Share the Spirit 2020 stories of help and hope.
Opportunity Junction’s career training restores lives
There’s pride in the portrait Gwenette Moore uploaded to her LinkedIn profile, head erect and smiling directly into the camera. But the job title that appears under her name offers no hint of the struggles the 51-year-old Concord mother of ...
Even during the pandemic, BORP keeps disabled participants active
Ben Thornton is dribbling a basketball in Arizona these days, but the sound of the ball pounding the hardwood floor brings him back to Berkeley and a time that changed his life. He was 12, and playing hoops for the ...
Rubicon in Richmond helps formerly incarcerated men and women succeed in society
In September 2019, East Contra Costa native Joseph Sickler walked out of High Desert State Prison with plans and optimism, but plenty of hurdles to overcome. He’d taken advantage of a community college program at the prison and used his ...
Shelter Inc. fights Bay Area hunger, homelessness
Karol Padilla knew she and her family were in trouble. Padilla and her husband had contracted COVID-19 last spring, and Padilla’s symptoms were far worse than her husband’s. Coughing spells wracked her body, making it difficult to breathe, and she ...
Transitional housing helps East Bay veteran put the dark times behind, regain his life
Christopher Underwood served his country for more than two decades. From 1990 to 2012, he handled deployments at U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard sites around California, as well as in Germany and the Middle East after the Sept ...
East Bay senior facility volunteers turn to love to keep hope alive for guests
In the back of her mind, Sharon Lobato never doubted that the summer of 2020 would be personally challenging. She needed hip repair surgery, and the recovery plan called for two months in a rehabilitation care facility. “That’s hard enough ...
Civicorps apprenticeship gives Oakland woman another chance
There was a time when the future did not look all that promising for Lily Nguyen. When she was 18, Nguyen was expelled from Oakland High School on MacArthur Boulevard, after she ditched classes, dropped assignments and compiled a history ...
East Bay woman credits Legal Assistance for Seniors with restoring normalcy to her life
It was the most difficult and painful decision Diana Dominguez ever had to make. But the 72-year-old widow knew she desperately needed help to restore her peace of mind and personal safety. Her son, a drug user with untreated mental ...
Daughter of immigrants gets help for college dreams
Socoro Tamayo-Perez doesn’t come across as a young woman who has ever doubted herself. At 21, she is friendly, upfront and admits she loves to talk and win arguments — a possible lawyer in the making. Yet Tamayo-Perez grew up ...
Meals on Wheels Diablo Region is more than just a meal
Katharine Broadnax, who has successfully fought cancer twice, including a recent battle, was doubly worried about her health when the COVID-19 pandemic descended. She knew that older people were susceptible, and that cancer patients and survivors were at twice the ...
