Nonprofit event honors leaders, raises funding
Chula Vista nonprofit Community Through Hope is set to host an event to honor South County leaders who spearheaded COVID-19 response efforts and to raise funds for a new program that would bring medical care to the homeless.
The nonprofit has organized “Border Health Rocks” on Sept. 12, at the Living Coast Discovery Center in Chula Vista and is set to feature a concert to celebrate five local individuals “for their leadership and courage in improving the health of the San Diego-Mexico border during the height of the pandemic,” organizers said.
The honorees are: Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, National City mayor and the first Latina mayor of the city who also serves on multiple South County boards and commissions; Angela Williams, a local nurse assistant and community volunteer who worked at two senior living facilities in COVID-19 wards; Birdie Gutierrez, the founder of the grassroots organization Bridge of Love Across the Border, which offers resources to asylum seekers; Dijana Beck, acting deputy director of Homeless Solutions at the Health and Human Services and who has served homeless individuals in the South Bay; and JoAnn Fields, an Asian American Pacific Islander advocate who guided a Filipino COVID-19 task force to address what the group called a lack of county representation in the latest census.
“These heroes are a reminder that not only is there always work to be done in our community, but that we can always do better together,” Rosy Vasquez, Community Through Hope CEO and president, said in a statement.
The event will also serve as a fundraiser to help launch its Street Medicine program, which the nonprofit has described as bringing medical care to those without permanent shelter in and around Chula Vista.
“It was created to intentionally prevent illness and death for those living on the street, providing an unprecedented resource to the area,” read a statement from the nonprofit.
To purchase tickets and for more information about the nonprofit visit communitythroughhope.org.