Community cheer
Tuolumne County nonprofts and businesses help turn Sonora into Christmas Town
This Christmas will be the first that 31-year-old Resiliency Village resident Christopher Smith has celebrated with a roof over his head since he aged out of the foster care system at 18.
Smith beamed with pride Wednesday morning at Courthouse Square in Sonora as he recounted his journey from life on the streets of Tuolumne County to becoming one of the first clients of the nonprofit organization’s live-in trauma healing center on Big Hill.
“If it wasn’t for them (Resiliency Village), I probably would have Od’ed,” he said.
Now clean and sober, Smith said he’s currently working on the final credits needed to earn his high school diploma and enrolled at Columbia College to study culinary arts with a minor in entrepreneurship.
“I’m the first male in my family to go to college,” he said.
Smith and six of the other 10 formerly homeless people who live at Resiliency Village’s 40-acre property on Jenny Lind Road were at Courthouse Square on Wednesday to help decorate the organization’s Christmas tree for a contest sponsored by the Sonora Chamber of Commerce.
The contest is part of a broader initiative the chamber has been promoting to make the City of Sonora become a nationally recognized “Christmas Town.”
Resiliency Village and 30 other nonprofit organizations in the county were invited to decorate trees that will remain on display at the park, which the chamber has redubbed “Christmas Tree Lane.”
People will be able to vote for their favorite tree at the website for the chamber’s “Christmas Town Sonora” initiative, or by scanning a QR code with their smartphone that will be on signs at the park.
Johnny “Tuck” Briggs, 64, who was homeless for more than 20 years before moving to the Resiliency Village property in September, enthusiastically described how much his life and mindset has changed over the past several months of being in the program.
“You get to hanging around the wrong people, but you have to decide for yourself to make a change,” he said. “I decided to make a change and give society a chance.”
Briggs said he was grateful that he and his fellow villagers were invited to participate in the tree contest because they all worked on it together and made him feel like he was “part of something.”
Ronda Brewer, 54, has also lived at Resiliency Village since it opened in September after spending the past several years mostly living in a tent at the now-shuttered and condemned area known as Camp Hope off Stockton Road.
Brewer said she’s been homeless for about 30 years of her life and credited Resiliency Village’s founders Mark Dyken,
Shelley Muniz and Brenda Chapman with helping get her to a place where she’s now looking for a job.
“You can call them anytime of the day, and they’ll be there for you,” she said. “They got me out of the camp. I was just stuck there. Once you get stuck in a place, it’s really hard to get out because that’s all you know.”
There were many other organizations that were represented at the park Wednesday, with
more that weren’t there planning to decorate their trees on Thursday (see box for complete list).
Katie Dunn, president of the Sonora Chamber of Commerce, said Lowe’s donated 10 of the trees for the contest and sold 21 others to them at cost. The group’s goal is to raise $100,000 for the Christmas Town Sonora initiative and has taken in
more than $35,000 thus far.
“Christmas towns bring in visitors and stimulate economic growth,” she said. “Everyone benefits, from the hotels to the restaurants to the retail shops.”
The chamber used some of the money this year to hire a professional lighting company to string Christmas lights on St. James Episcopal Church, also known as the iconic and world-renown Red Church, as well as on the planted trees at Courthouse Square.
Dunn explained how other plans for this inaugural year include turning Linoberg Street into the “North Pole” on Saturdays Dec. 4, 11 and 18. Mrs. Claus will entertain children in the afternoon on Dec. 11 and 18, and on each Saturday the Tuolumne County Arts and the Makers Lab will offer crafting activities, music will be played, and interactive projections inspired by the work of Vincent van Gogh will light up the wall of the Diamondback Grill.
Plans for next year include an artificial ice skating rink in Coffill Park.
“Business owners have gone all in,” Dunn said of work that Sonora merchants have done to contribute toward the Christmas Town designation. “All of the businesses have stepped up.”
Go to www.christmastownsonora.org for more information on the initiative.