Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how much your neighbors need your help until you get to know them. So it was for both Jim Brigham and Michael Scott, two longtime Puente volunteers who have spent years giving their own community members a leg up on the South Coast.

For Jim Brigham, a retired clinical social worker, the first defining moments of his work with Puente began when he moved into a home with his wife, Gen, in the Butano redwoods in 2004. It wasn’t long before he met the Rev. Wendy Taylor, founder of Puente, and Carol Young-Holt, Puente’s earliest backer and volunteer. Brigham started volunteering to host La Sala, Puente’s biweekly social event for farm workers, and then began helping with food distribution.

He saw first-hand how difficult it was for farm workers to avail themselves of even the most basic medical services, so he stepped in to drive them to doctor’s appointments in Redwood City.

“Puente is the model of bringing social services to a place where there are none. It couldn’t be done any better,” says Brigham, who now lives in Half Moon Bay. He was a founding board member with Puente in 2005, and he stepped down in 2009.

Today, Brigham is a sustaining donor and plays Santa Claus in Puente’s annual Christmas celebration. A few years ago he donated his Jeep to Puente. It has since become known as the “PuenteMobile.”

“Puente connects the two sides – Spanish and Anglo – so both become visible to the other in a positive way, and increases the chance of respect and understanding,” he says.

Michael Scott connected with Puente ten years ago when a friend told him about the plight of farm workers who slept in improvised shacks, without enough food or basic supplies. Scott had already founded Coastside Hospitality, which distributes funds, clothing and food to poor and homeless Coastsiders via local nonprofit services.

Scott delivered food to farms on the South Coast, and Christmas gifts in December. He bought supplies for student backpacks at the start of the school year.

“I think all of us have a responsibility to share their experience, their resources, and to help people in their community,” says Scott. “My community is the coast.”

Scott retired from a lucrative career as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist in 2003 and used part of his earnings to bankroll a variety of basic safety net services, like a rent subsidy program and an emergency subsidy program for less fortunate neighbors. Volunteers at Catholic Worker House in Half Moon Bay, an organization supported by Scott,  feed as many as 400 locals every week.

In Pescadero, Scott made a sizeable gift to renovate the local Catholic Church. And he still goes on a major Christmas shopping spree every year on behalf of hundreds of Puente program participants.

“I have a lot of time and a lot or resources so that’s what I do,” he says.

Puente needs volunteers! To learn how you can help (or donate), contact Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel at klobel@mypuente.org or (650) 879-1691 x144.

Janet Murphy was a Puente volunteer on Day One, when Rev. Wendy Taylor founded an outreach effort to migrant farmworkers in Pescadero as an extension of the ministry at Pescadero Community Church.

That was over ten years ago. Puente has grown ten times over, and its programs touch nearly every aspect of the town’s cultural life – from schooling to nutrition.

But the center of Murphy’s world has never changed. It still revolves around ‘The Men Alone,’ as Rev. Taylor dubbed the workers who came to Pescadero without their families.

Murphy is the constant at La Sala, Puente’s longstanding gathering of mostly single men – farm and nursery workers –  who hang out, eat a hot home-cooked meal, play cards and laugh together twice a week at the Community Church. It’s their living room, a respite from hard labor a daily life that can be both stressful and grim.

“They’re here without their families. Their living quarters aren’t the greatest, and in the wintertime you get hot food and a stove and it’s warm,” says Murphy. They get things they wouldn’t get otherwise. And they get camaraderie.” Every newcomer to La Sala gets a welcome bag filled with toiletries, a towel, hoodie, sleeping bag and more. Puente will rustle up blankets if they need those, too.

Some of ‘The Men Alone’ call Murphy ‘La Maestra,’ a nickname left over from when she used to teach ESL at the church (before Puente started a similar program). Other men from La Sala call out to her in the street, or simply nod and smile. Of all the joys she’s experienced at La Sala over the years, it gives her the most pleasure to have those close relationships.

“I spend almost as much time with Mexican people as I do with non–Mexicans. I have families I’ve been visiting with for 20 years,” she says.

Murphy speaks Spanish well enough to form those connections (she likes to say she’s not bilingual, but ‘comfortable’). That makes her a fairly rare commodity in Pescadero: someone who represents the ‘Bridge’ that Puente stands for.

“My only wish is that there were more bridges. And that people understand what Puente is doing and participate more,” she says.

Murphy was recognized in 2011 with its Ray A. Nelson Award, Puente’s highest volunteer effort.

Puente is looking for volunteers! To learn more, contact Rita Mancera at rmancera@mypuente.org or (650) 879-1691 x 102. If you would like to donate items for welcome bags for newcomers, contact Kerry Lobel at klobel@mypuente.org or (650) 879-1691 x 144.

Laura and Courtney Cunneen were 12 years old when they heard that Puente was soliciting donated school supplies on behalf of dozens of South Coast families who couldn’t afford them on their own. The girls were moved by the idea of children their own age missing out on something as basic as pencils and notebooks, and they decided to do something about it.

“We felt bad to have what we have because Laura and I are so fortunate,” explains Courtney Cunneen. She and her twin sister, Laura, live in Pacifica and go to Terra Nova High School.

The girls are 16 now. It’s been four years since they founded a community-wide school supply donation program in Pacifica. Last year, they collected $3,000 in cash donations and enough school supplies to fill two entire minivans.

And the program keeps growing. The Cunneen’s backpack program has become so successful that their contributions, along with those of others, provide South Coast youth with enough school supplies to fill more than 250 backpacks.

The teens set up school supply “drop box” zones all over Pacifica and advertise their campaign at the local farmer’s market. Their congregation, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church of Pacifica, has also boosted the campaign with cash donations every year.

“Giving feels good,” says Laura Cunneen.

“We have people coming up to us all the time asking, ‘When are you going to start collecting again? What do you need more of?’ It makes us more motivated to do better every single year.”

The sisters received Puente’s volunteer appreciation awards in 2009 and on July 24, 2012 Supervisor Don Horsley will introduce a resolution to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors that will honor the sisters with a special proclamation for their efforts.

Puente’s backpack program also benefits from the generosity of many faith institutions, including the Community Congregational Church of Benicia, a United Church of Christ. The church forged a connection with Puente almost a decade ago when Puente founder Rev. Wendy Taylor came to the church to preach.

Now the congregation puts together an entire grade’s worth of backpacks each year. Last year they did 32. After buying the supplies, they assemble the bags themselves. And each backpack has a personal, handwritten note from a child in the congregation.

“It’s just to let them know that it was personally sent, with love,” says Nora Gauger, chair of Mission and Outreach with the church.

Puente’s Team Backpack program needs your help!  Click here to check out Puente’s Amazon Wish list or School supplies list. To learn more, contact Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel at klobel@mypuente.org or (650) 879-1691 x144.