Glad you asked!

Puente needs healthy snacks for our children and adult programs. Fruit, granola bars, juices, individual soups and popcorn – all are welcome.

On Rally, Puente is also fundraising in honor of our Executive Director, Kerry Lobel, this month. As we’ve been reflecting on where Puente has been and where we hope to go, it’s hard not to think about the last six years and all that Kerry has brought our community and this organization. We can only see using this month to honor her as she gets ready to celebrates her own big birthday in early May. So, this April we challenge our supporters to make a $60 donation in honor of Kerry. If just 25 people answer that call, we will raise $1,500- a perfect way to honor Kerry and Puente as they celebrate their special birthdays. Even if $60 isn’t manageable, every little bit still counts, so please give what you can in honor of Kerry this April.

To donate, call (650) 879-1691 ext. 116 or email Abby Mohaupt amohaupt@mypuente.org.

Puente’s future depends on you. Donate now!

Safety Net Services Manager Lorena Vargas de Mendez started work as a Safety Net assistant with North Street Community Resource Center. Today she oversees Puente’s free health insurance enrollment program as well as other forms of family assistance, like emergency rental and utility assistance.

When I arrived in Pescadero 20 years ago, health coverage services didn’t exist. I had to go to San Mateo to sign up for medical programs. We didn’t have transportation. When I was pregnant, I had to go to Stanford to receive medical services. I would have to take three buses to get to Stanford. One appointment took me all day and I had to carry my lunch.

Now we have transportation for people who need to get over the hill and don’t have a car. Still, most of the community members we serve work in plant nurseries and fields. They have 8-to-10-hour jobs and they are earning minimum wage. If you need to take care of an issue over the hill it will take you all day. Most of them don’t bother because they fear losing their income or even their job.

At North Street Community Resource Center, we used to be in a small portable trailer, just one location for safety net services and counseling services. When we merged with Puente, we were able to provide more and better services.

The transition began with office support and translation services; sending faxes. Then the health insurance coverage program. Soon there was a parenting education program for children aged 0-5.

When Puente merged with North Street we just had funds from private donors for emergency assistance. Now we have county funds, as well. The fact that Puente is growing has allowed us to be recognized by the county as a core agency.

Our health insurance assistance program has grown to the point of serving 150 households. We did not have many program participants when we started, but these days most of my time is spent on that. I am so grateful to have a community center that provides all these services.

Program Director Rita Mancera came to Puente in 2006 as a volunteer. She had just moved to the area from Mexico with her American husband. She started working for Puente’s parent involvement program, paying home visits to parents of infants. She was later promoted to the role of Community Builder, then Program Director.

In 2006 we had one of the trailers at Pescadero Middle School and maybe seven people on staff. I really felt like it was a transition job for me – it wasn’t something to last for 7 years.

Then Kerry came on board and I remember that, even at the first meeting where they introduced her, I had a feeling: she has a plan. She has a big plan. That was when I decided to stay longer and see what was coming ahead with the merger.

I was pregnant in 2007 and I needed to take leave. That summer, Kerry had decided to start the youth program. Six local youth joined the program, but I couldn’t have known how huge this would become. Kerry said, “There are all these kids around. Maybe some of them would want to work with us.”

I came back from maternity leave and the youth who had started working with us over the summer were permanently employed!

I look back over the last six years and think about how we have grown along with these young people. It’s like we’re family. We are so close to them. We know their issues. We try to help them; we argue with them too.

People used to view the youth around here with distrust – like, who are these kids wearing black hoodies? The fact was they didn’t talk much to anyone around here, and a lot of people were intimidated by them.

At times, they were challenging and they were defiant. But the basic chance to work with adults – to have a job and earn their own money – that changed everything.

I wish we had pictures to show the transformation in most of them. Sometimes it was in the way they dressed, or the way they cut their hair. Suddenly they had longer conversations with us instead of just saying ‘hey.’

Some of them would have failed high school back then. Now most of our kids go to college, one way or another. Now parents want their kids to come work at Puente and the kids themselves ask – ‘When can I start working at Puente?’

I like to see them cash their checks. I like to see them earn their money, from the ones who buy their computers to the ones who suddenly buy a car. They have something I didn’t have when I was younger.