Christmas Golf Classic 2009

On December 6, 2009, 40 golfers participated in the JSN Christmas Golf Classic. The tournament was held at San Dimas Canyon Golf Course. Each golfer was generous enough to bring an unwrapped toy or gift card, which was donated to a needy family from Bonita High School. The monetary value of these gifts was just over $400. In addition to the Christmas gifts, an additional $400 was raised to benefit the annual Scholarship that is awarded to a senior baseball player from Bonita High School. The Christmas gifts and scholarship are given, in memory of our cousin, Joey San Nicolas. A special thanks to everyone who contributed to this event and congratulations to this years tournament winner, Darren Dunaway!

Jeff Gelalich 2008-09 Scholarship Recipient

On the field…

2009 Highlights

Batted .338 for the year; 25 hits; 14 RBI’s

The team advanced to the Quarter Finals of the CIF Playoffs. The team had 21 wins & only 6 loses, going a perfect 9-0 at home

• Played Varsity Football for 3 years (Team MVP; Miramonte League Honorable Mention, 1^st Team Defense, Defensive MVP, & 1st Team All San Gabriel Valley in 2009)
  

• Played Varsity baseball all 4 years (All Glendora Tournament Team; Miramonte League 1^st & 2nd Team All Inland Valley; All Northview Tournament Team; Milwaukee Brewers Area Codes Team and Atlanta Braves Scout Team.

In the Class Room…Overall GPA of 3.98; California Scholarship Federation (4 years); Bonita HS Honor Roll (4 years);Miramonte Scholar Athlete (4 years); Bonita HS Scholar Athlete (4 years); Miramonte 5 Scholar Athlete (Senior year)

Volunteers at a local Church & La Verne Little League

Will attend UCLA in the Fall, Majoring in Business & Physiology & play baseball

Here is what JSN Foundation has up at Bonita High School, all because of a donation made possible by many of you....THANK YOU!

Shawn Riley

As noted in a previous blog, Shawn Riley is doing great things in Santa Cruz. We are happy to report a $200 check has been sent his way to alleviate his expenses for college if even just a bit. Shawn has truly exemplified what is searched for in a JSN scholarship recipient. He is passionate about life, college, bettering himself & the world! And of course loves the game of baseball! This is a true testament to honoring Joey & his own life...even if cut short, Joey lives on within us, within our recipients & within the JSN Foundation.
Thanks to all that have contributed to making Steve's dream of honoring Joey a success. Your donations, attendance & support make all this possible!
In closing, to Steve...your passion on honoring Joey is carried out in you, in JSN Foundation and his legacy. Your example to our children in caring about family, life & never letting Joey be forgotten is such a memory they will live with forever. Thanks for that.

BEARCATS BEAT GLENDORA 8-4 TO CLAIM TOURNAMENT TITLE

Home Runs and Good Pitching Bring Down Tartans in Championship Game

March 14 - Just to reach the championship game of this year’s Glendora Tournament was asking a lot. This tournament featured defending CIF Champions Northview, previous CIF Champions Charter Oak and always-tough teams like Bishop Amat, Diamond Ranch, Ayala and host school Glendora. This is one tough tournament to win. But there’s now another team to add to that list; this year’s tournament champions, the Bonita Bearcats.

Using a familiar method, the Bearcats defeated the Glendora Tartans 8-4 Saturday night to claim the tournament title. Bonita pitchers kept their team in the game while also contributing offensively, the Bearcats kept their mistakes to a minimum and Jason Plowman hits at least one home run. On Saturday night, each of those things happened again and the Bearcats are tournament champs as a result.

It started quickly as leadoff hitter Ryan Henley, whose father coaches the opposing Tartans, was hit in his helmet to start the game. The next batter was Corey Hare and he hit one out of the park for a quick two runs. Glendora stayed in the game and led 4-3 after three. But the Bearcat formula kicked in. Pitcher Nico Calderaro hit a big home run to give Bonita the lead. Plowman followed with his 4^th home run of the tournament and the Bearcats were up 6-4 with time running out on Glendora. Terry Paredez pitched the last innings for Bonita and stopped Glendora cold while his teammates added another 2 runs and the Bearcats won the game pulling away.

Evan Highly also had a big night for the Bearcats with three hits. Matt Gelalich, Paredez and Jeff Gelalich also made offensive contributions and a little credit also goes to the coaches and the large group of Bonita fans at each game.

Jason Plowman was named the Tournament MVP with his showcase performance in the tournament that included an offensive power explosion and a dominant pitching performance. Congratulations to Jason on a tremendous tournament.

The Bearcats will enjoy the win but only for a short time. On Tuesday evening at 6:30p, the Bearcats will play at San Dimas in a big game with their biggest rival. There are many other challenges ahead for the Bearcats. But for right now, they are champs and we congratulate the players, coaches and parents. Go Bearcats

Update on Shawn Riley JSN Recipient 2007

This was a letter we received from Shawn himself:

Dear Steve and Family,

First off, thank you for your generous contributions and efforts to carry out such a great cause. With the current economic conditions, public education in California has taken a devastating blow as money has become scarce on all school campuses. This has resulted in increased student fees and less money for the universities to distribute as financial aid. With that in mind, you should be very proud of your services and what this has meant for me and fellow scholarship recipients.

Since fall of 2007, I’ve been attending the University of California, Santa Cruz. I’ve decided to major in politics and minor in education. Thus far, my cumulative GPA is 3.76 – so somewhere right around the B+/A- range. I can say with no hesitation that I absolutely love it up here and receiving a liberal arts education from UC Santa Cruz has been an invaluable experience for me.

I currently have two jobs: student assistant at the university’s Special Collections and Archives and as the director of the university’s Student Volunteer Center. Unfortunately, I had to take a break from working in the archives simply because I’ve been so busy with everything else. On top of taking 19 units (12 units is considered full-time), work usually results in about 20-25 hours per week. To say the least, I’ve been very busy – yet all the things I do I very much enjoy so there’s nothing to complain about.

My job as director of the Student Volunteer Center (SVC) is absolutely great. SVC is the university’s resource for volunteer opportunities and internships. We have about 5 annual events that we put on each year, including an Alternative Spring Break trip to New Orleans to help out with the on-going Katrina relief. This will be my second year going, but this time I have the pleasure (or sometimes displeasure) of organizing the program. There will be twenty of us heading down to the Big Easy from March 21^st-29^th – the duration of our spring break. We will be rebuilding homes and restoring them to near original condition, most likely doing a lot of painting, sanding, floating and dry walling.

Also, this year I’ve been serving as the Student Union Assembly representative on the Committee on Educational Policy. This committee oversees all aspects of undergraduate education at UC Santa Cruz. We are currently drafting legislation for new general education requirements. I'm proud to say that I was able to include a service-learning requirement within the legislation. This could potentially result in thousands of students getting involved and giving back to our local community. The legislation is being voted on this Friday, March 6th. If it passes then I will be extremely happy.

I truly appreciate all that you do. If there’s any way I can help out, please let me know. Thanks!

As you can see Shawn has been extremely busy making the most of his college days. We are sure we selected the kind of young man we truly want honoring Joey's memory. Shawn has also along his long list of achievements has received the following awards while in college.

Collegiate Awards

Outstanding Student Employee Performance Award, May 2008

Bonner Scholars Program, 2008-2009: Awarded to students who have pledged a distinguished amount of time to work in the non-profit sector providing direct services to human needs.

We all would like to extend the JSN Foundation love to Shawn & him mother as he continues his education to strive for a better world! With that Shawn will be receiving a monetary award from the JSN Foundation for continuing on a path to success. Keep up the great work, Shawn!

JSN 10th Annual Golf Tournament

The annual JSN Family Golf Tournament is coming up... July 24 - 26. 2009. This year it will be held in Palm Springs. Click on the flyer for all the latest information and registration deadlines.

Thanks for considering attending the 10th annual tournament!