2023: The Mercury News Wish Book Special Section

40 YEARS

2023

A publication of the Bay Area News Group

YOUR D ONAT ION COUNTS Help make our community a better place by giving to families and groups that face significant challenges. Together we can make sure that no wish goes unfulfilled this holiday season.

2 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

WELCOME TO OUR

40TH YEAR

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Exp.: The Mercury News Wish Book PO Box 909 San Jose, CA 95106

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Dear Reader, WISH TO BE FULFILLED Four decades ago, The Mercury News and our readers began a journey. A Specific $ journey to uplift our community, to lend wish a helping hand to our in need Person or neighbors group in need and to make a difference in the South Bay. $ This year we celebrate theSpecific 40th year ofwish Wish BookPerson and look back with pride at or group in need the lives touched, the hearts warmed, and the many ways Wish Book and you, our General donation $ wonderful supporters, delivered hope and joy to those in need. Thank you for making a difference.

Total (tax deductible): $ Wish Book helps children in need of education, seniors in need of care, families PAYMENT in need of food and shelter, and so much more. to: AndWish it’s all beenFund) possible because of card Credit Check (payable Book do not sendAcash your generosity. Together wePlease are a community: community of givers, helpers and those who believe in the power of storytelling and the power of good.

CC#: CVC: As Wish Book commemorates this milestone, The Mercury News team invites you to join in granting wishes.

Your support is critical to continue this program so Signature: Exp.: we can make even more dreams come true.

Mail gift to: The Mercury News Wish Book Your generosity matters. Would you consider making a donation today? A gift of PO Box 909 any size can make a significant difference. Whether it is aCA contribution San Jose, 95106 that provides shelter for the unhoused, therapy for a youth with a disability, meals for a senior or Tax-deductible gifts of any amount are welcome. Tax ID 77-02296 something more, your gift will be put to the best possible use.

SHOWING GRATITUDE The Wish Book team looks forward toOUR another 40 years of making wishes come Donors and dedications will be honored publicly in print and onli true, with you by our side. Thank you for your continued support and for being a Please allow my name to be published Yes No part of our community.

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ON THE COVER

925-655-8355

wishbook@ Panda Wong, right, greets Martha’s Kitchen volunteer Paulette Little during the hot bayareanewsgroup.com meal program served in San Jose.

Martha’s Kitchen distributes nearly 250,000 meals each month to those in need through their hot meal and grocery programs.

STORY ON PAGE 12.

DOUG DURAN — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Thank you!

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 3

Helping Hands Silicon Valley

UPLIFTING THE VULNERABLE “This is so very important to me,” Sayed says of the assistance he receives from HSSV. Sayed is one of the dozens of people in need being helped by Every call for help is different. So Pratima Gupta didn’t know Sunnyvale’s HSSV, a relatively new, volunteer-run nonprofit with a what was in store when she answered a call from the front desk mission, the founders say, to “empower and uplift the most vulnermanager at the Motel 6 on Sunnyvale’s North Mathilda Avenue last able in our community by providing comprehensive support, rewinter. sources and opportunities to regain their independence and thrive.”

The motel needed help with an elderly blind man, who could no Practically speaking, that translates to providing motel rooms for longer pay for his room. The man would have to leave the next day a variety of reasons — while people are recovering from health isif a solution couldn’t be found, and he seemed to have nowhere else sues, during inclement weather conditions and more — as well arto go. ranging rides to medical appointments and assisting with job “They asked to come and help him for one night,” says Gupta, who searches. The organization runs a Saturday program focusing on is one of the co-founders of Helping Hands Silicon Valley (HSSV). food, hygiene and clothing, delivers hot meals to those in need and “That was in December, and he has been our client ever since.” helps clients with the piles of paperwork involved in replacing lost In the months that followed, Gupta and the HSSV team — includ- social security cards, for example, and signing up for government ing co-founder Alpana Agarwal — have rallied around 94-year-old services.

Mir Sayed and helped him receive not only housing but also other “There are all these challenges, and I don’t know how they would critical services. do it on their own.” Gupta says.

By Jim Harrington >> jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Pratima Gupta, a co-founder of Helping Hands Silicon Valley, visits Mir Sayed, a 94-year-old blind man living at a Motel 6 in Sunnyvale who receives housing assistance and other services.

HOWTOHELP Donations will allow Helping Hands Silicon Valley to provide 250 nights of room and board for their clients, specifically lodging for 10 to 14 seniors living outdoors during inclement weather.

The funds also will be used to support medical needs and provide food, clothing and more for clients.

Goal: $30,000

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Animal Assisted Happiness

KIDS FIND JOY HELPING AT FARM The organization arranges private farm visits for kids in need, sends animals out to visit kids who are unable to travel via its mobile barnyard buddy program and offers vocational training programs Bada Bing, Lollipop and Jingle Bell — an alpaca, a miniature and volunteer opportunities, training a new generation of animal horse and a miniature donkey, respectively — need to be fed. The caretakers in the process. rabbit hutches need mucking. And, uh oh, now there’s a sheep on the The story that launched this bright, colorful place is a sad one, loose. though. It was 2006 when Amon-Higa brought her miniature horse, It’s a typical Saturday afternoon at Sunnyvale’s Baylands Park, Lollipop, to visit a 14-year-old horse lover with an inoperable brain where Michael Porrovecchio, one of Animal Assisted Happiness’ tumor. Riley Church died about a month later, but the interaction staffers, is leading a crew of 28 youth volunteers as they take care planted the seeds for what would eventually become Animal Asof the 100 or so animals who live here — pot-bellied pigs, alpacas, sisted Happiness (AAH). goats, ducks and more.

By 2009, cofounders Vicki Amon-Higa and Peter Higa had turned The nonprofit group helps children with challenges — they’re dis- their backyard menagerie in Los Altos Hills into a nonprofit. As the abled, for example, medically fragile, economically disadvantaged or operation expanded, AAH moved — first to Gilroy, then Sunnyvale’s in foster care — find respite and joy in the company of barnyard ani- Full Circle Farm and in 2017 to Baylands Park where the 2.5-acre mals at this Sunnyvale farm.

Smile Farm is located. Today, youth-led projects and vocational op“Need is a large umbrella,” says Animal Assisted Happiness coportunities are a core part of the organization’s mission, and particifounder Vicki Amon-Higa. pants return again and again.

By Kate Bradshaw >> kbradshaw@bayareanewsgroup.com

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Michael Porrovecchio, assistant program manager for Animal Assisted Happiness in Sunnyvale, carries hay for the goats at Bayland Park. Working with animals through the program is a positive outlet for the farm’s youth volunteers who face a variety of challenges in their lives.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help Animal Assisted Happiness facilitate farm visits and provide vocational education training to youth with needs.

Goal: $10,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 5

Senior Coastsiders

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

SUPPORT FOR CHINESE SENIORS cise and meal programs. It had already drawn in about 50 Chinese seniors, many living in low-income housing on south Main Street.

But the tragedy on the mushroom farms last winter revealed anThey were shivering in shock, huddled under blankets in a local other hidden pocket of people, living in squalid conditions there. evacuation center when Kiki Wolfeld found them.

Even emergency crews and city officials scrambling to assist that day It had been hours since their disgruntled coworker had gunned were shocked to learn that the farms didn’t just employ Latino farmdown seven others who worked at Half Moon Bay’s mushroom farms. workers, but elderly Chinese as well.

Yingze Wang and her husband, Jinsheng Liu, were among the small Wang and Liu, both 68, were among them. Over the past year, as group of Chinese farmworkers who had somehow survived the ram- the couple moved from one temporary living situation to the next page that cool January afternoon. and worked to recover from trauma, Wolfeld and Senior Coastsiders They were trying to comprehend what had happened and where have remained a constant at their side. When they needed a place to they would go next, but no one there spoke Mandarin to explain — stay for a week when their new housing wasn’t ready, Wolfeld offered until Wolfeld with the nonprofit Senior Coastsiders arrived. them her own home. When Liu continued to struggle with post-trau“Everything will be OK,” Wolfeld, a China-born former social matic stress, she signed him up for weekly therapy. He shares his worker, reassured them. fears with Wolfeld, too.

The nonprofit founded four decades ago had hired her just months “He likes me to calm him down,” she said. “He was frustrated and earlier to reach out to Half Moon Bay’s elderly, largely isolated, Chihad temper tantrums because of the shooting. He said that I helped nese community to join the organization’s English classes and exerhim to open his mind. He’s giving me lots of credit!”

By Julia Prodis Sulek >> jsulek@bayareanewsgroup.com

Yingze Wang and her husband, Jinsheng Liu, enjoy a Chinese music class at Coastside Seniors in Half Moon Bay. Wang and Liu have found support through Coastside Seniors after surviving a deadly shooting at a mushroom farm where they worked.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help fund the program, and help pay off a $100,000 shuttle bus with a wheelchair lift that takes the group twice a month to the only Chinese market for miles in Foster City.

Goal: $24,000

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Farm Discovery at Live Earth

SEEING, TOUCHING, LEARNING

By John Woolfolk >> jwoolfolk@bayareanewsgroup.com

Juana Lona cradled a black hen in the chicken run at Live Earth Farm in Watsonville, as kindergarteners from a Pajaro Valley charter school milled around trying to approach the skittish, scattering fowl.

“You have to hold the wings together, and put them close to your body,” said Lona, an education intern with Farm Discovery at Live Earth, as she demonstrated for the tots. “So like this, they feel safe like this. If we put them up in the air, they’re going to try to fly away. You see how she’s calm? You have to give her like a big hug.”

She gently handed the hen to 5-year-old Jaelene Serrano, as a couple of Jaelene’s classmates gathered around to pet the hen in her arms. “So fluffy!” the kids said as they gently stroked the hen’s feathers and a rooster crowed nearby before Jaelene handed her to classmate Michelle Rodriguez Meza.

“It’s so soft,” Michelle, 5, said.

The hands-on experience is one of the programs the nonprofit Farm Discovery at Live Earth provides for thousands of youngsters throughout the region each year. The organization provides more than 1,800 local youth with farming, nutrition, and environmental stewardship education through 64 field trips a year as well as 8 weeks of summer camp. And it also works with students to grow and deliver nutritious, organic food for nearly 9,000 community members in need, including the elderly, veterans, foster youth and farmworkers.

On this day, Farm Discovery was hosting a kindergarten class from Linscott Charter School in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, which serves a northern Monterey County region devastated by severe flooding of the Pajaro River in March.

“We’re going to see a lot of animals on the farm today,” she said as the class erupted in approval, yelling “Yeah! ” in unison.

DOUG DURAN — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Hakeem Barfield, a kindergartener attending Linscott Charter School, reaches to pet a horse during a field trip at Farm Discovery at Live Earth in Watsonville.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help Farm Discovery at Live Earth increase organic produce production to 5,000 pounds

by December 2024, and maintain its practice of providing scholarships for 40% of its field trip and summer camp participants, many of whom come from impoverished districts.

Goal: $5,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 7

I feel super grateful for Ana because every month I have food, I have clothes, I have a doctor, I have almost everything. I was surprised by the resources available to my family at Samaritan House.

- Cynthia Donate today and give toward innovative solutions that make a difference. Fighting poverty. Lifting lives. samaritanhousesanmateo.org

Ana Administrative Coordinator, Client Services

2023

Help make their wishes come true. Donate online at:

wishbook.mercurynews.com

8 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Paralyzed Veterans of America, Bay Area and Western Chapter

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

ADAPTING TO LIFE VIA SPORTS

By Ethan Baron >> ebaron@bayareanewsgroup.com

Marine Corps veteran Kyle Hansel of Pacifica is making a belt for his mother, using lessons, skills, and a renewed faith in himself gained from competitive sports despite hands and many muscles that don’t work.

The work, like many of the tasks in his life, requires “adaptive” techniques he has honed through wheelchair rugby, archery and other sports he competes in thanks to the local chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).

Hansel, 33, made it back intact from his 2012 tour in the violent desert of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, but it was an outing five years later with his little brother to the Grand National Rodeo at the Cow Palace in Daly City that left him quadriplegic and put him in a wheelchair. Thrown off a mechanical bull, Hansel suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

“For the year or two after my injury there was a big feeling of being alone,” Hansel says. “Being in a wheelchair, I was on an island. People at restaurants don’t talk to me. They talk to whoever is standing with me. I’m not seen.”

Two years ago, a recreational therapist at the Veterans Administration hospital in Palo Alto — which has a spinal-cord injury center — connected Hansel with the Bay Area and Western Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Hansel’s world opened up.

“The rec therapist says, ‘We’re going to New York for the wheelchair games,’ ” he says. He chose to compete in soccer, power lifting, a slalom obstacle course and air-rifle shooting.

Then the PVA sent him to Arizona for another National Veterans Wheelchair Games competition.

“I get off the elevator, this woman approaches me, says, ‘Are you quadriplegic?’ I said yes. She said, ‘We need you to play rugby.’ ”

Marine Corps veteran Kyle Hansel of Pacifica, center, with rugby teammate Desmond Wilson, clockwise from left, Kory Amaral, executive director of BAWPVA, Shawna Hill, recreation therapist, and teammate Chet Miller.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Bay Area and Western Chapter sponsor members to attend various community events and sporting activities for the Paralympics and participate in track and field and team sports.

Goal: $45,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 9

Abode

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

NO PLACE LIKE HOME, AT LAST

By Andre Byik >> abyik@bayareanewsgroup.com

These days, Fred Pena strains to remember the years he lived out of his car in the Bay Area.

Feelings are easier to access.

“There’s a sense of dread,” Pena said in a recent interview, sitting on his bed in a studio apartment on the fifth floor of an affordable housing complex in Santa Clara. “It’s cold, or it’s too hot. And the police hassle you.”

Pena had been living in his gold Honda Accord in Mountain View, where he said he stayed in a church parking lot.

Now, Pena, 63, has his own apartment at Calabazas Community Apartments, which features more than 140 rental studio units designated for unhoused and low-income people.

He’s been living there since the fall of 2021.

His move there was facilitated by Abode, a Bay Area nonprofit that helps homeless and low-income people gain stable

housing. The building was developed through the organization’s housing arm. Half of the building’s units are designated for chronically homeless people.

Abode was founded in 1989 in Alameda County, and has expanded to serve more than 14,000 people per year throughout the Bay Area, according to the organization. “Our agency is built on the principles of housing first, a proven approach that has yielded far superior results than those of past strategies for ending homelessness,” according to the nonprofit’s website.

Before moving into Calabazas Community Apartments, Pena stayed at Willow Glen Studios on Pedro Street in San Jose, an interim housing program operated by the nonprofit.

Pena, who grew up in San Francisco and fell in and out of homelessness after losing a job at a major phone company in the ’90s, said he’s thankful for the organization.

“I don’t think I could have done it without them,” he said.

“I wouldn’t be here without Abode. (I’d be) living in my car, still.”

After living in his car for many years, Fred Pena, 63, moved into a studio at Calabazas Community Apartments in Santa Clara with help from Abode, a Bay Area nonprofit that works with homeless and lowincome people. “I don’t think I could have done it without them,” he says.

HOWTOHELP Donations will allow Abode to provide 125 move-in kits to 125 households. The kits include furniture, bedding, kitchenware and hygienic supplies.

Goal: $25,000

10 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Good Karma Bikes

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A WAY TO GET THEM ROLLING

By Jim Harrington >> jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com

Life isn’t easy for Paul Foxx.

He has been homeless now for some 20 years, dealing with the harsh weather conditions, occasional violence and vast unpredictability that come with life on the street.

Most recently, he’s been living in a tent under a bridge in downtown San Jose.

“That’s what I can do right now,” the 65-year-old Foxx says.

“I don’t have enough to rent a place.”

Despite his troubles, Foxx actually manages to come across as quite chipper and positive as he talks about how the free bike he received from Good Karma Bikes improved his situation.

“The bike made my life a lot easier,” he says. “I was able to take care of all kinds of business — because of the bike.”

Foxx is one of thousands of people who have benefited from the free bikes given out by Good Karma Bikes, a San Jose nonprofit that got its start in 2008 and officially incorporated the following year. The organization works to empower their clients by providing them with a much-needed form of transportation.

To date, they have given out approximately 10,000 bikes and provided services — such as patching flat tires and making other repairs — to nearly 50,000 people.

The majority of their clients are homeless, although there are also sizable contingents of veterans, low-wage workers, refugees and low-income families. No one is turned away because they cannot pay.

“Think about all the ways a bike can impact a person’s daily life,” says Jenny Circle, Good Karma Bikes’ director of development. “It connects them to their community. It connects them to their social services. It connects them to their family.”

Paul Foxx, who received his wheels from Good Karma Bikes in San Jose, has been homeless for the past 20 years. “The bike made my life a lot easier,” he says.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help Good Karma Bikes cover the cost to refurbish bikes for clients in need, providing them with a self-sufficient form of transportation that can lead to a better overall quality of life. The grant would help provide bikes to approximately 400 individuals.

Goal: $20,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 11

HealthRIGHT 360, Asian American Recovery Services

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

PROVIDING ‘THAT SAFE SPOT’

By Grace Hase >> ghase@bayareanewsgroup.com

Perla Equihua, a 19-year-old Chicana woman, brims with pride as she recounts the last six years — a journey from frequent blackouts as a young teen caused by a drug cocktail of pills and alcohol to learning how to stop and take a breath and cope without substances.

Her longtime care coordinator, Cristina Aldama, sits next to her in one of HealthRIGHT 360’s East San Jose offices, intently listening. The pair have grown close over the years, evidenced by quick glances of reassurance and warm smiles that turn into big grins. Equihua said her mother doesn’t know much of what she’s been through in the last half decade, but Aldama does.

“My confidence? It’s crazy now,” Equihua said, flashing her 1,000-watt smile once again.

Since age 13, Equihua has been in the nonprofit’s Asian American Recovery Services program, which provides sub-

stance use and mental health treatment to Asian and Pacific Islanders, as well as other ethnically diverse communities in the Bay Area.

It has helped her deal with her anger and sadness, taught her to be aware of her triggers and set boundaries. She’s now two years sober from taking pills.

“It’s that safe spot,” Equihua said of the program. “You’re able to talk to someone, you’re able to just not keep it bottled up because once you keep stuff bottled up that’s what makes you want to go and smoke, get validation and just do certain things that you know are not good.”

Asian American Recovery Services was founded in 1985 and has since grown to be the largest program of its kind in the nation.

“I think Asian Americans have a lot of stigma around drug addiction and I feel like if I came into this field and give back to my culture it will help the elderly Asians understand a little bit more about addiction,” Aldama said.

Perla Equihua, 19, of San Jose, left, with Cristina Aldama, her longtime care coordinator at Asian American Recovery Services.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help Asian American Recovery Services, a program of HealthRIGHT 360, provide culturally competent mental health and substance use disorder treatment to youth and adults in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda Counties and support its annual Sister to Sister Youth Leadership Conference.

Goal: $50,000

12 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Martha’s Kitchen

DOUG DURAN — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

COOKING UP A CONNECTION

By Linda Zavoral >> lzavoral@bayareanewsgroup.com

Trish Garcia is on the move. She checks on the volunteers packing dinners at the soup kitchen, moves a pallet of donations across the auditorium, notes the length of the drive-thru meal lane — 200 cars are expected — then heads over to greet clients standing outside in the grocery line.

“The littles are here!” she exclaims, referring to the three young daughters in the Ramirez family, Elizabeth, Brianna and Yaretzi. They come to Martha’s Kitchen in San Jose most Tuesdays with their mother, Maria, to pick up boxes of food to help supplement what their parents can afford to buy on their salaries as a janitor and a taqueria cook.

Elizabeth, the eldest at 11, translates for her mother. “It helps us a lot. They give us good food … chicken, eggs, rice, fruit like apples, veggies. A lot of food.”

Besides organizational skills and boundless energy, Garcia

brings a rare insight to her job as operations manager for the Martha’s Kitchen nonprofit.

“That was me,” she explains. As a child growing up in Sacramento, she and her younger brother had to fend for themselves for meals. They survived, thanks to a nearby soup kitchen and its compassionate volunteers.

Now, she’s paying it forward by not just feeding clients, but also forging connections with them. “If we can make them forget about their troubles and the outside world for even 20 minutes, mission accomplished.”

That’s been the goal of this nonprofit since its humble beginnings more than 40 years ago.

“Martha’s Kitchen is all about people who have devoted their lives to loving on their fellow man,” said Bill Lee, executive director of this mammoth operation that feeds tens of thousands of people on Willow Street and prepares meals that are distributed by 65 partner agencies from San Mateo County to San Benito County.

Trish Garcia, Martha’s Kitchen Operations Manager, greets Elizabeth Ramirez, 11, and Yaretzi Ramirez, 6, whose parents are regular clients of the food pantry in San Jose.

“The littles are here,” she exclaims.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help Martha’s Kitchen meet the unprecedented demand for hunger relief and support the renovation and expansion of its site.

Goal: $50,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 13

Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment

PHOTO BY JOSIE LEPE

IMMIGRANT FAMILY’S ‘ANGELS’

By Gabriel Greschler >> ggreschler@bayareanewsgroup.com

Jasbleidy Montejo, her husband and infant daughter were so close.

The family had traveled thousands of miles from their home in Colombia after escaping threats of violence — eager to find new beginnings and a safer world for their six-monthold.

But violence found them again. In San Luis Rio Colorado, a border town in Mexico, a group of men ordered the family off the bus they were traveling on. They shoved them into SUVs with hoods over their heads and told them they had just three days to come up with thousands of dollars — or else. Through a stroke of luck, the couple was able to secure the money with family help and made it through Arizona and then finally to San Jose after crossing the border by foot.

A year and a half later, the loan that saved their lives is still

being paid off.

Sitting in a conference room at the headquarters of Amigos de Guadalupe, a San Jose-based nonprofit that links migrants to essential services such as housing and education, Montejo said she owes her life to the organization.

“They are my angels,” said Montejo, 20, through a Spanish translator. “They pretty much saved us.”

Montejo’s story is a reflection of a wider trend impacting the San Jose nonprofit: As pandemic-related immigration restrictions are lifted, a steady flow of immigrants have been crossing the U.S.-Mexico border from Central and South America, sparking both a humanitarian and political crisis in the country with no end in sight.

“Since last summer, there has been a fairly significant influx of families directly from the border here in San Jose,” said Director of Social Impact and Sustainability Stephanie Jayne. “From what we can tell, we are the primary organization that is welcoming these families in and serving them.”

Jasbleidy Montejo now is taking English classes in San Jose after her family arrived from Colombia and they found help at the Amigos de Guadalupe Center.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help support the Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment’s Welcoming Fund, and serve about 350 individuals, including 92 newly arrived families and up to 50 new families expected to arrive throughout the year, providing them with housing and basic needs, such as food and healthcare and legal services.

Goal: $50,000

14 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

The Trust for Hidden Villa

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

PLANTING SEEDS OF CURIOSITY

By Paul Rogers >> progers@bayareanewsgroup.com

Generations ago, there were so many orchards and fruit trees in the South Bay that it was known as the “Valley of Hearts Delight.” Stanford University was built on a farm.

And the Peninsula — a sweeping landscape of scenic ranches, dairies, and flower fields — was one of California’s most productive agricultural regions.

Everything changed after World War II, when suburbs, freeways and technology companies wiped away much of that rural sense of place.

But on a winding road in Los Altos Hills, Hidden Villa remains. The 1,600-acre working farm grows not just carrots, lettuce and pumpkins, but also curiosity and love of nature.

Founded in 1924, the nonprofit farm provides tours to more than 10,000 school children every year, in grades K-12, teaching them about where their food comes from, real-world

biology, and how to be good stewards of the environment.

Hidden Villa also offers summer camp programs, a youth hostel, and hiking trails for the public.

“The kids have seen animals at the zoo. But this is very personal,” said Konstance Kirkendoll, a first-grade teacher at Beechwood School, which serves kids from East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. “It gets imprinted. They remember this. On the ride over today they were talking about how they tasted fennel here last year.”

On a recent fall morning, Kirkendoll was leading a group of her first-grade students through the farm on a field trip, their faces filled with wonder as they walked through the lush patches of organic tomatoes, onions, lavender and lettuce, under apple trees, pear trees, sunflowers and grape vines.

“Many of our students will tell us this is the first time they’ve ever been hiking,” said Daisy Alicante, assistant principal at Downtown College Preparatory School in San Jose.

First graders from Beechwood School including, Delilah Monje, center, and Noah Lee explore the garden at Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills during a recent outing.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help the Trust for Hidden Villa fund scholarships to allow at least 725 kids from low-income schools in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties to visit and participate in their environmental education programs.

Goal: $25,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 15

Maintenance for Moms

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

BACK IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT

By Harriet Blair Rowan >> hrowan@bayareanewsgroup.com

For six months Monique Brito only got to see her kids on the weekends.

“I was incomplete,” she said, recalling those painful months, when her car broke down and she needed to send her kids to live with their grandfather so they could get to school and she could take a bus to work.

She was stuck — literally — last year when the auto repair shops kept telling her it was going to cost more than $8,000 to replace her engine. “I took it to a few places, and they were just telling me outrageous numbers that I couldn’t afford,” she said.

Without a functioning car, the single mom could no longer make it from her home in Morgan Hill to drop off her son Elias, 10, and her daughter Evangelina, 13, at their schools in East San Jose, and then get back to South San Jose in time for her job in a dental office. So she asked her dad if his grandchildren could live

with him on the weekdays, much closer to their schools.

It was the right thing for the kids, but “it was tough,” Brito remembers. “It made me feel like everything that I worked so hard for was for nothing.”

She started saving up for a new car, but then a friend suggested she reach out to Maintenance for Moms — a San Josebased nonprofit that helps single moms with car repairs.

She applied, and after the nonprofit determined Brito’s car was not worth the expensive repair, she received the pink slip to a gently used 2016 Hyundai Elantra GT, courtesy of the local nonprofit.

It wasn’t just a car. It was a gift that reunited her little family.

The nonprofit was created and originally funded in 2019 by Ashot Iskandarian, founder of ShopMonkey, a tech company that provides software for auto mechanic shops, and his wife Annie Iskandarian. In just over four years, the organization has helped 318 moms, paying for over 330 repairs, and gifting 44 used and donated cars.

Monique Brito, center, with her children, Evangelina Ayala, 13, left, and Elias Brito, 10, in the 2016 Hyundai Elantra GT they received from the San Jose non-profit Maintenance for Moms. When Brito’s car broke and she could not afford the repairs, the family suffered six months of hardship.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help Maintenance for Moms provide a working car for 24 low-income single mothers and their families in Santa Clara County.

Goal: $50,000

16 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

The Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Teen Van

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

HEALTH CARE COMES TO KIDS substance counseling.

To Zamora, 15, the Teen Health Van is a symbol of personal empowerment. She can get a checkup whenever she wants, withAs she’s done many times before, sophomore Nicole Zamora out having to worry about transportation — the clinic comes to grabbed a hall pass, went to the front of the East Palo Alto her — or coming up with the money to pay for it.

Academy school, entered the massive vehicle in the parking Most importantly for many young people concerned about lot, and got a free medical checkup. No questions asked. medical privacy, patients under the age of 18 simply need to reShe’s one of thousands of young people — many lower inceive written permission from a parent or guardian, and then come, in communities underserved by traditional medical care they’re free to seek out the medical treatment they need.

— who turn to the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Teen “I feel like it’s easier to get this because they don’t release your Van for help. personal information to your parents and why you’re getting the Since 1995 — more than a decade before Zamora and many help,” she said. “So when I found out (Stanford Medicine) procurrent Bay Area high-school students were born — the Teen vided this, I started going more and more.”

Health Van has ventured to various Peninsula and South Bay The organization estimates that about 70% of patients seen on schools and nonprofits to provide free medical care. Young any given day are returning visitors. people between the ages of 12 and 25 can access medical ser“When we’re here at a place that they are, it makes life a vices ranging from sports physicals to vaccinations, all the lot easier for them,” said teen van medical director Dr. Arash way to testing for sexually transmitted infections and Anoshiravani.

By Austin Turner >> aturner@bayareanewsgroup.com

Dr. Arash Anoshiravani, a Stanford Medicine physician, conducts a health screening on Nicole Zamora, 15, an East Palo Alto Academy sophomore, inside the Teen Health Van run by Stanford Medicine Children’s Health outside the school.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Teen Van continue serving lower-income, predominantly Black and brown and LGBTQ+ youth.

Goal: $30,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 17

Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT)

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

EXPERIENCING EXPERIMENTS

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

In classrooms around the Bay Area, old Adobe Acrobat DVDs, rubber bands and straws are leading rich second lives.

The donated materials, delivered to schools by the nonprofit RAFT and assembled by small hands, become playful science projects: tiny race cars that start and stop, climb and crash — proof of the power of physics.

“It’s a wonderful lab experience that comes to us, already put together,” said Gilbert Rodriquez, principal of Mt. Pleasant Elementary School in east San Jose, where giddy fifth-graders circled a table and then sprawled across a classroom floor to test their rolling creations.

For nearly 30 years, the Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT) has been helping teachers transform the classroom learning experience by offering interactive education, buttressing a traditional curriculum.

“Hands on, minds on,” said Nimisha Khanduja, director of RAFT’s learning programs. “Lessons aren’t one-dimensional.

They’re three-dimensional. That’s much more engaging.”

But with pandemic-related learning loss and low test scores, teachers face increasing pressure to rely on textbooks.

Handcrafted projects take planning, and risk getting squeezed out of busy academic schedules. The projects can be messy, and demand time to create and clean up. And science-focused field trips are expensive, costing $1,500 to $1,800 per trip to load kids onto a bus.

RAFT’s new “Maker Mobile,” a white Ford cargo van packed with project kits, makes things simple. The van travels to schools anywhere within Santa Clara County, as well as parts of Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Mateo counties.

One recent morning, the Maker Mobile rolled into the schoolyard of Mt. Pleasant Elementary School, then set up the day’s lesson — energy, friction and momentum — for a crowd of wide-eyed youngsters.

“What’s going to happen? You’re going to find out!” said coordinator Michael Ramot.

Michael Ramot, RAFT’s lead coordinator for STEAM education of events, demonstrates a science experiment for fifth-graders at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School in San Jose.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help 500 students in under-resourced schools participate in RAFT activities. For each $50 donation, one student will receive up to five additional RAFT projects. Donations also will help the “Maker Mobile” visit more schools, as well as boost the number of teacher trainings.

Goal: $25,000

18 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Sunnyvale Community Services

A PLACE TO TURN FOR SUPPORT got to work helping Johnson sign up for disability benefits and rental assistance. The group also negotiated a deal with his landlord to let Johnson stay in the apartment for another six months Things were looking up for Benjamin Johnson. After a few and avoid falling back into homelessness. years living out of his car in Fremont, he’d landed an apartment “It was like, oh my goodness, someone’s helping me,” Johnson in Sunnyvale and a steady job as a cook at a bar and grill in town. said, almost disbelieving his good fortune.

He was even in line for a raise, set to take home $2,500 a Sunnyvale Community Services aids low-income, unhoused month. and elderly residents across Sunnyvale and the Alviso community Then suddenly in January, the main artery to his heart tore in San Jose. It’s one of seven “emergency assistance service” nonopen, sending him to intensive care and stripping him of the use profits with the goal of preventing homelessness and hunger in of his legs.

Santa Clara County.

“I’m glad to be here,” Johnson said. “Because everybody said The organization provides weekly food donations to more than it’s slim to none chances that you’re making it.”

2,400 people and case management for hundreds of clients.

But without being able to work and facing eviction, John“They don’t have anyone else to turn to,” said Roshuna Creson, 45, was unsure how he would endure the grueling recovery swell, the nonprofit’s program director. “A lot of individuals’ supahead. port systems either have moved away or lost contact, so they reIn March, one of his former roommates reached out to Sunny- ally rely on the support we’re able to provide. A little kindness vale Community Services. A caseworker with the nonprofit soon and compassion go a long way.”

By Ethan Varian >> evarian@bayareanewsgroup.com

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Benjamin Johnson, a 45year-old paraplegic, and his son, Devin, arrive with their dog, Nina, at Sunnyvale Community Services in Sunnyvale. The nonprofit helped Johnson receive disability benefits and rental assistance after a medical crisis so he could stay in his Sunnyvale apartment.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help Sunnyvale Community Services assist 140 families with rental assistance, food and other critical services.

Goal: $35,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 19

Lupus Foundation of Northern California

‘I REALIZED I WASN’T ALONE’ bacterial infection.

“At one point, a doctor prepared my family for the worst and said, ‘She’s dying and we don’t know why,’ ” Siebenmorgen said.

You may have heard of lupus but probably don’t really know In the end, the specialists agreed with her doctor that the what it is. That was true of San Jose resident Jane Siebenmoronly logical diagnosis was lupus. But it was only the beginning gen in 2004, when she started feeling fatigue while on a family of her battle with the autoimmune disease, for which there is no trip to Europe. clear cause and no cure.

Within a year, she was tired all the time and her symptoms “In the beginning I had to ask for help with regular daily had grown to include weight loss, hair loss and circulatory activities, which both infuriated me and terrified me,” said problems in her fingers, which would turn white, then dark blue Siebenmorgen, who had to take medical leave from her job. and then red. Siebenmorgen went to her doctor who suspected “There were lots of tears at first but I also had an odd sense of she had lupus and referred her to a rheumatologist. relief because now I knew the name of what I was fighting.”

The following Monday, Siebenmorgen wasn’t feeling well at It was her younger sister, Carol Siebenmorgen, who discovwork and co-workers called 911 after discovering her heart was ered the Lupus Foundation of Northern California when she racing at more than 200 beats per minute. That started a three- was researching the disease, hoping to calm her sister’s nerves. week hospital odyssey of tests, talks among specialists and “I realized I wasn’t alone, and there were so many others scary moments for her family. While in the hospital, she suffighting the same battle and so many people fighting alongside fered two grand mal seizures, a stroke and developed a of us,” Jane Siebenmorgen said.

By Sal Pizarro >> spizarro@bayareanewsgroup.com

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Jane Siebenmorgen, who was the 2023 Outrun Lupus 5K honoree, gets a hug after speaking at the September benefit event in Campbell.

She’s found a supportive community at the Lupus Foundation of Northern California.

HOWTOHELP Donations can help the Lupus Foundation of Northern California offer services and programs including virtual health conference and virtual pharmacist conferences in English and Spanish, a staffed lupus helpline and administrative support for the Bay Area chapters.

Goal: $5,000

20 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Timpany Center at San Jose State University

HOPE FLOATS FOR DISABLED

By Steve Palopoli >> spalopoli@bayareanewsgroup.com

Gerardo Garay is up to his chest in the crystal blue water of the pool at the Timpany Center in San Jose.

With both hands, he steadies Kenny Fernandez, who is surrounded by a flotation device, and has his feet planted firmly on the smooth white bottom of the pool.

“Up!” says Garay loudly, with a commanding confidence, and Fernandez raises his left foot. Garay counts to five, and then says “Right!” Fernandez lifts his left leg as Garay begins to count again.

“Keep it up, keep it up, keep it up!” implores Garay — and Fernandez does. They then begin to walk forward, taking slow and careful steps — a remarkable feat considering that both men were once told they would never walk.

Over at the side of the 100,000-gallon pool, Fernandez’ mom watches intently, not quite used to seeing this yet. Her son was

born with a type of cerebral palsy that primarily affects the legs, and he lives with her at home, where she helps him with almost any movement he makes, like getting in and out of the shower.

For years, Esther Fernandez had heard about the Timpany Center, how it specializes in kinesiology — the study of movement — with a pool, fitness center and staff devoted to movement therapy.

But as a working single mom, she couldn’t take her son there for weekly therapy until after the California Family Rights Act took effect in 2021, allowing her to leave work for half-hour sessions.

So watching him walking in water still comes with plenty of surprises, like when she suddenly hears Garay tell him, “Walk backwards.”

“Ooh, that’s kind of hard,” she says with a touch of nervousness.

“He’s never done that one.”

But, in front of her eyes, he does.

“He gave up a little bit because the doctors would say that (he would never walk),” says Esther Fernandez. “But he’s pushing himself. He says, ‘I will walk.’ He’s trying to beat the odds.”

NHAT V. MEYER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Gerardo Garay, left, a personal trainer at the San Jose Timpany Center, works with Kenny Fernandez, who has cerebral palsy, in the pool. Fernandez is learning to walk in the water.

HOWTOHELP Donations to Timpany Center at San Jose State University will help them purchase newer and more accessible fitness equipment, assist more clients to achieve their fitness, wellness, and rehabilitation goals as well as expand service learning opportunities for more than 25 SJSU students.

Goal: $50,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 21

PitStop Outreach

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS

By Luis Melecio-Zambrano >> lmeleciozambrano@bayareanewsgroup.com

On a recent dark, cloudy night, Sam “Pit” Brown and Jan Bernstein Chargin drove through the streets of Gilroy, trunks full of dozens of hot meals tucked away in insulated bags.

They stopped by a roadside to hand out food before pulling up to an unlit underpass where big rigs zoomed by illuminating the RVs and trucks clustered into a loose encampment below. Then Bernstein Chargin honked her horn and shouted, “Hello, It’s Jan. I got dinner.”

That’s the sound of a meal call for PitStop Outreach, the nonprofit that Brown co-founded with Bernstein Chargin. Every weekday, Brown and a small force of helpers hand deliver anywhere up to 150 hot meals a night, offering much needed supplies and assistance to the homeless residents of Gilroy.

“Our mission is to be there for people on the street while they’re trying to survive, while they’re going through their

housing process, while they’re trying to deal with the day to day,” said Bernstein Chargin.

PitStop first took shape in early 2020, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ground services to a halt. While the soup kitchens that helped feed people in Gilroy shut down, the need for them stayed the same.

“When the pandemic started, we were on the frontlines the first week,” said Brown. He and Bernstein Chargin were on the streets handing out what food they could and assessing the needs of houseless people in Gilroy.

Together, they set up sanitation stations, handed out masks and hand sanitizers, aided with clean-ups, and gathered tent donations so that individuals could quarantine and shelter in place.

Initially, they packed meals in churches and community centers, but now, they have a permanent space with a sign outside displaying PitStop’s logo: a pitbull with a bright red heart.

Pitstop Outreach founder Sam Brown in front of his nonprofit agency, which distributes up to 150 hot meals every weekday in Gilroy.

HOWTOHELP Donations will help PitStop Outreach pay rent and utilities at their headquarters and aid them in providing stipends to give volunteers and homeless individuals a chance to earn money while they seek permanent housing or employment.

Goal: $15,000

22 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A SAFE HAVEN FOR TEENS

By Robert Salonga >> rsalonga@bayareanewsgroup.com

At the Washington United Youth Center, there is strength in numbers.

As in the number of teens who support each other in the Washington-Guadalupe neighborhood just south of downtown San Jose, where just walking the streets is a tenuous proposition because of a block-by-block patchwork of territorial gang claims.

As in the number of adult counselors, social workers and staff who work tirelessly to ensure young people in the neighborhood have a safe space to do homework, talk to someone about their lives, pick up a pool cue or take to the handball courts after school.

The conflicts and tensions that exist outside are checked at the door, led by a ban on wearing anything that could be considered promoting gang colors or culture. Teens who cluster in the halls are broken up and directed to the game room, or the gym: If you

want to stay, you’ve got to be active.

“This is a neutral ground where everyone can coexist. Red, blue, whatever your neighborhood is, that stops at the door of the building,” said James McCaskill, senior director for community advocacy and family supports at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, which operates the center.

That mission is echoed throughout the center’s halls, from both those who work there to the scores of teens who call the site a home away from home. Many of them are served through the organization’s Youth Empowerment for Success (YES) program that has worked with gang-impacted youth and young adults for two decades.

It’s not always easy to take the leap. Diana Espino, 16, remembers venturing to the center for the first time and not knowing anyone. The same went for 15-year-old Amy Ibarra, who attended a different school. But soon enough, they became fast friends.

“Everyone here, the longer you’re here, the closer you get to them,” Ibarra said.

Monica Bravo, a case manager for the Youth Empowerment for Success program, hands a slice of pizza to Diana Espino at the Washington United Youth Center in San Jose. The youth center is safe space to do homework, play sports or find a listening ear.

HOWTOHELP Donations to Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County would help them equip a new computer lab, and aid up to 300 at risk or gang-impacted youth and young adults.

Goal: $45,000

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 23

Pink Ribbon Good

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

HELP WHILE PATIENTS HEAL But that new home address didn’t help ease the toll of undergoing months of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

In fact, Ashford’s simple daily necessities — travel, nutrition, Turning 30 is a major milestone in many young adults’ lives. household chores, encouragement — proved to be some of the For Esther Ashford, celebrating her 30th birthday this October most challenging roadblocks to surmount. She feared becoming meant she was still alive. a financial or emotional burden for her aging parents, working Ashford was diagnosed with stage 2B cervical cancer at the siblings and young children while trying to manage her daily beginning of the year, prompting her to return home to the U.S. appointments. with her two children — 10-year-old daughter Elisha and 7-yearFortunately, one of the nurses at Santa Clara Valley Medical old son E.J. — after more than a decade living in the PhilipCenter connected Ashford with Pink Ribbon Good, a Los Altospines. based nonprofit dedicated to covering families’ basic needs durIn March, her parents living in Milpitas convinced Ashford, ing cancer treatments in the South Bay. a single mother who had recently earned her registered nurs“It was really perfect timing when a nurse told me about Pink ing license abroad, that flying back home would help provide Ribbon Good, because I would be in big debt right now if it support and a fresh medical perspective, especially since earweren’t for them,” Ashford said. In addition to easing financial lier routine health check-ups overseas, including ultrasounds strains, she is grateful that the nonprofit “gave me motivation, and pap smears, had failed to detect a mass growing inside her but also hope that I would get better and the knowledge that body — despite her urging that something was wrong. people do care.”

By Katie Lauer >> klauer@bayareanewsgroup.com

Esther Ashford, with her 10-year-old daughter Elisha and 7-year-old son E.J., is grateful for the financial and emotional support she got from Pink Ribbon Good during her treatments for cervical cancer. It made the single mother realize “that people do care.”

HOWTOHELP Donations to Pink Ribbon will help support up to 35 clients with free services, including healthy meals, roundtrip rides to treatments, and other activities.

Goal: $25,000

24 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 111

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2023

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

2

3

Your Gifts Personal Improve Help Others Connection Awareness of You can help Whether it’s a Local Issues

4 Crisis Response

5

6

7

Community Inspiration TaxSupport and Legacy Deductible

When disaster Nonprofits play Your charitable When you people, animals, cause that has When you donate strikes, an essential actions inspire donate to an or the planet. personally role in local others to join IRS-approved money or volunteer, nonprofits are Choose a cause affected you or you can improve quick to respond, communities by in, creating a nonprofit that is close to someone you providing providing vital ripple effect, organization awareness of local your heart and know, donating issues like poverty aid, relief, services and and contribute like Wish Book, make a financial to nonprofits and support resources.

Your to a lasting your gift is and hunger. gift or volunteer allows you to to affected donation directly legacy of tax-deductible.

By spreading your time. Either channel your uplifts your positive It may not be awareness, you also communities. way, you’ll be emotions into encourage others Your donation community and impact. the main reason helping others. meaningful ensures rapid and enhances its you give, but it to support your action. effective crisis well-being. can be a nice cause and help intervention. side effect. those in need.

TO DONATE

By web, please visit:

wishbook.mercurynews.com

By mail (check payable to Wish Book): The Mercury News Wish Book P.O. Box 909, San Jose, CA 95106