(piano music playing) (Lorenzo humming) - Hey.

Hello, neighbor.

So good to see you today.

I'm Lorenza Rios, president and CEO of Valley PBS, and I'd like to welcome you to this year's "Nominate your Neighbor" awards.

Normally, we would be live and in person, but for safety, we're coming to you from our studios to your screen.

So as they say in the business, the show must go on.

But I think that we have to start at the beginning, the way Mr. Rogers would.

(humming) Am not a very good singer.

And honestly (laughs) I'm not as graceful as he was and I certainly don't look as good as he did.

There's only one Fred Rogers.

And did you know March 20th is Fred Rogers' birthday.

He'd be 93 years old today and what a better way to honor his legacy and the life lessons he taught us than to celebrate our wonderful neighbors that have demonstrated kindness through helping.

Mr. Rogers once said, "all of us at some time or another need help."

Whether we're giving or receiving help.

Each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world.

That's one of the things that connect us as neighbors.

In our own way each one of us is a giver and a receiver.

So now tell me what does a tech company, a three-year-old, a firefighter, a retired school teacher, a mother and a man dedicating his life to helping youth have in common?

Well tonight we are answering that question.

Valley PBS has been the valleys preschool classroom stage for the arts and lens for exploration pointing citizens of all ages to destinations, where their interests will be served, their spirits lifted and their voices and perspectives heard.

Our mission has always been one that enriches, educates and strengthens our diverse Valley community through the power of Public Service Media.

Tonight, we are sharing six amazing stories of kindness, service and support by our Valley neighbors that have made an impact in their communities, or should I say our communities through the power of helping.

Our first story begins in the city of Bakersfield.

Eddie lane volunteers his time to support and mentor Kern County youth, ensuring that they have lifetime experiences.

Picture picture, let's hear about the winner of the volunteer award.

- There are so many volunteers in this community who give from the heart.

Carmen Bella is the primary reason why we're here.

Well, Genie Parent is the reason why I got involved with Mesa Verde.

This is my neighbor, Jerry Flores and Jerry heads the Migrant Education Program.

Bill is the president of the Parkway Foundation.

I'd like to introduce Steve Montgomery.

He's the president of the Sierra Club - [Bella] During our science day camp programs, Eddy has gotten together a group of retired school teachers who have come down and have taught the children.

- [Genie] Every time we call on him to come and show our students teach our students, expose our students to that which they have never been exposed to.

- [Bill] We are a big grateful for Eddie's efforts on behalf of the environment and the community in general.

- [Jerry] And thank you for your tireless volunteering.

- Whatever he gets involved in it's a cause that is for justice and for serving the underserved people and he does the hard work, which is the part not just to writing letters or giving money or coming to a meeting once in a while, he does the one-on-one part, working with individuals whether they're incarcerated, whether they are in immigration retention camps, whether they are children who are from underprivileged homes he does that work and does it so beautifully that he still has friendships going on many years with people that he has worked with and mentored through that time.

And at the same time, he has been very active in protecting mother nature and doing what needs to be done to see the opportunities in nature will be available not only for this generation, but for generations to come.

(soft music) And he just stood out as being one who was especially devoted to single-mindedly going toward that goal of being a Mr. Rogers helper.

And so it's very appropriate to have this award from Valley PBS, from Mr. Rogers neighborhood in his neighborhood Trolley going to Eddie.

And so it's my delight, to be able to present him with the award for being the outstanding volunteer.

So Eddie, thank you for all your service.

It's been a joy to watch.

- Well, thank you.

This is very kind, Jerry.

Very unexpected.

I didn't know anything about this until you called.

(Jerry laughing) Jerry has a conniving part that I didn't know until just recently.

(Jerry laughing) And I'm a big fan of Valley Public Television.

I watch it all the time.

Nothing that we do is done individually.

It's always done with others and we all have different talents but working together we can make for a better community.

And that's the kind of inspiration that I get from Jerry and from the others.

And as I've learned, when I get older, you always get more than you give.

Jerry and the others have given a lot over the years and we receive a lot back.

So I'm very grateful to Valley Public Television and to Jerry.

I'm very honored again, thank you.

But I want to talk about them.

I want to switch this up here.

(mumbles) The people who you've met today all have for years and years and years been engaged in community service.

And I'm so grateful that my neighborhood which came today are people who each deserve an award.

This, if we could make a thousand trolleys, I think between us all, we could pass out a thousand trolleys.

So I want to say, thank you for those who enable me and others in this community to be of service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

Thank you, Eddie for all you're doing in the community.

Our next neighbor is a Fresno based tech company that has changed the lives of thousands of people and positively impacted the Central Valley.

The recipient of our business award goes to Bitwise Industry.

Picture picture, show us.

(upbeat music) - Jake and I started Bitwise Industries in 2013 believing that we could change our city and uplift the local talent here by introducing and catalyzing the technology industry.

But the why we do what we do is really deeply rooted in our life stories.

- Yeah, I mean, for Irma and I technology was really an inflection point in our respective family stories.

My grandmother came here from Mexico and my father was raised very poor in Los Angeles by my grandmother and my grandfather.

And he was working as a night watch security guard in Los Angeles and went home after a particularly difficult shift, turned on the television, there's an ad for this thing called the computer learning center.

And as far as he knows this is a place you can go to learn to computer.

And that was a pathway to a better life, to something that was a different sort of career than it would have been expected for somebody coming from his story.

And so he did, and that is ultimately the beginning of a story for how he became a computer programmer.

And it was an inflection point for his life and ultimately changed the sort of opportunity that my siblings and I were able to enjoy.

And really my father's story and Irma's in so many powerful ways, parallel each other.

- Yeah.

My story is similar in that the technology industry became this transformative force in a life I didn't expect to lead or live.

I grew up here in the Central Valley in a small town called Carruthers, California third generation, Mexican-American my family immigrated here to follow the food and the work.

So a family of field laborers and really didn't see in front of me as part of my life story things like starting a company or going to college.

Very accidentally made my way to college on a scholarship and via just this beautiful moment of serendipity chose a major that would forever change the trajectory of my life.

That major happened to be computer science and engineering.

And the very, very first job that I had at the bottom of the totem pole in that industry I was already out earning most of the folks I knew at home.

And I knew in that moment that this industry could change lives.

Ultimately, if you sort of fast forward the tape and you bring these two stories together, taking the technology industry from these different angles we knew that it could be transformative for the people of Fresno and other under underdog cities like ours.

(upbeat music) What we intended to do is to build a sense of place.

It's a place to create community around the technology industry.

This is where you come if you're ambitious and interested in the technology industry, this is where you come to find it.

This is literally the dot on the map or the flag in the ground where you can come and be around people who are interested in similar things as you're interested in.

And so what we wanted to do inside is build these lively bustling, happy places where aspiring technologists could meet their aspirations of finding that place where the sort of thing that you picture other cities have, the big cities with the shiny buildings and the glass walls, we wanted to build something similar here in such a way that Fresno could be really proud of it.

(soft music) We didn't have a very specific end goal in mind.

We were just solving the next problem in front of us.

Where do you find the technology industry in a place like Fresno?

Where do you find the talent for that technology industry in a place like Fresno?

Where do they sit?

Where do they get their coffee?

What are they excited about?

How do we get them engaged in their communities?

All of those things were problems that we saw ourselves experienced in the technology industry from very different lenses.

I was an entrepreneur and engineer Jake an intellectual property attorney, but both looking at our city and asking ourselves, what can we do about these things that we see directly in front of us?

Little bit by little bit that became Bitwise Industries which to this date we have just under half a million square feet in California for technology tenant to reside, we have, as Jake said 5,000 students who have come through our doors, 80% of whom are achieving technical employment.

Those things while important in terms of metrics what we really wanted was a way to participate in the technology industry that doesn't often exist in underdog cities.

And so that's what we were setting out to create.

It became what's behind us now.

(upbeat music) - Irma and I both feel really fortunate to get to do this work and serve our city in this way.

And it's a lot of fun.

One of the things though, that's fun to be able to recognize or nominate is the work that our team does.

I mean, we have an extraordinary group of folks that are Fresno and Valley kids that grew up and are getting to do this extraordinary thing in downtown Fresno.

And so anytime that there is a chance to put their work forward is really neat.

And to be recognized is obviously a great honor.

This began all very, very small with an audacious vision that now that it's lived out not one but four buildings in downtown Fresno and not one city, but four cities, five cities across the country is really exciting.

And so we're glad people like it.

- From humble beginnings comes truly something impactful.

Thank you, Bitwise.

Our individual award winner saw a need to help improve the health of our community by improving the lives of all its members.

Let's hear the story of Nancy Waidtlow.

(soft music) - And it was a great difficulty for me for a long time because I had retired from being a teacher but then I needed to do something.

I had gone around and volunteered as a helper in people's classrooms kind of thing.

Well, I was doing those little things like that and it just didn't seem, what was my life for?

I wasn't having any really good feeling about what I was doing, not enough, okay?

But then Claudia Sweet.

I'm going to get her applaud because she was my life coach.

I went weekly and talked to her and I figured out what I wanted to do, what I could do.

- You don't have to go very far to see the anguish that homelessness has created in our community.

There's the man who lives at the post office up the street.

There's the people that live behind the thrift store down this way.

There's the folks working the signs out on Blackstone and at the freeway interchanges.

And I look at that stuff and recognize the horror of it.

And so I go home and maybe I write another check to the central California food bank or Poverello House or I might even drop an email to my city Councilman and ask for some focus on the thing.

Nancy looks at that and sort of thinks it over and goes out and buys a house, gathers a bunch of like-minded people to form a board of directors, forms a nonprofit corporation, builds shelters, brings in homeless people and has been running the thing for years now.

I can't imagine doing that.

I'm completely in awe and it's to the benefit of our neighborhood and our community.

(guitar playing) - I've gone to meetings with people like Art Dyson who were working on the homeless problem but they talked a lot.

And they kept talking a lot (laughing) and I kept getting more and more frustrated with all this talk a lot.

So I started looking for property.

I liked every property I saw but I was involved a little bit with Art Dyson.

And he had a vision of helping the homeless and of building shelters that were really special for them.

And so I would bring the properties to him and he would say something like, "Well how are they going to get to the grocery store to get what they need," or something like that.

You know, something that showed me that I hadn't thought this through quite enough yet (laughs) but then I found the property that I ended up buying.

And at first it was pending being sold to somebody else.

And I thought, well, I've lost that.

But then it came back on the market (music drowns out sound) - Pretty much my whole adult life I've been homeless.

I have five kids.

I've lost three of them through CPS but I've been able to reconnect with them since I stayed at the DG.

Before we found the DG nowhere else would help us because of our failure to reunite with all these three kids.

- Gosh.

I was thinking to myself, wow, this is right off the edge.

How can this work?

(Nancy laughs) But you know - Everybody taught that to me.

- Yeah, yeah.

Then she got hooked up with Art Dyson, he's a well-respected guy.

So that was a big plus.

And bringing in some of the other folks that were brought in, Nancy turned this crazy thing into a really legit enterprise.

And for me, sitting next door, kind of watching this getting periodic reports here and there pretty impressive.

(soft music) - Since then we have been sober for a year.

We both found jobs.

I currently work at Walmart.

We're supposed to get our kids back in July.

We've been able to reunite with the kids that we lost.

So our oldest three kids that were taken from me at birth, we got to meet them, spend Christmas with them.

Nancy is an amazing person.

If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have the opportunity with our kids.

- I'm wishing and hoping that people's view of the homeless will somehow be turned around.

(guitar playing) - Nancy, I'm overjoyed to be able to present you with this PBS neighborhood trolley award for the tremendous, unbelievable work that you've done with the homeless folks and the Dakota eco garden.

Thank you so much for making our whole community a better place.

It's such an honor to be your neighbor.

I really appreciate what you've done.

- (laughing) All right, Jeff.

Wow.

Let's see how many people could live in that (both laughing) - Yeah, right.

Right - But that's going to have a place of honor in my living room.

But over the years, actually it's been a long time since I've gotten (laughing) any kind of award.

But I did use to get some plaque now and then get to speak in front of a group of people and things like that.

People have come and they have worked and they have helped, and they have donated.

It has no government funding.

It's totally supported by the community, by donors.

And so this represents a lot of work and money from a lot of people, not just me.

So the officers (mumbles) this wonderful thing right there - Nancy truly understands that everyone has something valuable to bring to this world.

Our thanks to you.

Now, this next one is pretty tough.

You know, a parent should never lose a child.

No one understands that more than Lorraina Tapia.

After losing her daughter she created the non-profit project, Loreal both to cope with her grief and help other parents through the difficult time.

Let us look at the impact of our nonprofit neighbor, Project Loreal.

(wind whooshing) - We help families and mothers that have dealt with the loss of a baby.

We help support them with memory boxes filled with informational material, give them support on how to deal with grief.

And within this box is there's also mementos, keepsakes and just memorial things that can help them cope with their loss.

We started in 2014 and that year is when I had my own loss.

Her name was Loreal and she was born sleeping.

So she was a stillborn.

And I had a very hard time during that year processing everything and going through the grieving process.

And so I reached out to a community of mothers and families of loss, and they helped me quite a bit to cope and organize and eventually come up with project Loreal.

(soft music) So the very first box that I made was a very emotional time for me.

During that time I was in a very deep dark place.

And I didn't know how to go about doing something.

I know I wanted to do something.

I just didn't know what, how.

I couldn't find a way to keep Loreal's memory alive.

And I believe it was some time in November, December where I decided to start project Loreal.

So with that, that very first box was... it brought tears to my eyes, to be honest.

Because the stranger that I didn't know that reached out to me wanted one of these boxes because of her loss.

And we just instantly just gave each other a hug, we cried together.

We didn't speak, not one word was said.

And that moment, right there was beautiful.

As long as I had employment, I knew I had income coming in.

And with whatever leftover I had, I sacrificed a little bit here and there.

And I just started looking for encouraging items, inspirational items, angel wings, butterflies just anything that would represent a loss of a baby that would help.

And little by little, I just started accumulating things.

And I just picked from those things exactly what I wanted in those boxes.

And I promised myself, I don't care how I do it, but as long as I am employed, I will do it myself and get these boxes put together and sent out with my own money.

I did that for six years.

- So project Loreal does, it means a lot.

And I'm glad that she found strength in something because she was having a hard time grieving with her loss at first.

So I really admire her for finding this project and putting her whole heart into it because she does put a lot of her emotions into each box.

Each box is made with lots of love.

And so, you know, it's something that she...

I admire her for.

- I'm amazed by her, just taking the initiative to do some things so that her daughter's memory can be kept alive.

Just trying to do something for other parents that are grieving.

And in the process herself cope with her grief in that way.

I know it was a very difficult time.

Sometimes when we love someone (music drowns out sound) you don't know how to help them.

But the best thing to do when someone is in the situation is just be there for them.

Even if you don't talk to them or anything, just be there, let them know that you're there.

Just be a listening ear or you don't have to say anything at all but be there.

- Lorraina, I was part of nominating you for this year's neighborhood trolley award from PBS.

I can't think of anyone else that deserves this award more than you because I know how much effort you put into these boxes and how much love and support you have shared with people in need, mommies in need, families in need.

So I just feel that you're very deserving of this award.

- Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

- I just want to let you know that I am very, very proud of you and I am proud to be a part of project Loreal.

It's just amazing the work that you do.

And it just makes me emotional because I've seen you go through this, (sobbing drown out sound) sister.

It's amazing all the families that you've touched and I'm just proud to be a part of it.

Part of project Loreal.

- Just to share a quick little story here.

I used to work for a company that used to sell books.

And I came across this one book here that really caught my eye and I knew I needed to get it because it reminded me of my childhood and the fond memories I have from watching Mr. Rogers.

He instilled in me values and morals but most of all kindness and that stuck with me.

I want to continue that tradition with my children and with everyone else that I can touch.

I just want to thank everyone who nominated me and who's ever been touched by project Loreal in some kind of way, shape or form.

Thank you so much.

- Light can be found in the darkest of places.

Thank you, Lorraina and project Loreal for shining your light into our neighborhood.

Emmy Rose Lovick a three-year-old uses art to brighten communities and color our hearts and hope for the future.

As the recipient of this year's Daniel Tiger Award, Emmy shows us all that you're never too small to make a big splash in the world.

(birds chirping) - [Mom] Can I help you?

(mumbles) talk clearly and happy and that's it.

Just like you normally would say.

I'm right here.

Okay?

- [Cameraman] So how old are you, Emmy?

- [Emmy] I'm three.

- [Cameraman] You're three years old?

- [Emmy] Yes, three years old.

- [Mom] What do your parents do?

- Help people.

- They do help people.

Is that your favorite part about it?

Yeah.

- Turn around (echo drowns out sound) There she goes.

Can't wait to see what you put (echo drowns out sound) Last year in March when the pandemic hit, I mean, we were all just worried.

We didn't know what was coming.

And I just was looking for a way to entertain a two year old at the time.

So, because I'm an artist, I just said maybe she'll catch on the painting.

So I try to think of some symbols that meant something that the world needed right now.

And it was a heart, a peace sign and a cross.

Pink, pink.

And she got really into it and yeah.

That's kind of how it started.

So once she started getting into it I was thinking we could maybe do something with this.

I know we can't be like doctors or nurses and things like that.

I can't help the world in that way but I wanted her to know, hey, you're little but we can do something right now.

We could do something to help the world right now.

And so that's where it started.

- Like many other hospitals community medical centers is a not-for-profit.

And that means we rely on philanthropy and the generosity of others in the community to make sure that we can do things we need to do for folks who turn to us in need.

And what we're talking about here is a remarkable gift from one of our tiniest philanthropists ever.

And I say sometimes the greatest things come in small packages and in this case, it's Emmy Lovick.

(upbeat music) This little girl has raised over $6,000 with her artwork through her heart and lifted the spirits of our healthcare workers, brightened their days, brightened their hearts by erecting some paintings of love.

- Our community has really stepped up in so many ways from donating money to donating food.

But specifically Emmy's painting has been so uplifting for us and our spirits.

Just having the small things of positivity that's being shown throughout the community and just showing the other side of things that it's not all negative and not.

It can be very, very positive for us.

- And Emmy raising $6,000 may not sound like a lot but it really kind of is if we break it down to how it makes an impact.

$6,000 will pay for personal protective equipment for 32 of them in a month.

We have thousands of employees here.

So we need others to get on board, but I'll tell you what, Emmy's drop in the bucket made a big splash.

(soft music) - [Mom] Who'd you make those for?

- Nobody.

- [Mom] Well, that's the new toy you guys gave her.

- [Cameraman] What is that?

(Emmy playing) - I'm Tammy and I'm Emmy's grams and it brings me joy every single day.

It's kind of like the circle of life.

I raised my beautiful daughter.

Always, I just wanted her to be happy to do what she wants to do because if she does what she wants to do it's instant success.

So when she told me I was going to have a granddaughter, it was just...

I believe in miracles.

(Emmy playing) Here we go.

Hurry up, hurry up.

This is the circle, different areas that we show in case mommy (music drowns out sound).

Ready?

♪ The more we get together ♪ you have to sing it.

(music drowns out sound) Oh, I'm not singing it then.

- Then let's go then.

- All right.

(all laughing) Every day when I get here since birth, I would take care of her in the morning and then go to work and come back and can hardly wake up and pretty much listen to what she wanted to do and go where she wants to go.

And just introduce her to everything.

Just like I did Aaron, and you get a personality you get a different character.

I don't like cookie cutter kids.

I love everybody's different styles.

- Remember, there's a big monkey in the (mumbles) (all laughing) - There certainly is.

- There is.

Oh my God.

- Yeah.

- I'm not going to smile.

Can you smile for me?

I mean, art can kind of, I mean...

It's just a way of self expression in general.

So from the first painting all the way till now she's more confident.

(music drowns out sound) She knows how to explain herself more and explain the work more when I talk to her about it, especially.

And I think she's actually getting...

I mean she's never going to understand the full magnitude till she's older.

And I'm like what she's been doing with these fundraisers and everything, but just now she's grasping the concept more of helping people, of what it's doing of, hey, people are proud of me.

I'm proud of myself.

(soft music) I noticed she's known her colors more.

So that's helped on the learning curve too.

Her eye-hand coordination.

Just the normal things that kids need at that age anyway.

But yeah, just concept of painting and being competent and knowing she's making a difference.

I think I've just seen so much over the past year.

Good job.

There you go.

(music drowns out sound) Emmy, this is the last one she's done so far.

This is the latest one.

And this, I actually just did the tally on it.

She's done 119 paintings up to this point, which is crazy.

This is now going to be the fifth fundraiser what we will do for the State of Texas.

So yeah, it's quite surreal.

About 119 to date.

(Emmy mumbles) (mom laughs) (Emmy screaming) (soft music) Emmy, you're a special little girl and every morning what do I say?

Who do I love the most?

- Emmy.

- And who can do anything that she wants?

- Emmy.

- And who is the kindest?

- Emmy.

- You can do anything you want.

- Emmy.

- So I think that you deserve this special award the Spirit of Daniel Tiger Award.

- Thank you mommy.

- You're welcome, my love.

(soft music) - Thank you, Emmy, for adding to the canvas of our neighborhood.

Finally, we are excited to introduce to you the winner of the spirit of Mr. Rogers award.

Last September, when fire claimed over 375,000 acres in the Sierra National Forest, Jill Ari Levinarroyo, Ari to her friends, got to work.

She assisted firefighters, helped with evacuations and helped keep residents informed about the conditions of their property during the creek fire.

Picture picture, please share Ari's story - To me Ari is a whirlwind.

She's an incredible human being.

She's full of energy and that's one of the things that really attracted me to her, and you really have to be on your A game just to catch up with her.

(Ari laughs) So we got to know each other and eventually we wound up marrying each other and she had a daughter and quickly it became an instant family.

And then we moved up here to the Fresno area.

We moved up to Shaver Lake and we quickly became firefighters.

Ari became an engineer and she has a lot of pride in that.

Wherever you go, she'll tell you I'm not only a firefighter, I'm also an engineer.

And I think that that brings her a lot of pride, as it should.

She's learned how to really maneuver that engine and she's very good at it.

And then obviously we got hit with the biggest fire in California, Creek fire.

(soft music) (chatter over radio) We came back to see the devastation of what was left behind.

This fire pretty much evaporated everything in its path.

- We had 88 homes in our community, and this is simply craftsman road and the roads that connect with craftsman road.

Of those 88, only 22 survived.

So we had a 75% loss.

And Ari had to make some tough calls.

And you could hear it in her voice.

"Your home is gone."

So she's feeling the pain of their loss.

And I think it still affects her today.

We can't watch a show about a fire without her crying.

(melancholic music) (sirens wailing) Every morning at 5:00 AM she would wake up and she would send out reports to everyone.

So by the time our neighbors woke up holding that first cup of coffee, they had a full report of what happened the day before, and they were ever so grateful and the calls came in, "Is my house still there?

Is there a lot of damage?

Has anything been ransacked?"

We assured everyone that we were there and we did patrols.

And we went through every single home that we could.

- So it was really just constantly making sure that there was nothing burning that was going to take out another house.

We might sometimes find a tree that was burning that could go across the road.

So there would be loggers that would come up, Cal Fire would send them up, they'd cut the tree, things like that.

And sometimes we had a tree burning behind our house about 140 feet burning up the middle.

And all we could do was watch it burn.

You couldn't cut it.

You couldn't do anything.

So sometimes you just had to watch and make sure that nothing else happened adjacent to that one hotspot.

(soft music) Either Peter or Joe was driving the patrol and they managed to drive over two great big nails right in the tire.

And over the next month, that patrol was on rocky roads, dirt roads, hot fiery roads.

The miles it traveled in this community was amazing.

And the roads were terrible where it was going but it kept going and it was fine.

And then it was on October 7th.

Peter had gone back to work.

Joe had gone back to work, fire engines weren't on my pad and I was standing on the deck right here and it was really eerie.

It had never been that quiet in so long, it seemed.

And I looked at the patrol and the tire was flat.

And I wrote something up because I looked at that patrol and it was like, the patrol said, I still get choked up.

"You're okay now."

Sorry.

"You're okay now.

You have to fix me."

But it got us through times where without it we could have been in real trouble.

I can't believe I got choked up again.

But it was...

I guess that sometimes you just have to wonder.

It was really an intention emotional point when we suddenly had to fix the tire.

- You go through these experiences and you don't realize how much adrenaline you're going through and what's keeping you going.

And then when the quiet comes, you realize you miss it.

You miss the rush, you miss the we got to go, we got to work, we got to do this, we got to do that.

And then you start to unwind and then you realize, "Wow, did we just go through that?"

And yeah, you did.

And that's why I tell Ari to take a few minutes to absorb what happened and to not keep going all the time because you have to unwind and you have to catch up catch your breath.

But it's part of the... you've got to take care of yourself physically and mentally and spiritually so that when the next round comes around, you're much better prepared.

(guitar playing) - Get you out of there.

- Watch me.

(screams) (both laugh) - Ari's been a great addition to the fire department.

She has a lot of creative skills.

She's very much an artist in her spare time.

And so when it comes to doing documentation or interesting things for the fire department, she takes on those tasks.

She's also been a heavy donator to the fire department.

She creates things, wonderful sculptures with old fire hoses and things, and sells and, and gives a portion of the profits back to the fire department.

And so she's helped us out on many of our donation drives.

We are a big sale funded fire department.

She took over our main fundraising a few years ago for our main barbecue.

And last year, even through COVID, she was able to bring in quite a lot of money through her creativity.

So she's been a huge asset in that way, as well as a driver in the engine.

It's been an old boys club, honestly and she has broken that barrier.

And she is a driver.

I would trust her with any of our rigs.

And it's been wonderful having her on the department - Ari.

I can't think of anyone more deserving than you, of this award.

This is the Valley PBS, Mr. Rogers Award.

You deserve this more than anybody.

And I love you dearly.

I know you're going to start crying.

(laughs) - No, I'm not going to cry.

I swear.

I'm not going to cry.

- This is for you.

And I nominated you.

And I think... - Thank you.

- Well deserved.

Well deserved.

- You know, everything I did, I did cause it makes me happy.

And because it was the right thing to do, but this is really cool too.

(both laugh) - Thank you for all your efforts, Ari.

Well, that's all the time we have today neighbor.

But before I go, I'd like to present a surprise award to Cressman's General Store.

Cressman's lost everything in the Creek fire including their trolley award from 2019.

So tonight we are delighted to be able to send another award their way.

Picture picture, will you please do us the honor?

- I think I hear a trolley.

Sounds like the trolley I lost in the Creek fire.

Hi, Ari.

- Hey, Kieth.

How are you?

- Good.

Thank you.

- You know, I nominated you back in 2019 for the Fred Rogers good neighbor award and Cressman Store won it because you did so much for the community.

And so many people's lives were made better.

We know you lost yours in the Creek fire and we'd like you to have a replacement.

So you will always have your well-deserved trophy.

- Wow, this is great.

Thank you, Ari.

And thank you for Valley PBS.

- Now I want to leave you with this final thought from Mr. Rogers.

As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something no one else has or ever will have, something inside that is unique to all time.

It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing it's expression.

Isn't it a good feeling to know you're alive.

Fred Rogers believed it was.

So do we.

Until next time neighbors I'm Lorenzo Rios from Valley PBS.

Thank you for watching.

♪ It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood ♪ ♪ A beautiful day for a neighbor ♪ ♪ Would you be mine ♪ ♪ Could you be mine ♪ ♪ It's a neighborly in this beauty world ♪ ♪ A neighborly day full of beauty ♪ ♪ Would you be mine ♪ ♪ could you be mine ♪ ♪ I have always wanted to have a neighbor like you ♪ ♪ I have always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you ♪ ♪ So let's make the most of this beautiful day ♪ ♪ Since we're together we might as well say ♪ ♪ It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, ♪ ♪ a beautiful day for a neighbor ♪ ♪ would you be mine ♪ ♪ Could you be mine ♪ ♪ It's a neighborly day in this beauty world ♪ ♪ A neighborly day full a beauty ♪ ♪ Would you be mine ♪ ♪ Could you be mine ♪ ♪ Could you be our neighbor?

♪ (soft music)