W e e k l y RIALTO RECORD
IECN
.com June 13 , 2019
Vol 1 7, NO. 39
Se aml ess Summer Food P r og ram k i c k s o f f a t Jo e S a m p s o n P a r k By Maryjoy Duncan
THIS WEEK Gloria’s Cor ner Pg. 3
Special Olympics To r c h R u n
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arbequed chicken fresh off the grill, corn on the cob and healthy ice dessert were what youth and their families were treated to courtesy of the Rialto Unified School District Nutrition Services Department during the 2nd Annual Seamless Summer Food Service kick-off event on Friday, June 7 at Joe Sampson Park. Over 1,000 youth showed up to the occasion that featured a visit from Congressman Pete Aguilar and Congresswoman Norma Torres. “The summer feeding program provides an opportunity for kids 2-18 years old to continue receiving free and nutritious meals while school is out,” mentioned Fausat Rahman-Davies, Agent: Nutrition Services. “It has become important to the Child Nutrition Department that we improve the connections we have
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INSIDE Gloria’s Corner
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Words To Think About 5 Opinion
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Legal Notices
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H OW TO R E A CH U S
Inland Empir e Community Newspaper s Of f ice: (909) 381 -9898 Fax: (909) 384- 0406 E di torial: ie cn1 @mac.com Adver tising : sale s@ie cn.c om
Families enjoyed activities that included the Les Schwab Tires obstacle course, face painting, building project courtesy of Home Depot, arts and crafts and fitness workouts, to name a few. Over the summer there will be free daily activities at both Joe Sampson and Rialto City parks that range from literacy, dance, music, math, science and gardening. Activities take place in conjunction with free lunches from 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. The summer food program will be held Monday – Friday until July 26 (with the exception of July 4) from 11:15 – 12:15 at Joe Sampson and Rialto City parks, Carl Johnson Community Center; Carter, Eisenhower and Rialto High schools; Frisbie, Jehue, Kolb and Rialto Middle schools. More photos on page 2
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RUSD
The Seamless Summer Food program kicked off with a barbeque event on Friday at Joe Sampson Park that provided lunch to over 1,200 people, 1,000 of whom were youth.
Organization helps victims of domestic, sexual, human traf ficking abuse transfor m homes By Marina Rojas
Valley College hosts CA Surgeon General Dr. Har ris
with our community and with our students in the classroom.”
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une is a month known for celebrations - weddings, Father's Day, Flag Day, and lots of picnics and beach trips thanks to weather that's usually quite amicable. This June, a family in Rialto will be celebrating a new beginning of sorts, thanks to an organization called W.E.L.L. (Women Empowered through Labors of Love). W.E.LL. is the brainchild of Denese Lopez, founded in January of 2018 in Whittier, California. It's an organization that is committed to empowering women and children survivors of domestic, sexual and human trafficking abuse. The focus of her group is spotlighted on the survivors' living space. The idea for this emphasis came to Lopez in her time as a volunteer at a domestic violence emergency shelter for women and children. Having fled from their abuser, they would come to the shelter with only the clothes on their backs and sometimes very few other things. Around the same time, Lopez had experienced divorce, and
found herself a single mother with priorities of putting food on the table, clothes on everyone's back and a roof over the family's head. Just like the people she was rendering aid to in the shelter, anything outside of needs for survival were not high on the “get list”. As she looked around her house, she longed for a home pleasantly decorated that would be warm and inviting to others as well as her family, but that was a luxury far beyond her reach. As the survivors she came to know and befriend would leave the shelter for their new lives, she would think about how they deserved to go home to a place that would be fitting of their new beginning. Lopez felt they should be able to start over with a beautiful place to call home, to be a haven of peace and safety for the family and to offer a welcoming place for their friends and family to visit. So many times, Lopez explained, abused women are cut off from others, and their homes are a source of embarrassment or shame to them. One positive way to enforce their new life changes WELL, cont. on next pg.
COURTESY PHOTO
Denese Lopez of W.E.L.L. "We are capable of achieving anything in life we believe. Sometimes we just need someone to give us a little push."