COLTON COURIER WWe e ee
By Manny Sandoval
On Nov. 13, Sen. Eloise Gómez
Reyes, D-Colton, honored 30 young leaders from across the Inland Empire at her 9th Annual 30 Under 30 Awards Ceremony, spotlighting organizers, public servants, artists and professionals reshaping the region’s future.
“The long-term success of the Inland Empire depends on the positive impact our young people have on our region,” Reyes said. “I am confident that by elevating today’s leaders, we inspire others to make bold moves that redefine our region as one of innovation and progress. I’m incredibly proud of the young people of Senate District 29, and hope they feel seen and supported.”
By Daphne Marquez
On November 8, the annual Aristrong Car Show, Concert, and Kickball Tournament was hosted on Colton High School’s Athletic fields. The event was organized by The Aristrong Foundation, an organization founded in memory of Arianna "Ari" Villalobos to support families in need.
Launched in 2017, the 30 Under 30 Awards recognize young changemakers in community activism, business, education, health, art and social entrepreneurship.
A few of those honored this year include San Bernardino communications strategist Alicia Aguayo, Colton Police Officer Nilda
The event began seven years ago, after the Villalobos family lost their 15-year-old daughter “Ari” to stage 4 Glioblastoma Brain Cancer. Their Foundation is meant to not only spread awareness for children with cancer, but also raise funds for pediatric cancer research, aligning with its slogan, “Bringing Hope And Healing to Hurting Hearts.”
Alex Villalobos, Ari’s uncle, said, “It's
about honoring the legacy and the wishes Ari had, but also building community and helping people and making everybody aware that we have all these great resources to offer to them.”
Near the event entrance, food vendors like Dutch Bros joined a raffle ticket booth and blood donation service Lifestream to provide guests with a wide
30 Under 30 (cont.)
- Campos, KVCR Marketing & Communications Coordinator Justin “Cody” Verduzco and Wilmer “Amina” Carter Legacy Award recipient Angel Rodriguez.
Aguayo, Senior Marketing & Communications Coordinator for the Inland Empire Labor Institute, was recognized for more than a decade of organizing and narrative work rooted in San Bernardino and the wider Inland Empire. She said Reyes honored her “for my involvement in San Bernardino,” noting that she has been active through organizations including Inland Congregations United for Change, People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, and now the Inland Empire Labor Institute.
Describing the mission of the Inland Empire Labor Institute, Aguayo said the organization is focused on workforce and economic development that does not sacrifice community wellbeing.
“We are based in the Inland Empire and we focus on workforce and economic development,” she said. “We’re shifting the narrative of what a good job and economic ecosystem looks like here and not having to necessarily negatively impact our community. We can have good jobs without it having to come at the cost of our resident’s well being.”
Looking ahead, Aguayo said her goal is for local workers to have real choices, not just survival jobs.
“I think the goal would be for people to have the freedom to get to choose their job,” she said. “So many of us in this region are kind of forced to take on jobs just because of necessity. And then they’re not good paying jobs with full benefits. They’re not enough to be able to sustain families.” Aguayo said her hope is for a thriving, family-supporting economy where residents have the freedom to choose stable, goodpaying jobs instead of taking whatever work they can find out of necessity.
She added that basic supports like childcare are essential so parents can “actually enjoy this life here… instead of having to work away our whole life, enjoy our children, enjoy our community.”
From Colton, Officer Nilda Campos was honored as a leader in community policing and digital outreach whose work has transformed the department–community engagement. Recognized as the Colton Police Department’s 2024 Officer of the Year, Campos uses social media and public-facing events to build trust, keep residents informed and highlight positive stories about local youth, families and neighborhood initiatives.
San Bernardino’s Justin Cody Verduzco was recognized for his work at KVCR, where he serves as Marketing & Communications Coordinator. Verduzco helps expand the reach and community impact of public media by promoting educational programming, local storytelling and outreach that connects Inland Empire audiences to PBS, PBS Kids and NPR content. His efforts support a broader push to use media as a tool for civic engagement and community learning.
The Wilmer “Amina” Carter Legacy
Award went to Angel Rodriguez, Associate Vice Chancellor at the San Bernardino Community College District and a statewide leader expanding college access, financial aid awareness and educational equity. Rodriguez was recognized for his work supporting students and public higher education, and for helping build pathways that allow Inland Empire residents to pursue degrees and careers close to home.
This year’s 30 Under 30 honorees represented cities including Bloomington, Colton, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Highland, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, San Bernardino and Upland. The list also featured sustainability advocates like Bloomington’s Joaquin Castillejos, a lead organizer at CCAEJ championing environmental justice and community empowerment; youth-focused nonprofit leaders such as Fontana’s Weslee Lewis, founder of Pure Soles, which has provided more than 900 pairs of shoes and essential items to underserved youth; and policy and student leaders such as Fontana’s Sophia Awad and Rancho Cucamonga’s Valeria Chavez, who are advancing equity, student rights and civic engagement.
San Bernardino was especially well represented, with honorees including community organizer and grants manager Yasmeen Dabbas; filmmaker and student leader Andie Marie Garcia; community health worker Richard Jones Jr.; global música mexicana artist and entrepreneur Jesús Ortiz Paz (JOP); Director of Partnerships for the IE 66ers and youth pastor Christian Sihombing; and foster youth advocate Daysi Silvas-Ramirez.
Rounding out the 2025 cohort were Bloomington’s Miguel Muñoz Valtierra; Colton’s Reyna Sanches; Fontana’s Kameron Pyant and Sarah Nguyen; Grand Terrace’s Andy Palomares; Highland’s Jonathon Castaneda and Breanna Lane; Rancho Cucamonga’s Carson Fajardo, Hannah Monet Grady, Mina Hanin, Pedro Quintero and Srishti Surana; Redlands’ Zachary Cortz and Edgar Gonzalez; Rialto’s Kathleen Bojorquez and Jailene Paniagua; and Upland’s Azalea Segura-Mora and Jasmine Munoz.
Reflecting on the Nov. 13 ceremony, Aguayo said the evening highlighted how much talent exists in the Inland Empire.
“It was really great,” she said. “It was amazing to see Eloise because I know she was gone for a bit due to her health and it was amazing to see her there, to be recognized around a bunch of other really amazing young people. In this region, I feel like people do not recognize the talent around here… They were like 20 years old, just putting together nonprofits and helping the unhoused. I was impressed by all of the honorees”
For Aguayo, the takeaway from both the award and her own journey is the importance of sustained investment in youth.
“It’s really important to invest in our youth,” she said, recalling how she began organizing at 13. “I hope that people can always continue to invest in young people because we’re all growing and we need people to follow-suit and continue the work.”
Aristrong Fundraiser (cont.)
- range of activities.
One of the attendees and raffle winners, Elaine Cabrera said, “I have family that comes here and they come every year, and I have breast cancer, so I want to support children who go through similar experiences. I'm the first in my family to have cancer so it has been a struggle for my family.”
Since the start of the Aristrong event, its impact in Colton has grown significantly, not just for the attendees, but for the people participating in the event as well.
Executive Director of the Childhood Cancer Foundation of Southern California, Stephanie Avila, ran a booth to grow the support for childhood cancer, she said, “You see pink and breast cancer awareness everywhere, but it's nice for communities to see the community back childhood cancer.”
Avila had a brother and sister that were diagnosed with cancer both at young ages, so for Avila, there were clear effects on her family. She said, “I could see the impact of my parents not being as involved in our lives, like we had sitters, we had family that was there, but the priority was getting my sister back to being healthy. So I saw how it affected the family financially.”
Through attending the Childhood Cancer Foundation of Southern California’s events due to her siblings, Avila worked her way up to Executive Director to highlight the importance of their foundation. “I came on staff because I knew how it had impacted my life, and I wanted to do the same for other families.”
The Aristrong Foundation also supports families through its Aristrong Memorial Scholarship where they pick students in the Colton Joint Unified School District that represent the “spirit of the Aristrong Foundation.” This year’s winners were Sebastian Tabares and Danaya Figueroa.
Alex Villalobos said, “We try to do scholarships for a student at Colton and Grand Terrace high every year, and that was started a few years ago. Ari was on path to attend school in Grand Terrace. So it was just really, really important to us. If we're gonna have this, we should help as many people as we can in our community.”
As the Aristrong Foundation continues to grow, so does the community involvement, with about 150 cars in attendance for the Carshow while the kickball tournament also had 12 participating teams, the winners being Colton High’s Football team, and live performances by Breaking Free, Angel Baby, and more.
‘Ernie Would Be Ecstatic’: Garcia Center Gala Marks 10 Years, Honors Dotti with Art Gallery Naming
By Manny Sandoval
On a rainy Nov. 14 evening, the Garcia Center for the Arts turned its auditorium into a celebration of legacy and possibility, as its 2nd annual gala marked 10 years of arts advocacy in San Bernardino and raised funds to sustain programming into 2026.
Emceed by Miriam Nieto of San Bernardino Generation Now and hosted by the center’s Executive Director Michael Segura, the 10-year celebration focused squarely on the center’s future — keeping its programs accessible, its historic building maintained and its creative spaces alive for the next generation of artists and youth.
Segura told guests that while the center has made strides, significant needs remain behind the scenes.
“We have a lot of infrastructure improvements being made and still many that need to be made,” Segura said. “We also need more staffing, it'd be great to hire more fulltime staff. We are still looking for sponsorships for the gallery and sponsorships for the Mercado 536 (the entrepreneur co-op space), for the makerspace, studios, our ceramics classes, printmaking classes, and a new residency program we are launching in the new year.”
Memberships, he added, will be critical to creating a stable financial foundation that allows the center to shoulder some of those costs on its own.
“We do have our memberships program coming up too and that will help us bring in sustainable funding to keep the space operating and pay for some of the infrastructure improvements ourselves,” Segura said.
Segura said that anyone interested in filling in any of the center’s funding gaps, or interested sponsors, can DM the organization on Instagram, call (909) 888-6400, or email msegura@thegarciacenter.org.
At the gala, the emotional centerpiece of the night was Guest of Honor Dorothy “Dotti” Garcia, wife of the center’s namesake, who has helped carry forward the vision of a vibrant, community-rooted arts hub. Segura presented her with a glassblown sculpture topped with a frog — one of her favorite animals.
“You have helped ensure people’s creative spirits are not extinguished and helped ensure youth grow up continuing to be creative. Thank you Dotti, this sculpture is supposed to symbolize the fire of creativity,” Segura said as he handed her the piece.
Taking the microphone, Dotti reflected on the first time she and her husband saw the building that would eventually become the Garcia Center for the Arts.
“I remember the first time Ernie and I passed by the Garcia Center for the Arts’ building I said ‘I want to live there’ and he said, No, we are not going to live there, we have a house. And since then I became very involved in all the organizations that have used this building and added to this building. Recently, I walked through the center and this space has far surpassed the dreams that Ernie and I had for it and I am so impressed with everything that is going on here, including the programs and staff.”
She closed with a simple but powerful reflection on what the night — and the center’s growth — would have meant to her late husband. “ I just know that Ernie would be absolutely ecstatic by what has transpired here.”
That sentiment set the stage for a surprise announcement from Educator and Garcia Center Board Member Tim Garcia, Ernie and Dotti’s son. “Our art gallery here is now going to be named the Dr. Dorothy Garcia Art Gallery,” he said, as the audience roared in applause.
Full story at IECN.com.
Desert Empire Filmmaker Nonprofit Aims to Make Inland Empire the ‘Hollywood of Indie Film’
By Manny Sandoval
When Cindy and Casey Ball talk about the future of film in the Inland Empire, they don’t hedge. They talk about transformation.
“I want my big vision. I want to make the Inland Empire the Hollywood of indie film,” said co-founder and president Casey Ball, describing the mission of the Desert Empire Filmmaker Foundation, a new nonprofit serving filmmakers across the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley.
The organization, known as DEFF, began taking shape around 2024, when the couple realized they didn’t want local filmmakers to feel forced to move to Los Angeles to build a career. The idea became real in 2025, when they started formal nonprofit paperwork, entered what they call their “awareness phase,” and began showing up anywhere film or arts conversations were happening.
“Right now we’re in a process of just letting everybody know basically that we’re here,” said co-founder and executive director Cindy Ball. “We’re outreach. We’re just trying to meet as many people and let them know what our ideas are and that we want to help people.” That work includes attending festivals and arts events, talking with local and state officials, helping with story and scripts, and guiding filmmakers through production and the film festival world.
Their recent collaboration, the wrestling short “Babyface,” grew out of that approach. Local announcer and filmmaker Mike Wexler wanted to direct his first film, and the Balls helped him shape a story about an up-and-coming tag team wrestling duo pushed to make a shady choice that tests their partnership. The film was shot at Romero’s Boxing Gym in San Bernardino, a space that opened its doors to the crew for days and even cooked tacos
for the shoot.
“He’s gone through hard times and he’s having to rebuild,” Casey said of the gym’s owner. “He’s got to rebuild his whole roster… and that’s why I was like, I gotta help this guy too.” Every time this short film (Babyface) is promoted, the gym is promoted too.
For Cindy, the Inland Empire’s film potential is tied to how different it is from Los Angeles.
“It’s not saturated like LA,” she said. “Out here… local small business owners… have opened their doors and not charged us anything for filming at their establishments. It’s more that they’re intrigued. Like, ‘Oh, wow, you want to film something. That’s so cool.’” She added that the region can double for almost anything: “Inland Empire… that’s still, like, Big Bear. That’s Joshua Tree… we have almost every geographical kind of environment.”
But the couple is blunt about the systemic obstacles. Casey recently testified at a California Arts Council listening session in San Bernardino, pointing out that the Inland Empire’s population rivals several better-funded coastal counties combined.
“In California, the per capita spending, government spending on arts per person is $3,” he said. “For people in San Bernardino County… it’s 40 cents per person. That’s about 15% of the average. And here’s what we’re doing already without help, without that arts funding assistance.”
DEFF’s early momentum has been helped by Arts Connection, the nonprofit arts council for San Bernardino County. The Balls joined its fiscal sponsorship program, which allows them to operate with the structure of an established 501(c)(3) while they work with an attorney on their own federal nonprofit status. “We operate
under the guidance of a proper 501 that’s well established and well connected,” Casey said. “They’ve been helping us out continuously.”
Their credibility comes not just from advocacy but from work on the ground. Before launching DEFF, Cindy and Casey helped lead Phase Three Films, producing the short “Extra Hearts” with support from San Bernardino Valley College and Revival Arcade as part of the College 48 competition. “It kind of proved to us how well the machine was working,” Cindy said. “And it verifies that we do know what we’re doing.”
“Extra Hearts” went on to screen at Filmapalooza in Portugal after winning its local 48 Hour Film Project competition. “Filmapalooza is where all the 48 winners go,” Casey said. “I always describe it as like the World Cup of independent film — short films.”
Money and education are at the heart of what they want to change. Cindy says too many filmmakers focus only on making the film and not on how to get it seen. “We can make a film, but if it just lives on our hard drive, no one knows about it, then that’s like a big [problem],” she said. She points to a stat she shares often: “$1 invested in film is $24 for the return,” she said, citing a trickle down spending on hotels, restaurants, gas, stores and local jobs.
Casey learned the financial side by necessity on a 2023 short he crowdfunded. “I crowdfunded it and I got way more than I was hoping for,” he said. “But I learned… you have to raise your own money, market it yourself… Nobody’s gonna come to you with a blank check and say, ‘Here you go kid, make your dreams happen.’” He now encourages filmmakers to “quantify everything,” from craft services and cleaning supplies to what it would have cost to pay nonunion scale. “People like to say, ‘Oh, we made it for nothing.’
But it’s not true because everything costs something.”
DEFF also emphasizes showing up — on set and at festivals. “So few people even go on the circuit or give a proper festival run,” Casey said. “Maybe they don’t even go to them when it screens. Showing up is the name of the game.” On their own projects, they’ve brought five to 10 first-timers onto set at once, giving new actors and crew members their first IMDb credits. Part of the reason they structured DEFF as a nonprofit is to unlock relationships that might not exist for a for-profit production company. Shortly after filing paperwork with the state, they started approaching vendors. “We went and approached every single vendor there, everybody,” Casey said.
That approach has already led to concrete support. RED Digital Cinema hosted 11 Inland Empire filmmakers at its Orange County headquarters and later loaned DEFF a cinema camera package, valued at about $17,000, for their most recent 48 Hour film. Companies like Scriptation, ShotDeck and Saturation.io have provided software licenses for giveaways and are working with DEFF on future workshops.
Programming is growing around those partnerships. The Most DEF Podcast gives local filmmakers a platform to talk about their projects and experiences shooting in the region. A planned 2026 event called “DEFF Fest” would combine a film festival, mixer and fundraiser. DEFF is also launching a YouTube series that introduces younger viewers to influential films and contextualizes why they matter, after noticing that “so many Gen Z people really have not seen any movies,” Casey said.
More information about Desert Empire Filmmaker Foundation is available at def.foundation and on Instagram at @desertempirefilmmaker.
Thank you to the dignitaries listed below for sponsoring IECN’s Thanksgiving edition
Thank you to the dignitaries listed below for sponsoring IECN’s Thanksgiving edition in El Chicano, Colton Courier, and Rialto Record. Your support helps us continue in El Chicano, Colton Courier, and Rialto Record. Your support helps us continue delivering meaningful news to our communities! delivering meaningful news to our communities!
Thank you to the dignitaries listed below for sponsoring IECN’s Thanksgiving edition in El Chicano, Colton Courier, and Rialto Record. Your support helps us continue delivering meaningful news to our communities!
Diana Z. Rodriguez
Chancellor, San Bernardino Community College District
Website: SBCCD.edu
Eloise Gómez Reyes
California State Senator, 29th District
Phone: (909) 888-5360 Website: sd29.senate.ca.gov
Joe Baca Jr.
San Bernardino County 5th District Supervisor, Vice Chair
Phone: (909) 387-4565 Website: bosd5.sbcounty.gov
James C. Ramos
Assemblymember, 45 district th Website: a45.asmdc.org
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh
California State Senator, 19th District
Phone: (909) 335-0271
Website: sr19.senate.ca.gov
San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools
Phone: (909) 888-3228 Website: sbcss.net
Dr. Stephanie Houston
Chair, San Bernardino Community College District, Board of Trustees
Website: drstephaniehouston.com
Joseph Williams
Vice Chair, San Bernardino Community College District, Board of Trustees
Email: Info@josephrwilliams.com
