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GoodCauses

hile many people are especially generous this time of year, others have found ways to honor the memory of a loved one year round by creating

charitable organizations in their memory. Here are a few from the Inland Empire:

Carol’s Kitchen, Banning, Beaumont, and Cabazon In memory of: Carol Ragan The life-shattering call came at 5:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning—“a time when you never want to get a call,” recalls Arlene Ragan of Cherry Valley. Her husband, Jim, answered the phone. Arlene eyed him anxiously as he listened to the caller, not saying a word. Then he collapsed onto the floo . She reached for the phone and a voice on the other end said, “This is the King County Coroner’s Offic ” The call was to inform the Ragans of the death of their daughter, Carol, killed in Seattle where she’d gone to visit a friend over Veterans Day Weekend in 1996. Jim Ragan, who worked as a physical therapist in San Bernardino for many years, told his children, “Never get on a motorcycle!” But for some reason Carol did. She was riding with a friend hours before when a drunken driver, desperate to avoid an upcoming checkpoint, made a quick U-turn with his car in a dark driveway and barreled out into the road just as the motorcycle passed. “They had nowhere to go,” Arlene says. “Carol died at the scene. Her friend died four

hours later.” The driver fled, although he later turned him-self in. Raised in San Bernardino, where she graduated from Aquinas High School, Carol attended USC and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees there, as well as a teaching credential. She taught briefly in Long Beach, then moved to Boise, Idaho, where later 500 people would attend a memorial service to honor the bright spirit of the 29-year-old who gave so much to her community as a fir t-grade teacher and frequent volunteer. Friends reached out to help her devastated parents. “Jim buried himself in work and I went to bed and covered up my head,” Arlene says. But a conversation later at church led to something more. By that time they lived in Cherry Valley, and Jim, hearing about people in need, suggested, “Let’s start a soup kitchen.” Arlene embraced the idea wholeheartedly. The couple quickly pitched in to get the project started. They found not everyone was enthusiastic—some were uncomfortable with the reality that their communities had people living in poverty. But a sympathetic Banning City Councilman, Roosevelt Williams, helped them get started. On their fir t day, in April 1998, they served Carol’s favorite chicken en-chilada casserole to 34 people. Next week there were a few more guests. Today Carol’s Kitchen serves nearly 1,000 meals per week to people at its Banning, Beaumont and Cabazon locations, and also provides a “clothing closet” for those in need of wardrobe upgrades.

Jim Ragan died in 2012, but Arlene has kept the soup

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From left: Marsha Reagins, Dorothy Cole, Bonnie R. Potts and DeNae Reagins, of the Natlie A. Cole-Reagins Education & Cancer Research Foundation, founded in memory of DeNae’s late wife.

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kitchen going. Almost 20 years later, Arlene finds comfort in the choice to start reaching out to help others, as Carol always did. “I know we did the right thing. It’s a great legacy for Carol. She would be really proud of us. I miss her every day and think how much different y life would be if she were here.” While Carol’s life was cut short without warning, others have the mixed blessing of time to contemplate their last wishes. Michelle’s Place, Temecula In memory of: Michelle Watson Michelle Watson was 23 when she found a lump in her breast. Concerned, she consulted not one but three doctors. Each dismissed

the possibility that the lump could be cancer. She was too young, they said, and besides, as a competitive swimmer, much too healthy, with no risk factors pointing towards a ma-lignancy. After the Temecula Valley resident graduated from Colorado State University, she decided to join the Peace Corps, and underwent a physical. That doctor insisted the lump be checked before allowing her to join the service organization that sends members overseas. A biopsy led to a diagnosis of Stage IV breast cancer, meaning that it had spread to other areas of her body. For three years she fought the disease, traveling to Los Angeles for aggressive treat-ments in an effo t to stop the disease at its already advanced stage. During that time, she also was a substitute teacher and studied at the Pacific Institute of Oriental Medicine in San Diego. “She felt a lot of Western medical

practitioners didn’t listen enough and weren’t taking enough time to see what was really wrong with patients,” says her mother, Marilyn Watson. “Her ideal wish was to work with Western medicine, but add that dimension of listening and caring. She didn’t get to do that,” Marilyn says, although ultimately Michelle inspired others who did. When invited to speak in Santa Barbara to oncology nurses pursuing continuing education, Michelle visited a center for breast cancer patients located in a cozy old house, where the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. “She said, ‘You need to open something like that in the Temecula area.’ We said, “Uh-

huh!” Marilyn recalls, thinking “Oh, sure!” But before she died at age 26 in 2000, Michelle reminded her parents of her wish to start a support center for breast cancer patients. She urged them, “Don’t forget.” And they didn’t. “It took about a year for us to get ourselves together,” Marilyn re-calls. Then she and her husband, Bill, rented a 250-square-foot space, putting up a partition to separate the “Michelle’s Place” officfrom a church that had the adjoining area. Today, Michelle’s Place

has its own Temecula location, with seven staff members and more than 100 volunteers to help clients who come to Michelle’s Place when they have no money for diagnostic tests not covered by their insurance. “It takes time to listen to the stories,” Marilyn explains, and encourage clients that “they need to be their own best advocate and we will help them.” “We live on donations and fundraisers and grants” to keep the center going, Marilyn says, as demand for services increases, with 75 new clients a month, as well as hundreds of existing clients. “It has grown far beyond anything we had ever dreamed,” Marilyn says. “It has meant a lot to us. My husband and I are seeing people being helped and living the dream Michelle had. It’s sad when we lose someone, and we lose about 24 a year. So many of them are so strong; I’m amazed they can keep going. It’s very inspiring.”

Let It Be Foundation, Chino Hills In memory of: Karla Asch-Rosen The Let It Be Foun-dation was inspired by Karla Asch-Rosen of Chino Hills, who in 2005 at age 14 was diagnosed with an in-operable brain tumor. During treatment for the next year or so, she expressed a desire to “just be normal” and enjoy the fun ac-tivities of a regular teen-ager. After her death in 2006 at age 15, her family decided to fol-low Karla’s lead to “turn pain into pur-pose” and help oth-ers struggling with a child’s life-threat-ening illness. Their foundation provides emotional and fina -cial support for fami-lies.

Natlie A. Cole-Reagins Education & Cancer Research Foundation, Riverside In memory of: Natlie Cole-Reagins Natlie Cole-Reagins was a reading special-ist who was teaching first grade in 2006 at Riverside’s Emerson El-ementary when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Sino-Nasal Undifferentiated Carcinoma (SNUC). Despite aggressive treatments and Natlie’s courageous attitude, she died seven months later at age 42 in June 2007, explains DeNae Reagins, who was her husband for 13 years and is the father of her two sons. He and other family members, friends and colleagues created a foundation in 2009 to honor Natlie’s legacy by helping promote literacy among young readers, and also sponsoring research into SNUC. Besides funding sinus cancer research and diagnosis, donations help community libraries and Riverside Educational Enrichment Foundation, which provides teachers with grants for extra materials and special

GoodCauses

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projects. Natlie herself received one of these grants during her 16-year teaching career at Emerson, which she had attended as a child, and where she was Teacher of the Year in 2002. “Natlie believed that establishing a solid foundation during the fir t years of a child’s education was the key for ensuring a stu-dent’s academic success,” DeNae says.

The Marion Mitchell-Wilson Endowment Fund, Riverside In memory of: Marion Mitchell-Wilson A new endowment was recently created in memory of Marion Mitchell-Wilson, a dynamic Riversider who helped save the renowned Mission Inn through her historic preservation work, and did so much for resi-dents of Riverside, especially those who love

books, art and splendid old buildings. When official at Riverside City Hall eliminated Mitchell-Wilson’s job as development director for the Riverside Public Library in 2009, she devised a creative way to keep promoting literacy and literature. After years of library budget cuts despite a special library tax passed by Riverside voters, Mitchell-Wilson realized she could better accomplish her goals with a nonprofit,the Inlandia Institute, and she became its executive director. During her tenure, before breast cancer forced her to step down in 2012, she oversaw publication of books telling stories about people and places in the Inland Empire, plus organized dozens of events, workshops and readings, while mentoring many writers and artists.

She continued to contribute ideas and energy during the next few years, sparking her enthusiasm in others. But finall , she acknowledged, “The brain wants to keep going, but the body says no.” Mitchell-Wilson died in August, but in true Marion fashion, everything was organized down to the last exquisite detail. She left clear instructions not only for her memorial service, but what she wanted to see happen afterward. Friends and family quickly raised more than $100,000 for Inlandia Institute to keep encouraging writers telling the story of the Inland Empire and chronicling its heritage. As photographer Doug McCulloh noted, “People always exclaimed, ‘You can’t say no to Marion Mitchell-Wilson!’ But Marion herself said yes to a lot of things, and the community is richer for it.” n

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