Desa Belyea’s upbringing inspired her to become a philanthropic funder. Growing up during the Great Depression, she witnessed the immense poverty experienced by others and learned that advocating for vulnerable populations was crucial. She recalled her father sharing that unhoused, starving individuals, commuting via trains, longed for things as simple as baloney sandwiches. “My family had limited means, but these unsheltered men had lost their jobs and homes and were in dire

Bridge 2 College was inspired by Johnny Baltierra’s tumultuous upbringing, leading him to pose the question, “how do I change the lives of kids like me?”  Baltierra was born in Mexicali, Mexico and grew up in Fresno, without a father and a not-so-fatherly stepfather. At 17 he had a child with his now wife, Susan. He and Susan started from humble beginnings, navigating being young parents while simultaneously working to achieve their educational and career goals. Baltierra wor

Driving through the beautiful greenery and rolling hills of Woodlake, CA enraptures a moment of peace and unity in a world so often filled with chaos and division. That is what attendees of the  Sequoia Riverlands Trust's  (SRT) Dry Creek Nursery grand re-opening experienced on March 6, 2026.   Dry Creek Nursery is a Catalyst Project of the Central Valley Community Foundation’s  Sierra San Joaquin Jobs  (S2J2) Initiative. The nursery was one of eight projects selected by S2J2