residents) made sure I stayed, and I’m so thankful for that.”
Alvarez says he’s seen a lot of change at Serrano from his view at the security gate. He’s seen multiple generations now. Infants tucked away in the backseats of the cars he’s checked through when he started at Serrano are now adults with driver licenses. ere aren’t as many contractors streaming in and out, as Serrano
has almost reached build-out status, with less than 100 lots left.
Alvarez says he has no plans to move on or move up and no plans to go anywhere than to the front gate each weekday. Serrano has become a second home in a way, he says, and he’s just fi ne where he is.
“Most of the time when you drive through, you’re not focused on that (interaction), and he goes out of his way to wave and smile,” Serrano developer Bill Parker says. “Even those residents with the clickers still get a wave and a smile; he’s so friendly. He has a great way to greet people from a customer standpoint.” Parker added that real estate agents and clients who arrive to view homes in Serrano can sometimes be intimidated by gated communities, but Alvarez always makes them feel welcomed when he greets them. When he’s not working the Serrano front gate, Alvarez works at a Walmart in Rocklin, where he stocks shelves and unloads trucks. in Rocklin, where he stocks shelves and unloads trucks. And, yes, most defi nitely, he enjoys unloading the Pepsi trucks.
