2012 | Good Neighbor Stories

Smiling Student Receives Award for Kindness

June 21, 2012 By Pam Marino

Gerardo Ochoa and Brianna Mercado

CUPERTINO—A nice guy finished first at Homestead High School at the end of the 2011-12 year, as senior Gerardo Ochoa received the school’s first Sandlot Award.

The award was created specifically to shine a light on students who display kindness to their peers and the community at large. Ochoa, described as someone who always has a smile on his face, was nominated by teachers who told the selection committee that he always sought to make himself and those around him better.

Although this is the first year for the award at Homestead, it started four years ago as the Justin Perkins Sandlot Award primarily at Monta Vista High School, named after the inspirational Monta Vista student who died from cancer in 2008. It was created by Justin’s father, Albert Perkins, and two friends, Steven Young and John Loiacano, a Monta Vista alumnus. Young is one of the founders of a nonprofit website, Sandlot Hero, dedicated to sharing inspirational stories of people making a difference. The site includes stories about past award winners. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Youth Tagged With: Brianna Mercado, Gerardo Ochoa, Homestead High School, Justin Perkins Sandlot Award, kindness, Sandlot Award, Sandlot Hero, Steven Young

Sandlot Awards: Monta Vista Senior Lauded for Community Spirit

June 12, 2012 By Pam Marino

CUPERTINO—Monta Vista High School senior Raelle Alfaro was awarded the Justin Perkins Sandlot Award recently for her outstanding community service and team player attitude.

Alfaro volunteered with numerous organizations throughout high school, such as Cake4Kids, which provides decorated birthday cakes for disadvantaged children, the Peninsula Humane Society, and Hope’s Corner, a free breakfast program for the homeless.

This is the fourth year for the Justin Perkins Sandlot Award, named for the inspirational student who passed away from cancer in 2008 by Justin’s father, Albert Perkins, and two friends, Steven Young and John Loiacano, a Monta Vista alumnus. It was specifically designed to single out students who display kindness to their peers and the world. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Volunteering, Youth Tagged With: Brianna Mercado, Justin Perkins Sandlot Award, Monta Vista High School, Raelle Alfaro

Repairing Bikes and Lives

June 8, 2012 By Pam Marino

Jim Gardner

“What goes around, comes around,” is one western interpretation of Karma, and there’s probably no better illustration of the concept than Good Karma Bikes of San Jose, where those who once sought free help for their broken down bicycles are now helping others—while repairing their own lives in the process.

Under the motto, “Transportation for transformation,” the two-year-old nonprofit has grown from one laid off engineer fixing bikes for homeless people in St. James Park, to a team of volunteers that not only fix thousands of bikes each year for homeless and low-income clients, but also provide job training, as well as a friendly place to belong.

Every Saturday in a makeshift bicycle repair shop covered by bright red canopies near the Diridon Station (the clinic has since moved to a warehouse at 345 Sunol St., San Jose), loud cheers of welcome greet returning volunteers who come from all over the South Bay Area and Peninsula. As people line up with their bikes to be fixed between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.—between 30 and 40 every week—each person is greeted with friendly smiles and treated with great care and respect.

There is no charge for the repairs. The clients are considered the same as paying customers, and the volunteer mechanics strive to perform the same quality work as a professional bike shop.

While it may look like Good Karma Bikes is one more nonprofit providing free services to the community, founder and Executive Director Jim Gardner insists it’s something more. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Nonprofits, Volunteering Tagged With: Good Karma Bikes, homeless, Jim Gardner, volunteers

Five Ways to be a Good Neighbor in June

June 4, 2012 By Pam Marino

Time to kick off the summer with five ways to be a good neighbor in your community.

1) Duck!: The 5th annual Silicon Valley Duck Race is Sunday, June 10. The El Camino Hospital Foundation will launch 15,000 rubber ducks into Vasona Creek at Vasona Lake Park, 333 Blossom Hill Rd., Los Gatos, as part of a fundraising race. You can adopt a duck for $5, a family of ducks for $25, a club for $50, and a flock for $100. The first five ducks that reach the finish line in Lake Vasona win prizes, and one duck may even win $1 million. The monies raised go to El Camino Hospital Los Gatos, a not-for-profit, acute-care, full service hospital that serves the communities of Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, and San Jose. The race is accompanied by a festival from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with lots of activities, food, information booths, and more.

2) Share Your Lunch: Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties is once again urging us to share our lunches with local children who are at risk to go hungry this summer. Officials estimate that one in five children need some sort of support through the summer months, when they don’t have access to free or subsidized school lunches. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Good Neighbor Tagged With: American Cancer Society, American Humane Society, Bark for Life, El Camino Hospital Foundation, Five Ways to be a Good Neighbor, Gay Pride Month, Humane, One Bark Community Dog Walk, One Brick Silicon Valley, pet adoptions, Relay for Life, San Francisco Pride, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, Share Your Lunch, Silicon Valley Duck Race and Festival

Grief Transforms to Joy Through Fostering Kittens

May 15, 2012 By Pam Marino

Jean Wilder’s broken heart over the death of a beloved cat is now overflowing with love for the almost 400 kittens she has fostered since 2001.

Wilder is a Kitten Foster Parent for Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV), saving the lives of young cats and socializing them in preparation for their new adopting families.

“It’s so rewarding to see these little kitties develop and become social,” she said. “It’s probably the most fulfilling thing I’ve done, work-wise.”

The 33-year Santa Clara resident used to be an analyst for Hewlett Packard, but now she considers it her job to make sure the kittens that stay temporarily in her home are ready to get along well with both people and other cats and become “nice family pets.”

This new volunteer job is the legacy of a beloved cat she owned 11 years ago, Wilder said.

“I had this cat named Gomer that I loved like people love their children. I was so attached to that cat,” she said. Sadly, Gomer died before he was 4-years-old. “I was heartbroken.”

After a lot of tears she said she, “knew I couldn’t just cry the rest of my life.”

She heard about kitten foster parenting, and attended a training class at HSSV. The tears were replaced with joy, as she welcomed her first litter, and then another, and another. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Volunteering Tagged With: Humane Society Silicon Valley, Jean Wilder, kitten foster parents, kittens, pet adoptions, pet foster homes

Stamp Out Hunger: Send More Than Mail on Saturday

May 9, 2012 By Pam Marino

Mail carriers will be picking up and delivering more than mail this Saturday, May 12, as part of the Stamp Out Hunger food drive, the largest single-day effort to combat hunger in America.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the 20-year-old program is also the largest single-day food drive for local food banks, according to officials at Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. The drive comes just as food banks are gearing up to feed area children through the summer who will lose access to subsidized school lunches.

Anyone can participate by leaving a sturdy bag of non-perishable food by their mailbox before the mail is delivered on Saturday. Food bank officials say items like peanut butter, pasta, rice, low-sugar cereal, and canned foods such as tuna, meat, stew, soup, and vegetables are needed the most. Mail carriers will deliver the food to local food banks. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community, Donations Tagged With: food drives, hunger, Kathy Jackson, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, Stamp Out Hunger

Mural Brings New Life to Neighborhood

May 7, 2012 By Pam Marino

With each deliberate stroke of their color-laden paintbrushes, volunteers recently brought new life to a beloved landmark in the Gardner Neighborhood of San Jose, and in the process, brought the possibility of new life to the neighborhood itself.

Up until late April, that landmark was a faded spray paint mural of an Aztec calendar on the back of an old cement handball court in Biebrach Park. A young man from the neighborhood, Antonio Torres, created the mural in 1995 as a testament to the heritage of many of Gardner’s Hispanic residents.

The new Aztec calendar mural is now bursting with color, thanks to the work of more than 25 volunteers who worked through the annual Beautiful Day spring service event, held primarily over the weekend of April 28 and 29. An estimated 3,500 volunteers worked at 26 South Bay sites during the event for the faith-based nonprofit by the same name.

Reviving the mural was a dream of the Gardner Advisory Board for nearly three years, but leaders said a lack of funding kept the project on the back burner. When Beautiful Day organizers showed up with plans to revive the mural using donated materials and labor, it was an answer to prayer, said board president Rudy Martinez. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community, Volunteering Tagged With: Antonio Torres, Aztec mural, Beautiful Day, Bernice Aguilera, Biebrach Park, Bob Froese, Gardner Advisory Board, Gardner Neighborhood, Ivette Bonilla, Jacob Palomares-Mason, Jaime Bello, Jim Buchanan, Julie Franco, Patricia Palomares-Mason, Rudy Martinez, San Jose, Yacachictoltic

Smiling Student Receives Award for Kindness

Sandlot Awards: Monta Vista Senior Lauded for Community Spirit

Repairing Bikes and Lives

Grief Transforms to Joy Through Fostering Kittens

Stamp Out Hunger: Send More Than Mail on Saturday

Mural Brings New Life to Neighborhood

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