Current News & Events

Summer / 2010

Welcome New Board Members

A warm welcome to two new Board members: Larry Favor and Artemisa Cortez. Artemisa has been involved in education for many years and is currently Principal of Renaissance High School in Watsonville. Larry has spent many years in real estate and the building industry in Santa Cruz County. Both bring their deep commitment to helping uplift our community and helping homeless families.

Spring / 2010

Hand Made Mother's Day Run Quilt

This beautiful quilt composed of tee shirts from previous Mother's Day Runs, was designed and pieced together by Patti Hewitt, The final quilting was painstakingly hand quilted and donated to PVSS by Melanie Meadows, a wonderful quilter who offers much of her time in quilting for various charities. This beautiful quilt now resides in the PVSS conference room and we invite everyone to come and see it!

Spring / 2010

26th Mother's Day Run for Shelter - A great success!

The results are in! Another great event for both the Shelter Services in its major fund raiser of the year, and for the nearly 500 people who signed up to run or walk or dance or sponsor or smile at this benefit event! This year we had a number of schools "competing" against each other and the Watsonville cheerleaders not only showed up in their own unique T-shirts supporting the Shelter Services, BUT - after their run they hung out at the finish line to cheer on everyone else coming in! It was great! Pictures from the event will be posted soon, but for now - here are the race results.

See race results here!

See photos here!

And more photos here!

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

We deeply thank our incredible sponsors who include: Granite Construction, Graniterock, Plantronics, The Richard and Mary Solari Charitable Trust, John and LeAnne Stewart, The Borina Foundation, Peter and Betty Michelozzi, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, The Register-Pajaronian, William Dorey, Bay Federal Credit Union, Fleet Feet of Aptos, Professional Firefighters of Watsonville Local 1272, S. Martinelli Company, Mizuma, The Foot Doctors, Seacliff Inn, Whole Foods Capitola, Thomas P. House Attorney-At-Law, Kirk and Carol Schmidt, Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, Aquaphor, Soroptimists International of Watsonville, Jim Booth Swim School, CDM Real Estate Management, Maura Matera CPA, Bert and Carolyn Post, Suzie Yost, Branciforte Auto Repair, Watsonville MacDonald's, California Pajarosa, Five Star Farms, Watsonville Coast Produce, Tri-County Trophy, Lakeside Organic Gardens, Driscoll's, Mission Printers, Wstsonville Computers, Brooks Insurance, KBK Insurance, Jane and Peter Barr, William and Patricia Barton, C&N Tractor, Diane and Donald Cooley, Stanley and Judy Doering-Nielsen, Dr.'s Richard Jackson and Elsa con, Susan Olson, Bridget Dumas, Dennis Eguchi DDS, Flamenco Romantico, Rocky and Judy Franich Fund, Dr. Dennis Chamberlain, Haro, Kasunich & Associates, John and Joanne Howell, Ron and Gingi Kinninger, Lakeside Organic Gardens, William and Terry Locke-Paddon, Marinovich Cold Storage, Kent Marshall, John and Megan Martinelli, Ginny Mazry, Jay and Vicki McQuillen, McSherry & Hudson, Monument Lumber, Robert R. Eaton Trucking, Rotary Club of Watsonville, Rowland Rebele, Royal Oaks Farms, James Smith DDS, Stephen Smith, Suzy Hunt, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, and Taylor's Office City.

THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUNTEERS!

This event could not happen without the volunteer support of many people. And it is because of this level of community involvement that this event is not only a success, but an event that has grown over the years and continues to be one that people look forward to every year. (And an event that causes some participants to travel from as far away as Washington State!) Very special thanks to: the PVSS staff who always out-do themselves every year in every possible helping way, the PVSS Board who show up with eager willingness to do whatever it takes - including running to the store to purchase extra water cups, Jim Booth for his humor and announcer's voice, Jane Barr for help with registration, residents from the Shelter who got up at 4:00 in the morning to prep food, residents and FORMER residents in our Transitional Housing Program who helped with setting up, serving food, cleaning up and loading and unloading the truck, AV Coyle for taking some great photos, Marineros Unidos Club of Aptos High for hellping stuff goody bags, Terri Olson and Suzi Yost for folding T-shirts, the Surf City Slackers who happily show up and play rock music when every other rock band is deep asleep, the Watsonville Police Cadets who help with traffic control and finding children who have wandered off, the City of Watsonville for their genuine caring support and help along the process, and the Santa Cruz Track Club for their knowledge and support.

Winter 2009-10

Cara y Corazón - Living with Face and Heart

A very big part of what happens at PVSS to help homeless families become stable again is the case management services. Families are not only linked up to many community resources, but required to participate in workshops, classes and programs that begin the hard work of changing behaviors that have been barriers to stability. Mandatory participation in courses offered by Cara y Corazón is one of these.

The Watsonville Cara y Corazón affiliate regularly offers a 12 week support program which PVSS residents are required to participate in. It is based on the work of Jerry Tello, an internationally recognized authority in family strengthening, therapeutic healing, cross cultural issues and motivational speaking.

The philosophy of Cara y Corazón is a culturally based family strengthening approach that assists parents and other members of the extended family to raise and educate their children from a positive bicultural base. Many bicultural families in our community face the challenges of bridging the two cultures when parents have grown up in an Hispanic culture and the children are growing up in an American culture.

Cara y Corazón offers a course in Spanish and one in English. In their sessions, participants speak about their upbringing, the hard parts and the good parts. They re-engage with the good things that happened in their lives, their values, family traditions and holiday rituals that were important. Many of the PVSS residents have reported that this has been a great experience, being able to talk about things they never could before. They find new ways to develop quality time with their children and find forgiveness for times in their lives which were hurtful. After taking this course many PVSS residents, both men and women, have commented about being able to better discuss their emotions, to talk about deep woundings in their lives and about beginning the healing process. They have expressed the ability to feel the warmth of family where they couldn't before. All these steps are part of the path to personal and family stability for residents in the Shelter Services programs.

Winter / 2009-10

PVSS WINS the Birdies for Charity 'Shoot Out'!

This year it was a 5% chance of being one of the top four charities to qualify for participation in the Monterey Peninsula Foundation and the AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm Golf Tournament's 'Birdies for Charity Shoot Out' and the chance to win up to $40,000. But George Milder, amateur golfer representing PVSS was in that top 5% coming in fourth place, giving PVSS a chance to win at least $1,000 at the February 9th 'Shoot Out'. Then it was professional golfers Brandt Snedecker and Joe Ogilvie who made up the PVSS team at the 'Shoot Out'. The rain stopped just before the tee off at the first hole and returned after the event, but not before PVSS' team won $36,000 for the Shelter Services!

See it on the news!

More pictures here!

Each year the Monterey Peninsula Foundation supports many local nonprofits with grants and also helps other nonprofits raise funds through "Birdies for Charity". This is a fundraiser in conjunction with the annual AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm Golf Tournament that provides a 10% match for donations made to charities and offers the possibility of making up to $40,000 through a golfer 'Shoot Out", among other valuable ways for donors to participate and charities to benefit.