Share the Spirit 2019 stories of help and hope.

 

Share the Spirit donations hit all-time high this year

Photo: Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group Readers touched by this newspaper’s stories of those less fortunate have donated $268,583 to the annual Share the Spirit campaign benefiting the nonprofits that help them — a record amount. The fundraiser, jointly administered ...

Students with special needs experience the joy of work

Photo: Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group The Walgreens store in Martinez has been open for only a couple of hours, and its candy shelves are in desperate need of attention. Working intently to re-stock the Skittles, Big Hunks, Snickers bars ...

Auto Assistance program is vehicle for empowerment

Photo: Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group On a sunny fall day, Ashley Henry sits quietly outside a coffee shop steps from Salvio Square and talks about how Queen Elizabeth changed her life. Yes, that’s the British regent’s name, but it’s ...

For Youth Homes, Inc. foster children, dreams occasionally come true

Photo: Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group The topic turned to Halloween, a particularly enjoyable time in the Bowers family, then turned to birthdays — namely, the 16th one that the newest member of their brood celebrated on that day ...

Rising Sun Center for Opportunity brightens career paths in Bay Area

Photo: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group Arika Rivera is used to seeing raised eyebrows when she shows up to fix a heating and cooling system — she is one of the few women in that skilled trade. She credits the ...

Shower House Ministries helps homeless with showers, food, clothes

Photo: Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group Denise Caine once lived in a big four-bedroom house in downtown Antioch and worked in a bank. But on a recent Saturday, the 52-year-old mother of six was standing in a line for some ...

Drivers for Survivors offers rides, companionship for cancer fighters

Photos: Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group It would be understandable for Ethel Adeleke to feel intimidated walking into her radiation treatments every week. The big lettering on the side of the ValleyCare clinic in Pleasanton leaves patients like her under ...

Meals on Wheels provides more than food to homebound seniors

Photo: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group Every weekday about 9:30 a.m., the buzzer sounds at the front door of Willie Tolliver’s bungalow off 98th Avenue, signaling a wecome visitor: A representative from Meals on Wheels has made her way up ...

Jion Academy helps young women reach their highest potential

Photo: Dylan Bouscher/Bay Area News Group Kori Douglas hated the idea at first. Her grandfather “was always signing us up for stuff,” looking for ways to enrich the lives of Douglas and two younger sisters. A few years ago, though, ...

Oakland eatery gives second chances

Photo: Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group Sean Brekke-Miesner had spent a decade working in kitchens when he noticed application stacks were growing thin. As housing costs soared and workers were being pushed farther from Oakland restaurants, hiring became a problem ...
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