bigger’

Odin Rasco Staff writer

After 16 years at the helm of the El Dorado Community Foundation, Bill Roby is readying to retire at the end of 2023.

An organization built to support and strengthen the El Dorado County community, the foundation maximizes donor impact though offering grants, scholarships, educational opportunities, emergency response funds and more. Though such foundations can be found in many metropolitan areas, the EDCF’s status as an accredited organization in a rural area sets it apart as a rarity. The foundation is powered by donations coming from the community itself, batching together donations to exceed what a single donation would otherwise be able to achieve.

“You can give $200 but be part of a $100,000 giving and that’s expanding philanthropy,” Roby said. “You don’t have to be a rich person to be a philanthropist; you can give $25 and still be part of something bigger.”

Roby’s approach, bolstered by previous experience in the nonprofit and corporate sectors, focuses on innovating the foundation’s approach to philanthropy. One upshot of the approach is the speed and flexibility the foundation has to respond to community needs; when the Caldor Fire started the foundation was distributing funds less than a week later.

As executive director, Roby has seen the foundation grow substantially, going from providing $350,000 in yearly community distributions to $3 million. Roby’s leadership has also garnered the organization a bevy of accolades, including multiple proclamations from government officials and recognition as Business of the Year by the El Dorado Hills Chamber of Commerce in 2022.

Though the foundation has earned recognition

Oak Park Bloods plead guilty in EDH gun theft

Isaac Streeter

Staff writer

Members of the Oak Park Bloods, a Sacramentobased gang, have pleaded guilty to burglary of an El Dorado County home where firearms were taken.

Two suspects, 33-year-old Nigel Williams and 25-year-old Lamont Perry broke into an El Dorado Hills home March 30, stealing three handguns, one shotgun one AR-style rifle and two ballistic armor vests before returning to Sacramento to distribute the stolen items, according to Savannah Broddrick of the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office.

The identification and arrest of Williams and Perry April 5 was made possible by a joint effort of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office and the Sacramento Police Department’s Gang Investigation Unit.

Two of the stolen firearms were recovered while an ongoing search for the remaining three, as well as the ballistic vests, is under way, Broddrick said.

On June 30 Williams pleaded guilty to grand theft of a firearm and Perry pleaded guilty to residential burglary. Both defendants also admitted the burglary committed by the pair was “for the benefit of, at the direction of and in association with” the criminal street gang Oak Park Bloods. Both of their charges are considered a “strike” under California’s three strike law.

Williams faces a seven-year, eight-month sentence and Perry a nine-year sentence in the state prison system. Sentencing is scheduled in an El Dorado County Superior Court courtroom Friday, Sept. 1.

Isaac Streeter

Staff writer

Professional hockey — and Tim Tebow — are coming to Lake Tahoe in