(soft music) - Welcome to the 2023 Foundation Gala Awards.

I'm Mary Ellen Galvan, executive Director of the Foundation at FCOE.

Every year we gather here at the historic old Administration building auditorium at Fresno City College, with friends, family, and supporters of education to celebrate four individuals who are the best example of how dedication, passion and commitment to serve can transform a community.

It's my pleasure to kick off tonight's event honoring these four individuals whose contributions to the areas of agriculture, academics, the arts and athletics have had a lasting impact on the education of Fresno County students and our community as a whole.

Let the honors begin.

- Listen, I was just turned 92.

- Oh no.

- I tell people all the time, this is not a sprint.

This is a marathon.

(gentle music) You run as long and as hard as you can and you pass the baton because it's not going to be over.

- Any good movements have to have someone who sticks with it through thick and thin and keeps going.

And Mary has not given up to this good day.

And Mary and I are not exactly young these days.

- She laid a foundation for better quality education in our community.

She laid a foundation for others to join that fight and to encourage a stronger sense of responsibility in regard to education.

- Well, I was born in a rural area in Alabama.

It was a very small town called Grove Hill and the school situations were very poor.

We got hand-me-down books.

We walked three miles to school and the other children rode buses right past us.

They yell out the window the obscenities to us but we just went on to school 'cause that's all we knew.

And that's where we, our parents in spite of the fact that it was poorly put together they encouraged us to go and do our very best in school.

And in the fourth or fifth grade, I think, at the elementary school, music person came along and says you wanna play an instrument?

Sure, I'd like to play an instrument.

So he gave me the bass violin and that's what I learned to play and I played it all the way through college.

The University of Kansas was a great experience for me.

I was a music education major.

Dr. Curry's father was the pastor of the church that I attended.

And so I got in a class that my husband was teaching bible school and so that's how I met him.

We got married in '54, in March of '54.

He had been here going to practice at Valley Medical doing an internship, and he met Dr. Myers.

Dr. Myers encouraged him to come to Fresno.

- Even though she didn't really have to choose a career, she's certainly capable of having her own career but she chose to be a community advocate and to just really work to address inequities that she saw in and around her community.

- Well, at that time, the stage of life for both Mary and me when we had children who were in school.

So you tend to concentrate on that and that's at the time when people were just beginning to push for desegregation.

- At the time when we formed concerned citizens, Irwin Middle School had been closed, and we were in the height of trying to desegregate our schools.

And so Edison had no feet of school now.

So Edison was the brink of declining enrollment.

So there were people in the community who said, yeah, just close it.

We were focused on this whole issue.

And so we said, no you can't close Edison because you devalue our children, you devalue our property.

And when you close down educational institutions in a community, you kill the community.

And we will find some way to help you keep Edison open.

- Mary is blessed with grim determination, and I respect that.

And like, you know, where she stands.

She's done so much for the community, and as I say, not just in education but the very fact that she ran for the school board.

It's not easy to run for election.

- I ran for the school board because people encouraged me to do it.

They kept saying, well, you know you do so much outside of this board.

Maybe if you get on the inside, you can do even more.

- She has led us in trying to do through concerned citizens for West Fresno and through other groups that we have formed to try to change the land use policies of our most vulnerable communities.

- We need to breathe clean air.

We need to have opportunity to survive and have a lifespan that's equivalent to that of others in the city.

And the city needs to realize, and we tell them all the time that if any part of this city is in pain, the whole city ought to be concerned.

- [Pastor B.T] I think what we can learn from Dr. Curry and Mrs. Curry, is a commitment not only to ourselves, but to others.

- My husband's practice included for the most part, this whole community.

And he was probably one of the few doctors who still made house calls, who never sent collection letters to anybody for bills not paid, you know.

He was just that kind of person.

- Much of the work that Mother Curry does is really for others.

Her kids are well developed.

They have solid careers.

And I can see them smiling right now, but they're just, they have great legacy and they inherited a great legacy from Mrs. Curry and Dr. Curry.

- Well, I would just say that, you know, I personally got lucky and lucky and blessed.

I appreciate both my parents.

Well, I like to say that they had a program and their program included education but it also included faith and included family.

The models that they laid out are the models that I think every one of my siblings carries with them.

And I'm really proud to say that our next generation has that same sense of service.

- I need Sister Curry to know how much she has meant to this community and to the wellbeing and the health and welfare of this community, the education and the achievement of many people in this community.

- She appreciates all of the acknowledgement.

It's special for us as a family because we celebrate the fact that she's done all this work that she continues to be involved in the community.

- I just tried to make a difference for everybody's children, not just my own, but for all the children that I had anything to do with.

I want them to have opportunities, and it's up to them and what they do with them but I want them to have the opportunities.

- My dad always said, (soft music) when you make money, Maddy, you always give it back to your community.

And that's where I believe in so strongly, they're giving back here to Fresno.

My grandparents came over right after the genocide in 1915 but my mom and dad came over with him.

Well, at 17, my dad went to work for a gentleman that had a little truck that would go to Kalinga.

He drove a truck to Kalinga delivering groceries and produce.

And the man gave it to my dad at 21.

And he did that for 29 years.

At 11 years old, I went down there and it was fixing crates back in those days, so loading trucks, pitching watermelons.

Then I worked as a receiver at night.

I've done everything at Okay Produce, bookkeeping and everything except drive a 48 footer.

We were small, we had 12 employees.

And now today they have 500 employees.

It's amazing to me what Brady and Chad have done.

- I met Maddie and his dad, Charlie, a long time.

There was a place called Trojan's Truck Stop and all the truckers, my dad worked for another company, and all the farmers and they all gather there and I think that's the first time I met his dad, Charlie and I met Maddie.

I had a mobile high pressure washing and steam cleaning business and so I started washing trucks for Okay Produce.

- And I remember Jim fondly with his boots on and coming down and he always talked to my father.

My dad was really great with talking, you know, philosophy and encouraging kids and all, and Jim gives my dad a lot of credit.

- At that point, I knew I need to pay attention to what's going on in front of me as a young man, particularly wanting to understand about leadership and qualities of giving back to a community.

I mean, they talked about that all the time.

And they didn't just talk about things, they actually did it.

- I always like to say to people when they inquire about how does giving and philanthropy make a difference?

Well, it makes a difference because it allows us to achieve that margin of excellence that makes Valley Children's the best, the very best.

So Maddie's continued investment in this mission has allowed us to achieve those excellent outcomes.

A lot of his giving or support to different organizations, we're not aware of, and nor does he try to make it known because it's about the mission of what he supports.

- When you look at the connection to agriculture to schools and how critical it is, I mean, Okay Produce they stepped up to provide opportunities for kids to run food stands in their local communities.

I mean, these are a lot of communities that don't have a real grocery store.

- Kids are where I like to focus on now because it's so important to me.

I think when kids should be recognized for, you know, too many things are always in the paper of bad things.

We need to recognize the good kids.

- And one day he calls me and just says, what, okay, hey, that's so great.

These kids are amazing.

They're fantastic.

What are you giving them?

I'm like, well, you know, I'm recognizing them, give them a nice certificate.

And he's like, we need to give them a scholarship.

We need to give him some money.

And I'm like, okay, Maddie, let's do that.

And then, you know, he came to every superstar award ceremony.

Every month he would be there so that he could see the kids, talk to them.

Think about Okay Produce's involvement in you Matter day and what it's really about.

You Matter Day is really about students collectively coming together all over the valley, doing projects to help Fresno County, help our community be better.

And that's really, if you think about it, that's who the Matoians have been, that's who Maddie is.

- His family is so important to what he does, how he represents himself, his relationship with his father and mother growing up.

- Every Sunday we would visit the farm and visit family, and always with family, our families would on Sunday would congregate.

I really now take great pleasure in my grandkids and watching my grandkids perform, watching them play baseball, or even the girls in plays.

They're amazing.

And I'm just lucky that they're so good to me.

But I think I get the most pleasure today is watching them growing up.

- We think about from Charlie to Maddie, to Brady, to Chad.

I mean the legacy continues to move forward and support this community.

- The community did a lot for his family, with his father building the business and his family growing.

They don't seek the attention or the accolade.

They're not hoisting a trophy because they're doing it.

They do it because they believe in this community.

- Knowing him the way I know him, the award of course and the recognition is very special to him, but it's really about his dad and him and his sons.

And that's the way he would look at this.

- I never think in my eyes I've done enough and I always want to do more.

And it's quite an honor, and I know some of the past recipients, you know, that have won it.

And so for my name to be up there is, I'm really proud of that.

(soft music) (speaking foreign language) - I think Radio Bilingüe is and has become is just an incredible story, to be able to be such an impactful institution, independent, to be able to serve the Latino community.

- He chose something that was passionate to him.

He chose something that could benefit, not only his family, but his community of farm workers.

- I grew up in Lambityeco, in Oaxaca.

And Oaxaca is a state (soft music) with the most indigenous people in Mexico.

So and also the poorest.

My father was here in the United States undocumented.

He left when I was a year old.

He legalized in 1957, and at that time it was much easier than now.

And so he then the next year was able to bring us and that's when I came in 1958.

- Hugo and my path came together in a little town called Hillsburg, California.

Historically, that was a migrant farm worker town.

I think we met each other when we were picking string beans.

But then when he went to school and I went to school, we kind of took different paths in school.

And Hugo was more of a mission at heart.

You know, he wanted to know about, you know, what the school had to offer, what services were available.

He really embraced some of the counselors and some of the advisors and some of the student body at Hillsburg High.

- I really enjoyed high school because I was able to take journalism.

That's where I learned about journalism.

I applied to Harvard, I applied to Yale, I applied to Stanford, I applied to UC, Berkeley, and St. Mary's, and I got into all of them with full scholarships except Yale, nothing.

So that's the only school that rejected me, but all the others did.

And so I said, wow, what a great opportunity.

- His brother, Candido got involved with us with KBBF, Bilingual broadcasting station.

- When he got on the air, everybody above the age of eight would be tuning into his radio show on Sunday mornings and that's how I noticed the power of radio.

It was so accessible and portable.

Harvard has its own radio station on campus and so I became the, when I was a junior, I established the first radio show, whether it be Indigenous or Mexican American, or Mexican (indistinct), Mexican Puerto Rican show at a campus in the United States.

At that time, I was trying to build Radio Bilingüe.

What we wanted to be was a platform for us Mexican Americans to learn from one another and to essentially be like on Air University, and also to it be a platform where we could hear our own music in our own voices.

- I think everybody would say that his radio program and his programming filled a very important niche that was underserved if served at all.

Most of the Hispanic radio stations didn't get into in depth subjects, subjects like Radio Bilingüe did.

And they talk about a variety of issues that the farm workers are affected by on their daily lives.

- We were the first public radio station to set up a station in Bakersfield and then one in Modesto.

Yeah and then now we're 25.

We have stations in South Texas.

We have stations in New Mexico.

We have substations in Colorado.

We have stations, you know, all over California.

- I think that's Hugo's nature, wanting to make a difference in any area that he can.

And, you know, he's a tenacious bulldog.

You know, if he finds a cause out there, he'll go for it.

- I think having him be in involved in First 5 Fresno County means that he absolutely understands the valley that children need adults to be the best versions of themselves and to be cared for and to be, you know, brought into this world in the most ideal way.

He's considered the historian of First 5 Fresno County because he's longest serving commissioner.

Hugo has used Radio Bilingüe to support the first five years of life.

I can think of during the pandemic, he wanted to make sure that fam, that we could use his avenue to remind parents and grandparents that babies were missing their well-child visits.

- You know, when I was a literally a teen and I dreamed about helping poor people, you know, people like my own family and my own friends and my own class of people, I didn't realize that it actually takes a team to do any kind of meaningful work.

And so that's what is I learned.

- I think the unique part of Hugo is that he recognizes his accomplishments but he's not one to toot the horn or shine a spotlight on himself.

You know, if anything, I think he avoids a spotlight and let others do the talking for him.

- I see this recognition from the superintendent schools for Fresno County.

I see it as a recognition of Radio Bilingüe.

As an institution, that's how I see it 'cause it's a team that has made it happen.

And it's a recognition also for the traditional arts and what arts can benefit our community.

It's just, I mean, this is my dream job, you know?

I mean, like, it's just incredible.

I get energized every morning to come to work.

I'm so happy.

It's just an incredible institution of service to the community.

- I actually, during basketball practice, would see in the gym area, people in wheelchairs and with amputations or spinal cord injuries or post-stroke, and they were waiting for adaptive PE classes at the college.

You know, I wasn't accustomed to seeing people with different needs and different able-bodied kinds of challenges.

So rather than stare, I volunteered to be an aide in one of the classes and got to know some of those people, and I changed my major to adaptive physical education then.

I grew up with, on a little farm in Lamore, we raised sheep.

My dad was an Ag teacher and we then we moved to Clovis and immediately got into sports there.

I went from Cloverside to Fresno City College and played basketball there.

I started throwing the javelin there at City College and I did well enough to earn a scholarship at Cal Poly and ended up going there and I learned a lot and I got to travel.

I did well enough in track in Javelin that, you know, I went to a couple USA meets.

And also that year I was a national champion division two in the Women's Javelin.

- When I met Danella Barnes, I was like, wow who is this woman?

She was amazing to me because seeing Danella as the athlete, it really spoke to her discipline, her drive and the importance of goal setting.

She practiced and she did all that she needed to to become that, I'm gonna say world class athlete because she competed at such a high level.

That just goes to speak to her own being, you know, everything she does and she does with such an awesome heart.

- I started teaching adapted physical education here in Sanger Unified in 1988.

In physical education, the practice was to roll a ball out and expect every kid to use that one piece of equipment at the same level.

And somewhere in teaching adaptive PE, I realized there's gotta be a better way because my kids are never gonna be able to participate.

I think watching people succeed, setting goals, and helping helping those students attain them, it was being part of that success, I mean their success was my success.

You know, I don't wanna own that or take it away from them, but we found ways to modify things to make those goals attainable.

And I like to romanticize everything, it was beautiful.

When here in Sanger Unified, we were asked, I was asked to look at starting an elementary physical education program and hiring kinesiology majors to teach movement, fitness and gross motor skills, that originally started so that our classroom teachers could have a prep time.

But what happened was it grew into an actual bonafide first through sixth grade movement program.

- I was a teacher in the district when Danella was hired as our PE coordinator for the district.

As a multiple subjects credential teacher, typically, you would teach PE yourself.

But that specific training on exactly how to best do skills with the kids and really prepare them for the athletic skills that kids would need and the fitness skills that kids would need for their future, that was something that as a multiple subjects teacher I didn't really, you know, understand.

I know when I took them out it was kickball, you know, four square hopscotch.

- Teachers started seeing a difference in behaviors with kids.

The classroom teachers did, but the fitness scores in the first two years of this program went from, if I'm remember right, our fifth grade kids scored 27% on the California fitness test.

By the time they were in sixth grade the next year, the average passing rate was 51%.

So we doubled, almost doubled those fitness scores for that same cohort of kids.

And the fact that this program is still running and there've been three or four coordinators of the elementary physical education program here in Sanger, but it remains.

- It's a program that has sustained 25 plus years and the impact just has been that continuation of really connecting physical movement and healthy fitness.

Nutrition is even involved into some nutritional lessons for our students into being their best self physically and mentally, emotionally and connecting that to the classroom.

I think that's really been a huge impact.

- How excited am I that I get to sit and watch my friend, my colleague, my peer come up and win this amazing award?

I am thrilled.

I am more than excited.

Can I say jealous?

I am a little jealous.

- I don't get it.

And maybe because I had so much fun, it didn't feel like work.

It didn't feel as groundbreaking as maybe this program is, but I'm humbled, of course, honored, but I'm humbled.

The one thing that I can't put on my resume but is the crowning jewel of, I think things that I've accomplished in life is that this program is still going and this district is still committed and the community is supportive and it's just so neat to see those opportunities and activities for kids that have just grown.

- What inspiring stories.

(soft music) This was such a great evening.

We'd like to thank our sponsors, including founding sponsor, educational employees credit union, presenting sponsors Chevron, Valley Children's Hospital and new presenting sponsors, PNC Bank and Best Tours and Travel for making this evening possible.

We'd also like to thank all of you for watching as we honor four incredible agents of change, Mrs. Mary Curry, Mr. Maddie Matoian, Mr. Hugo Morales and Danella Barnes Penman.

They represent the best of our community and we hope you were uplifted and inspired by their example.

To learn more about how you can make your own impact on the education of Fresno County students through the foundation at FCOE, including sponsorships and planned giving, please visit our website at fcoefoundation.org or call (559) 497-3770.