Photos courtesy of the Nartea family.

By Angely Levis

There will be a candlelight vigil on Thursday, July 21 at 4:30pm honoring the life of 13-year-old Justin Nartea who was hit and killed by a minivan in Antioch on June 11, 2022.

The fatal crash happened in the area of Dallas Ranch Road and Prewett Ranch Drive. According to the Antioch Police Department, the minivan was traveling in the northbound lanes of Dallas Ranch Road when Nartea, crossed the roadway at a crosswalk. The teen devastatingly died despite the life-saving efforts of medics.

Since the accident, the Nartea family has gathered for prayers and will conclude the 40-day memorial with a celebration-of-life reception on Thursday July 21 at 4:30pm at 1804 Crown Peak Way in Antioch. The candlelight vigil will follow, commencing at 8pm at the Dallas Ranch Park.

Tickets available on Eventbrite: www.tinyurl.com/2p829pmj

Rico ‘Pocket Change’ Jones from the Yock. Photos by Furry Friends Pet Relief

Has his own Facebook page!

By Erin Pina, Furry Friends Pet Relief

This little boy is “Rico ‘Pocket Change’ Jones from the Yock”. We rescued him from the local shelter. The special thing about him is that he is about a 1 in 3,000, some say 250,000, but I have been playing it conservative. He is special because of his coloring. Many cat colors are sex linked traits. Which means that females carry certain colors and males tend to carry other colors.

Rico is a Torbie which is a cross between a Tabby and a Tortoiseshell – the coloring itself it not seen too often. They usually have tabby stripes with black, brown and red tortoiseshell markings. The tortoiseshell color is a female color, but not for our little boy.

He is about 10 weeks old and has his own Facebook page.  Rico talks about how special he is and all kinds of fun facts that go along with it, such as, you are just as likely to be drafted into the NBA as you are to find a cat like him. If you ever get to the PGA tour and hit a Hole in One, you have about the same odds as finding one like him.

Torbies are thought to bring good luck, wealth, and protect you from bad storms and even ghosts.

This amazing little guy will be available for adoption through our organization in about a week.

Anyone interested in adopting can put in an application on our website at www.furryfriendsfoodre.wix.com/fffr.

Furry Friends Pet Relief Program is a 501c3 non-profit. Tax ID: 47-2163583 and is located at 708 W. Second Street in Antioch’s historic, downtown Rivertown.

“Helping those in need with their Furry Friends, keeping pets in their homes and out of the shelters.”

By Antioch Police Department

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community relationships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring place to live. It provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.
On “National Night Out,” Tuesday, August 2, 2022, from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., a representative from the Antioch Police Department, Antioch Police Crime Prevention Commission, Citizen Volunteer, and/or a member of the City Council may visit each participating neighborhood.

If your neighborhood would like to host a gathering and would like members of the Antioch Police Department to stop by, please contact Lt Vigil via email at jvigil@antiochca.gov or call 925-779-6993.

Tickets are $10 each – Antioch Water Park. Parents Night Out (runparker.com)

By Antioch Police Department

The 113th Neighborhood Cleanup event will occur on Saturday, July 9, 2022, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. We will be cleaning the neighborhood around Fremont Elementary School Area including F and G Streets and all the streets off of them from 11th Street down to 20th Street, including part of D Street. Volunteers should meet at the Fremont Elementary School parking lot, 1413 F Street.

The Antioch Police Department is excited to announce the 113th installment of the Neighborhood Cleanup Program. This is a collaborative community effort which involves active participation from The Antioch Police Department Crime Prevention Commission, Neighborhood Watch Program, Volunteers in Police Service, community volunteers and the Public Works Department.

Collectively, “We”, everyone who works and lives in the City Antioch, can make a difference and improve the quality of life. It’s our community and it’s our chance to make a difference.

The City of Antioch Neighborhood Cleanup program is not just for residential neighborhoods. It is a program that will change venues on a monthly basis, and it will include business and commercial areas as well. Neighborhoods that are free of trash and refuse are inviting, and a clean community instills a sense of community pride.

Volunteers will receive instructions and the equipment necessary to accomplish the goal. The targeted area is within walking distance. Excluding inclement weather, future Neighborhood Cleanup events are scheduled for the first Saturday of every month and the locations will be announced in advance.

Remember, cleaning up your neighborhood can make life better for your family, your neighbors and your community!

Source: White Pony Express

Under the auspices of WFI, the Mexican Association of Vegan Entrepreneurs is joining with California’s White Pony Express to create a global model for attacking food insecurity on a global scale

On July 7, 2022, a new global partnership will make the first of many shared moves against food insecurity.

Women Forward International, the global non-profit that is building creative partnerships to bring about unity, collaboration and service to humanity, will bring their Mexican partners, the Association of Vegan Entrepreneurs of Mexico (EVM), for a site visit and food distribution with their California partner, White Pony Express (WPE), a leading food rescue and recovery non-profit, located in Contra Costa County. This follows on WPE’s site visit sponsored by WFI to EVM’s headquarters in Monterrey, Mexico last month.

The food distribution will be held in conjunction with RR Ministries, a community bilingual church in Antioch. The event will take place on Thursday, July 7 at (time) in the church’s parking lot at 512 W. 2nd Street. Sweetgreen, the health-focused casual food restaurant chain and WPE partner, is providing 150 vegan salads for the volunteers. World Centric, leader in compostable materials and sustainability, will be providing earth friendly containers for the food distribution.

The event represents WFI’s expansion of a volunteer-powered food delivery service initiative in Mexico. The non-profit organization is bringing together White Pony Express and the Association of Vegan Entrepreneurs of Mexico in order to provide technical assistance and support for EVM’s Mesa Redonda Round Table initiative, aimed at reducing hunger in America’s neighbor.

Throughout EVM’s visit, WPE will help EVM deepen its work underway, institute safety policies and practices, raise awareness, and ultimately expand their services. WPE will provide lessons learned and will help develop manuals and approaches that will enable Mesa Redonda to incorporate more restaurants and other types of businesses into their network as well as serve additional organizations supporting women who have suffered from gender-based violence (GBV).

According to Kent Davis-Packard, founder and president of Women Forward International: “The collaboration of White Pony Express with its Mexican counterpart demonstrates the power of cross-border partnership to alleviate food insecurity and contribute to social equality. It also provides an example of a new paradigm of philanthropy that is based on love and human unity.”

Source: White Pony Express

Eve Birge, Executive Director of White Pony Express, adds, “We look forward to deepening the impact of the Mesa Redonda initiative through sharing best practices and approaches to building trust and collaboration. In short, we will help them create a model that will be scalable and is based on our belief in the ‘all of us taking care of all of us’ vision.”

Rocio Cavazos, founder and president of EVM, envisions a deeper purpose for her organization’s visit: “WFI and WPE are helping us achieve a shared goal of uplifting lives, protecting the environment, and putting an end to hunger and marginalization. This model can be applicable to the entire world.”

ABOUT WOMEN FORWARD INTERNATIONAL (WFI)

WFI(www.womenforwardinternational.org) builds creative partnerships that bridge mind and heart to bring about unity, collaboration and service to humanity. WFI’s partnerships encompass a range of private sector, academic and non-profit clients to identify research critical to human progress, and then pairs teams of graduate international studies students with these organizations to complete that research and implement innovative solutions. These projects include empowering women artisans in conflict zones, enabling sustainable farming with gender equity and taking steps toward the elimination of hunger along with inclusive access to education through digital and other unique platforms. WFI uses the reflective power of Art to reveal and investigate the underlying cultural issues at stake in a given international relations issue. It thus provides the next generation of global leaders with a more holistic approach to human relationships.

ABOUT VEGAN ENTREPRENEURS OF MEXICO (EVM)

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, the Association of Vegan Entrepreneurs of Mexico (en.aevm.mx) is an NGO and entrepreneurial community that strives to empower consumers to adopt conscious and healthy lifestyles. Members make plant-based options accessible to the general public, replacing the use of animals to achieve balance with the Earth, the health of our bodies and an ethical interaction with other living beings with which we share the planet.

ABOUT WHITE PONY EXPRESS (WPE)

Based in the California Bay Area, White Pony Express (WPE) (www.whiteponyexpress.org) is a volunteer-powered organization with a mission to eliminate hunger and poverty by delivering the abundance all around us to those in need—with love. They serve 120,000 people each year by partnering with more than 80 non-profit agencies who have strong ties to the community. The rescue program at WPE has expanded this model by subjecting all collected food to a meticulous culling process and promising that it is obtained, sorted, and redistributed within a twenty-four-hour time period—seven days a week.

ABOUT RR MINISTRIES (MINISTERIOS REY DE REYES): RR Ministries is a bilingual ministry, located in Antioch, California. We believe God has called us to teach His word as an instrument of restoration and healing for the families in our community. We, as a church are committed to create an environment that builds healthy individuals and strong families. The church’s Promise Keeper Program conducts regularly conducts food and supplies distribution on the second and fourth Saturday of each month. For information, call (925) 588-4818.