A couple of years ago, Sonora Vasquez was disappointed to discover that her hometown’s Verutti Park in San Juan Bautista was in disrepair. Vasquez and her dearest friend, Gabriela Candelaria were with their children when they noticed the sad condition of the community park. “We were walking along with our kids and I said, “It stinks. It smells like cat poop! It really was kind of disgusting,” Vasquez said.
Her friend Candelaria mused…”Wouldn’t that be great, if it was all fixed up?”
So, Sonora Vasquez — an active-duty Air Force master sergeant and mother of two– decided to do something about it. With the help of many, she gathered a team of 60 volunteers and raised over $40,000 for the project. First on the list, they got rid of the sand that was attracting all the cats to the kid’s sandbox and replaced it with rubber matting. Vasquez clearly knows her numbers. “That was $34,160, the playground equipment was $6,690 and the fence was $2,398,” she tells BenitoLink.
On Wednesday, June 15, Vasquez will be honored in Washington, D.C. for her hard work and commitment to her hometown. “I am excited and I’m nervous,” Vasquez told BenitoLink as she prepared to board the flight to D.C. “I don’t feel like a really deserve all this attention. The park renovation really became a community effort,” she explained. She will be representing the Central Coast among 100 other Jefferson Award honorees from all over the country. Only five individuals will be selected for the National Jefferson Awards.
The Jefferson Awards are given first on a local and then on a national level. According to Wikipedia, “Local (Jefferson) winners are ordinary people who do extraordinary things without expectation of recognition.”
Vasquez was awarded Veteran of the Year in 2014 by the San Benito County League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and chosen as the 2014 Philanthropy Day Honoree by the city of San Juan Bautista. According to her online Linkedin profile, Vasquez works in human resources at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, where she advises officers and airmen on military personnel issues and programs. To be more accurate, her title is “Superintendent, Mission Support Flight”.
“I have a huge passion for San Juan,” Vasquez explained to BenitoLink in a phone conversation. “With this project, I wanted to combine community events with fundraising events and bring in people who were good at different things.” The park project is in its final phase and is expected to be complete some time in August.
The Community Foundation for San Benito County provided a $15,000 grant, San Juan Bautista provided $5,000 and San Benito County re-allocated funds for the project as well.
As Vasquez prepared for her big day in D.C., she shared the information that she has just received a new assignment in San Antonio, Texas. “That is my job and I am ready to go,” she said, “but of course, I love this area. It’s my home and I always look forward to coming back.”
For more on Vasquez’s Jefferson Awards recognition, see the clip from KSBW here: http://www.ksbw.com/tv/editorials/editorial-jefferson-award-honoree-to-dc/39888014