Page 10 - Sanger Herald 9-6-18 E-edition

Lifestyles
SANGER HERALD • 2B • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2018
Sanger
Sanger woman seeks to bolster bone
marrow registry
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Valerie Villagomez goes to work every day to help very young children cope with trauma.
Their parents may be addicted to drugs or involved in crimes. The children may have suffered some form of abuse, neglect or mental health issues. Maybe they have seen things they shouldn’t have.
“I help the moms break the cycle and better themselves,” Villagomez said. “Each day. It can take a lot emotionally and physically.”
Yet, she said her job is rewarding. “I can say that they keep me going as well,” she said. “They’re
Valerie Villagomez
loving. It’s amazing to watch them.”
Villagomez for the past eight years has been battling non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which starts in the body’s white blood cells. The cancer, which was the same that afflicted Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis, then affects the lymph system, which includes the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, thymus, adenoids, tonsils and digestive tract. She has undergone chemotherapy and radiation.
Her current treatment involves taking chemo pills and finding a match for a bone marrow transplant. For the latter, Villagomez and her family have organized a donor drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 8 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at North and Bethel avenues in Sanger.
An allogeneic transplant uses blood-forming cells donated by somebody with healthy cells. The Be the Match program, which has a registry for people to find unrelated donors, says that
about 70 percent of patients have a matched donor in their families.
Villagomez, 51, said she wants to make more people aware of the registry and hopes to attract “as many to come out as possible,” especially from the Hispanic and African- American communities so that they can be included in the registry. The procedure requires sending a swab of DNA into a lab.
“It’s a last resort for me,” she said.
Frank Villagomez said his wife is tough. And he said she’s a woman who makes a difference, especially through her work with children in crisis.
Deonna McPeters, Villagomez’s cousin, has also played a role in
organizing the search for potential donors. She said the target audience for finding a match includes those between the ages of 18 and 44.
“The goal is to (get potential donors to) follow through with the whole process,” Villagomez said. That means donors need to be committed, she said. She and Frank said they hope to get 10 people added to the registry. “It’s a gift you can give somebody.”
A bone marrow transplant is tough on the recipient. “Once we find a match, I’ll spend three to six months at Stanford,” Villagomez said.
“It depends on how it goes,” Frank said.
“I’ll be out of commission,” she said.
Recovery could take a year or more.
“Families have gotten through this by sticking together,” Villagomez said. “I’ve had a lot of support and love from family and friends. It’s the journey God has given us, and we have to take it as it comes.
“It’s a journey my life has to go through. I’m good. I can get up in the morning. I put my feet on the floor, go to work and meet the needs of my little ones.”
Villagomez said she does have hope. “But it’s a scary process,” she said.
The reporter can be contacted by email at nemethfeatures@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Community Calendar
To get an item into the calendar, email details to nemethfeatures@gmail. com or call Mike or Sharon at 559-875-2511.
Sanger Farmers Market & Street Fair Grand Opening is planned from 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 8 in downtown Sanger. Sanger Herald editor Dick Sheppard and city manager Tim Chapa have a pie in the face face-off. The market continues through the month every Saturday with various events. Heroes’ Night is Sept. 15. Details, 559-875-4575.
The Sanger Boys Basketball program presents its Fall Basketball Camp from Sept. 10 to Oct. 3 at the Sanger High Coach Dean Nicholson Gym. Cost is $65, kids from kindergarten to eighth grade. The goal is to teach young people the “fun- damentals” of the game and build a premier Sanger program at the same time. Details, coach Al Alvarado al_alvarado@sanger.k12. ca.us.
Kings Records plans to present rapper and producer Redman in concert at the Elements 4 Peace 6, billed as an independent music festival. The event is from noon to 10 p.m. Sept. 15 at Sanger Park. Expect many other performers. A freestyle battle and 12-man beat battle are planned. There will be attractions for kids and a craft beer garden for adults. Redman, also known by his real name Reggie Noble, rose to fame in the 1990s at Def Jam Records often pairing with Method Man.
HOPE Sanger’s Rack of Ribs Fundraiser is planned at noon Sept. 29 at 502 L St. Cost is $20. Details and to pre-order, 559-824-4280.
is absolutely in charge of the outcome. Joy comes from completely trusting the superintendent of all things.
Next week: Part 3 — Joy is contagious.
Pastor Sam Estes is city advance director and facilitates the Sanger Community Task Force that meets the first and third Tuesdays every month. He can be reached at pastorsam51@gmail.com.
Operation Xmas stocking under way
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Bev Cox has turned her Sanger home into a manufacturing facility of sorts.
Pinned to the walls sit all manner of custom-stitched Christmas stockings, some bearing the coy images of a risque Betty Boop, others with badges that say, “valor.” Many feature the marks of the military, some carefully crafted from camo cloth with references here and there that signify these aren’t ordinary holiday keepsakes.
By Oct. 20, Cox said she hopes to pack each one full of snacks, hygiene kits and tube socks and send them to U.S. military troops overseas. Her goal stands at 100 stockings, and she’s enlisted the aid of more than 50 people to lend a hand.
“Our boys are over there,” she said, quickly correcting herself to include women as well.
Cox is a familiar face in Sanger, one very active in her church, St. Mary’s, and in other causes in the area. Her self-professed partner in crime, Aurelia Ramirez, the other day helped her cut out fabric and the various patches to make each unique for about a dozen stockings.
“It’s a wonderful project,” Ramirez said. “Especially for the people serving our country.”
Cox is on a mission, one she dreamed up after her great grandson Zachary Cox visited her about a month ago. “I said, ‘Zachary, do you still have your Christmas stocking I made?’”
Zachary, who is in the Army and deploys soon for
Finding Joy — Part 2
Jesus was talking to his disciples about joy, and he declared, “I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:11
When you are rightly related to Jesus, he gives you joy that becomes the fuel for the believer on the road to maturity. Only Jesus can make our lives flourish in the midst of trouble. In him, joy is strengthened
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Bev Cox can make three Christmas stockings a day and intends to make as many as possible for U.S. troops stationed overseas this holiday season. They will include food, above.
Mail for Heroes program. Brown-Monroe said the soldiers appreciate the sentiment. “I hear nothing but good things from the parents here (of soldiers about the packages or letters they receive),” she said. “They (the troops) were happy to get it. (A package or letter) really
makes a difference.”
Cox said Judy and Pete Fox donated several hundred dollars worth of
food items to include.
But Cox still needs help. The wish list includes small packs of peanuts, corn nuts, tube socks, sun block, chap stick, hard candy, beef jerky, hot sauce packs, ketchup packs, powdered drink mixes, deodorant, floss, dice, cards, protein or granola bars and flea collars, which soldiers place on their ankles to keep fleas from getting into their clothing. And cash
doesn’t hurt.
“If we get more than
what we need, we’ll do more stockings,” Cox said.
Her house reflected the scope of the mission. The food donated by the Fox family was neatly displayed over most of the kitchen table. Stockings adorned every wall space on the wall not already covered with family photographs or
other art. And bins of fabric that Cox had saved over the years complemented the yards of camoflage fabric she had just purchased from an online vendor.
“Not every one of them is military themed,” she said. “No two stockings of mine are alike.”
Each one took Cox about three hours to make. She can produce up to three a day and has already made about 40 — at least as of last week.
Cox also has two grandsons in the service, Brigham Cox in the Navy and C.J. Moore in the Army stationed in Syria. Her husband, Charles Cox, who died about four years ago, was in the Navy, stationed on a ship in Kingston, Jamaica during the Bay of Pigs conflict in Cuba in April 1961. She and Chuck were married 55 years.
“We love our children overseas, and we don’t know what else to do,” she said. “We pray. But this is something I hope will make them laugh and think of home. They’re in a war zone.”
The reporter can be contacted by email at nemethfeatures@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Joy can change our perspective and our perception of negative circumstances. We aren’t simply in denial, sticking our head in the sand, but rather we choose to rise above the circumstances and adopt an eternal mind- set. Stress can come from many different factors today. We can worry and fret because we feel we’re not in control.
That situation looks out of control. Joy is an ongoing reminder that God is in control and that he
Kuwait, said that indeed he did have it. And that got Cox thinking. “Zack is only 19,” she said. And she said many others like him could appreciate a little something of home, a little something that could make a day on foreign soil a little brighter.
“The mission is the important thing,” Cox said. She also enlisted the aid of Sarah Brown-Monroe from the American Red Cross Central California Chapter to distribute the stockings overseas. Brown- Monroe participated in another program last year called Valentines for
when life is challenging.
I have found there is a source of deep joy available from an intimate place of serving Jesus. Let’s take a look at his teaching in Luke 15:3-7: Then Jesus told them this parable, “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety- nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors
Veterans that included active duty personnel, too. Cox said the Red Cross will also contribute a “disaster pack,” which includes a razor and other toiletries for each stocking.
Most likely the stockings will go to ground troops, said Brown-Monroe, a volunteer for the Red Cross. She said the Red Cross welcomes projects like those organized by Cox and her group. She said an elementary school in Firebaugh recently collected packages for troops and the Red Cross is currently collecting donations for its Holiday
PASTOR’S CORNER
together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
“I tell you that
in the same way
there will be more rejoicing in heaven
over one sinner
who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Joy comes when the lost are found! When we join Jesus in his work by sharing and seeing people come to him, we can be a
part of the heavenly celebration right here and right now. I have found incredible joy when Icanbeapartofa life that is changed for eternity.
Additionally, the joy of Christ will replace or reduce stress. Joy becomes a filter through which we view life. We’re not talking about rose-colored glasses where everything is hunky dory but about actually having
brand new eyes.
Pastor Sam Estes