Here’s a story that is guaranteed to warm your heart, and maybe bring a tear or two. I’m a hardened journalist who spent more than 30 years at the Los Angeles Times, and my eyes were moist.
I was at the Sowing Seeds for Life food and toy giveaway Wednesday at the DPI Labs parking lot on Arrow Highway in La Verne when an anonymous donor handed two unmarked envelopes to Glendora’s Vicki Brown, the CEO of DPI Labs, an aerospace manufacturing company, and founder of Sowing Seeds of Life. The donor told Brown to find two deserving families and give the unopened envelopes to them.
Vicki, searching among hundreds of needy families, accomplished her mission.
She found Christina Frias and her mother Karen Pfisterer of Azusa, who were there with Christina’s two sons, Joshua, 6, and Mathew, 4. She had lost a third son at the age of 6 two years ago when he and his father, Joe Luis Frias, were involved in an ATV accident.
When Christina opened the envelope, she found five $20 bills inside. She and her mother began to cry and hug people. It was as if they hit the lottery.
“We didn’t know what to expect when we came here,” Christina said. “I wanted my sons to get a toy for Christmas and a picture with Santa. We never expected to get money too. I can’t tell you how much we need this.”
The other envelope went to Delina Miller of Pomona. Her husband, Edward Bulliner, was killed in a solo car accident on Garey Avenue on Nov. 28, three days before he was scheduled to work as a volunteer at the Sowing Seeds for Life “Christmas in the Park” food and toy giveaway at Ganesha Park in Pomona.
Miller is left to care for her two grown children and five grandchildren.
The Christmas spirit was alive and well throughout the afternoon, with smiling children being handed toys and needy people wheeling out baskets of food items and bottled water.
Also, Santa Claus was there to pose for pictures in his sleigh, and each child was handed a candy cane.
The some 500 toys handed out came mainly from toy drives organized by the University of La Verne’s Enactus Club (formerly known as Students in Free Enterprise), Damien High School, the Toys for Tots Foundation, Spark of Life, which involves local firefighters, and the United Methodist Church.
Nestle proved a truckload of bottles water and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank brought in two t truckloads of food items. Other sponsors and donors were Wells Fargo Bank, Von’s, Panera Bread, Food 4 less and Madi-K Give Back 2 God.
Sowing Seeds for Life puts on good pantries for the needy the first and third Wednesday of every month in the parking lot at DPI Labs, 1350 Arrow Highway, La Verne. The five-year-old charitable organization held its annual “Christmas in the Park” food and toy giveaway at Ganesha Park in Pomona on Dec. 1.
That was a great event. Wednesday’s was even better, thanks in large part to an anonymous donor.
