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Tom Portwood

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Gary Thomas: The Making of a Poet and Teacher

The arrows I knew when I was eight Were made by my father from leftover flooring, Extra tongue-and-groove scantlings, dense planks Of oak and maple, and as he sawed them thin And whittled them round and smooth, I breathed in The redolence of the grains and his labor… Thus with tenderness and love does Turlock […]

Linda Scheller’s Wind and Children: Heartbeats from the Classroom

Each school day for thirty-six years, the children walked into now- retired Ceres teacher Linda Scheller’s fifth-grade classroom, eager to learn but “often burdened by grinding poverty and difficult family situations at home.” “A lot of my students’ families were very, very poor,” Ms. Scheller recounted recently when interviewed about her powerful new collection of […]

A Foot in Two Worlds and a Dream Fulfilled

For Modesto Realtor Lourdes Bento, it all began by a faraway sea, where time itself seemed suspended in a chuva – a fine mist – of happy childhood memories. Ms. Bento remembers the summers, watching her maternal grandfather, her Vovó, whom she adored, and the quiet sunny days she shared with him as he taught […]

Linda Knoll: a Champion for the Arts and Education

Whether creating a beautiful homage to the great marine biologist and conservationist   Rachel Carson, or painting a loving, whimsical memorial to her cats, Modesto artist and arts advocate Linda Knoll’s canvases are always vividly colorful and arresting. But Ms. Knoll is not only an extraordinarily talented artist; she’s a gifted arts educator as well who […]

Dr. Richard Anderson’s Life Lessons in Citizenship

One of the Valley’s great community leaders, Dr. Richard Anderson took an often-adventurous path in life prior to arriving as a Professor of Microbiology at Modesto Junior College in 1989. Along the way, he experienced things that helped to shape the dedicated and caring activist he is today. Not surprisingly, he has always worked fiercely […]

Kate Trompetter: Dedicated Advocate for Social Change

Community advocate and Organizational and Systems Coach Kate Trompetter was ten years old when her mother gifted her with one of the more important lessons she could ever receive. “I’ve shared this story many times, but it continues to inform my life,” Ms. Trompetter recently recalled. “I had read this story in the newspaper of […]

Michael Baldwin Senior: Bringing Cops and Community Together

In the late 1980s, I worked in the mayor’s office in Houston, Texas.  One of my colleagues was a police officer named Alan who worked on the mayor’s security detail. Alan and I occasionally worked together on events or projects, and in listening to him over numerous lunchtimes, I began to understand the sacrifices police […]

Gillian Wegener – Award-Winning Poet, Community Leader

Gillian Wegener was twice the recipient of the Dorothy Rosenberg Poetry Award (2006, 2007), and was honored as one of Stanislaus County’s Outstanding Women in 2015. She served as the City of Modesto’s Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2016. In these troubled, chaotic, and tragic times, the power of poetry to mend wounds or express […]

Leng Power: Award-Winning Community Advocate & Volunteer

Thailand is over eight thousand miles away from the Valley — just about a third of the way across the globe — but that’s where this inspiring local success story begins. The Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia had fallen the year before, leaving in its wake a legacy of terror and genocide. But as volatile […]

Lindsey Bird – Award-Winning Educator, Advocate, Candidate

When Language Institute Co-Founder Lindsey Bird decided to leave her fledging career as a banker to become a teacher in her hometown of Modesto, she could not have imagined the profound impact that decision would ultimately have on the lives of the students who would enter her classroom. She only knew she wanted to make […]