Each year, nonprofits are asked to submit an application that outlines how they intend to spend a $10,000 grant if they are one of the deserving recipients. There were a variety of requests as diverse as the organizations and their missions.

John Lucero Jr. founded Semper Fi Sports in 2016 to help fellow veterans find a meaningful purpose by mentoring and coaching student athletes. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 22 years, retiring in 2006. Coaching youth sports gave him a purpose he needed and he realized it could do the same for other veterans. “I have always tried to do everything myself and I finally realized I need help. We are grateful to the Soboba Foundation for helping us help veterans and student athletes,” Lucero said. “We have many projects we would like to accomplish. First, we are going to provide hygiene and comfort items to veterans in VA hospitals in the surrounding areas where our members are located. Next, we plan on donating food and other essentials to homeless veterans in our areas. We are going to purchase equipment and uniforms for student athletes who cannot afford what they need to play in front of college coaches.”

More than 60 student athletes that were members of the travel sports teams sponsored through Semper Fi Sports have received sports scholarships to some of the country’s most prestigious universities such as West Point Military Academy, Harvard, Columbia and Berkeley.

“However, it’s the recognition to our veterans that I feel has made the biggest impact – from a simple handshake and thank you for their service to providing comfort items and meals to them,” Lucero said. “I started this organization because I as a veteran struggled and went to a dark place of suicide ideations, gestures and homelessness. We have a saying in our organization, ‘We play for those who gave their all for us,’ and that applies the other way around as well because we as veterans gave our all so you could play and live a life full of opportunities.”

COVID-19 paused the nonprofit’s efforts but Lucero is hoping the student athletes and veterans will be able to interact again by summer.

Care-A-Van Transit has been offering vital, specialized transportation services to those in need since 1994. It was founded for the specific purpose of addressing the unmet needs of seniors, veterans and disabled and low-income individuals who reside in the San Jacinto Valley.

“We provide much needed transportation for doctors’ appointments, grocery shopping and most recently we have begun taking our seniors to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” Program Coordinator Paula Adey said. “Due to COVID, more vulnerable individuals need access to basic needs such as food banks, testing and vaccines and Care-A-Van provides access for those services as well as delivering food to homebound seniors during the pandemic.”

The organization can get funding for handicap-accessible vehicles through CalTrans 5310 and Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC) Measure A funding if it has community support for operations.

“The Soboba Foundation’s support helps meet this requirement for matching funds to continue operations to provide this free service. Transportation is the most overlooked asset out there. Not everyone has the luxury of having a car or even a driver’s license. Some people can’t afford taxis, UBER or even the bus. And some people are unable to get into cars or walk to bus stops. That’s where Care-A-Van steps in,” Adey said. “We are looking forward to having another 27 years so we can continue to meet the needs of our community. We thank the Soboba Foundation for giving us this amazing support to help us with our mission of ‘Transportation with a Heart.’ We couldn’t do it without them.”

Ronnie Imel has been assisting fellow veterans for the past 25 years. In 2015, he and his wife Sally founded a nonprofit to continue his advocacy work and named it Veterans Paying It Forward (VPIF). Ronnie Imel served in the Vietnam War and was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in 2017. He knew firsthand that veterans often return home with injuries sustained in service to their country but don’t know how to navigate the maze of paperwork required to file claims with the Veterans Administration.

“VPIF is an advocacy group that specializes in helping veterans file claims relating to service-connected disabilities. We have been able to get claims through successfully that had previously been denied by the VA. We’ve been able to successfully move a claim through to completion that has been stalled in the process for years,” Sally Imel said. “We provide access for veterans to other veterans’ resources and agencies such as VA medical care, state veterans agencies and mental health care. We are also connected with nonprofit food banks and we help distribute food to needy veterans and their families.”

Ronnie Imel often traveled to local American Legion and VFW posts to meet with veterans and help them submit completed applications for their deserved compensation. Due to restrictions put in place by the pandemic, these public facilities have been closed but the number of veterans who need assistance has not waned. The Imels have been working from their Mountain Center home while maintaining effective protocols but it has been difficult. That is one of the main reasons VPIF has broken ground on its Veterans Center.

Sally Imel said the grant received from the Soboba Foundation’s charity golf tournament will go toward the construction of a new veterans’ outreach facility that will help serve the community in many ways.

“This project will make our offices accessible to veterans with disabilities as our offices will be on the ground floor, with wheelchair and handicap access,” Sally Imel said. “We also host Veterans’ meetings and dinners. With the increase in the number of veterans that we are serving, we need to increase accessibility and size. Our project will help us expand our ability to serve the veterans and to train more people that will assist us in implementing our mission, and we look forward to more community outreach.”

Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians • Contributed

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(Supports Local Scholars)

The Hemet Education Foundation (HEF) awarded scholarships to six graduating seniors from high schools in the Hemet Unified School District during recent senior awards presentations held for each school. Each year the HEF awards $5000 scholarships to one graduating senior from each comprehensive high school – Hemet, West Valley, Tahquitz, Hamilton, Western Center — and a $500 scholarship for qualifying seniors at each of the alternative high schools – Alessandro, Helen Hunt Jackson College Prep High School and ASPIRE. According to Ron and Sue Breyer, co-Presidents of the organization, “these scholarships are intended for students with good citizenship, a G.P.A. between 3.0 and 3.9, and who really desire a college education but whose family must shoulder the full responsibility for paying for that education.”

This year’s $5000 scholarship recipients are as follows: Avery Perez, Western Center Academy; Dystany Hodges, Hamilton High School; Paulina Garcia, West Valley High School; Camille Williams, Hemet High School; and Savannah Sawyer, Tahquitz High School. Rashad Bennett from Helen Hunt Jackson College Prep High School received a $500 scholarship. The Hemet Education Foundation is able to provide these scholarships each year with funds earned through their only fundraising program – the “Bucks-a-Month Club” — in which HUSD employees make monthly contributions via payroll deduction.

-Sue Breyer

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San Jacinto, CA – It turned out to be more than a night of camaraderie and fun for the San Jacinto Teachers’ Association (SJTA) members at a November social event. They were able to raise $1,400 for one of their favorite causes–the Hemacinto Assistance League–by featuring a silent auction of gift baskets prepared by each school site.  There was also a poker tournament.

“We greatly appreciate the Assistance League’s, “Operation: School Bell” project each year, where they help clothe a little over 1,700 students in the San Jacinto Valley,” said SJTA President Darla Gordon, a teacher at Monte Vista Middle School. “Our membership really got into our fun event, which was a pleasant surprise, but we’ve always been known to be supportive of our community with donations,” President Gordon noted.

Hemacinto Assistance League President Kat Waters was very excited to receive the ‘big’ (and real) check from SJTA while working in the “Christmas Room” at their Thrift and Consignment Shop, 180 N. Girard Street in Hemet, CA.

“We really enjoy the ‘good chaos’ of hosting needy students at the local Walmart store, where we tell them to find $85 in clothing just for them–the looks on the children’s faces is priceless,” said President Waters. “We raise funds all year long, so please tell everyone to visit our ‘Christmas Room,’ she continued.  The Thrift and Consignment Shop, the “Christmas Room” is open Monday thru Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. As of December 17, all items in the room are half price until the room closes for the season.

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The Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians established the Soboba Foundation to offer philanthropic support to other nonprofits that benefit such things as education, health matters and youth sports. But whenever the opportunity arises for the group to assist non-gaming Native American tribes, it gladly offers backing. 

Such was the case recently when the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians Park and Recreation Committee approached the foundation seeking funding for a tribal community park. The board of directors, led by president Geneva Mojado, unanimously voted to grant the tribe $10,000 toward the project.

Santa Rosa’s Tribal Chairman Steven Estrada said the reservation, located near Mountain Center, is home to more than 100 residents, with a majority of them being under the age of 18.

“The current project has been a goal of the tribe for many years, but our youth really urged us to focus on it when they put in our strategic plan,” he said. “The committee has done an amazing job in helping us complete this goal through their hard work and commitment.”

The tribe formed a committee to create a park that was envisioned by the youth who live at the reservation. An afterschool “Children’s Future Search” event was held in April and all children in elementary school grades were invited to participate. They were asked to think about what they like most about where they live and what changes they think would make their community even better. 

After their answers were recorded, the children were asked to draw their vision of a perfect park design. Pictures included basketball courts, a movie theater and a scooter path. Their ideas were implemented directly into the tribe’s strategic plan.

Participants were treated to an ice cream social and a prize drawing. Of the 10 children involved, only one had lived on the reservation less than half his life; most have always lived there. Almost 50% said they plan to continue living at Santa Rosa after they grow up. Future career aspirations include teachers, police officers and professional athletes.

“Our youths were instrumental in collecting quarters for donations and individual tribal members donated from their distributions – it’s been a true community effort,” Estrada said. “The support from the other tribes and organizations helps us immensely, and we are truly grateful for their generosity.”

The purpose of the Santa Rosa Recreational Park is to provide a safe, well-maintained area that promotes physical activities and offers cultural activities. There is currently a small playground area behind the Tribal Hall but it is geared toward younger children. The park will serve all Santa Rosa tribal and community members and visitors to the reservation.

Donated funds, from Soboba and other neighboring tribes, will be combined with Santa Rosa’s committed funds of $17,000 to cover the cost of the park’s construction, fencing and grading as well as the extension of a water line to the area for irrigation and to provide drinking water for parkgoers. All concrete and masonry work, irrigation and planting are being done by Master Landscape in Hemet.

“The Santa Rosa tribe will erect a monument that will forever memorialize the contribution of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians,” Estrada said. “Our tribes have always maintained a strong cultural and social relationship and we are so happy to see it continue through this project.”

Plans are to break ground at the end of this month and have the project completed by Nov. 1.

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