These kind Sacramento souls dig deep to help those in need. ‘It feels good to give.’
Roberta Raye is planning to cook a big Christmas dinner Wednesday for 15 to 20 people.
That’s no small task for anyone. But it’s more impressive because Raye, a 52-year-old mother of six, has been legally blind for the past 30 years.
Raye’s up to the challenge thanks in part to Society for the Blind, a Sacramento group that includes cooking instruction among its many services for its blind clients, and one of 10 groups profiled this year in The Sacramento Bee’s Book of Dreams program that raises money for needy local organizations.
The money this year will help Society for the Blind upgrade its teaching kitchen.
When people like Raye arrive at the Society for the Blind kitchen, they might have some cooking ability already, but they always have more to learn. Raye showed this off last week demonstrating how to make cornbread, a dish she plans to have for her Christmas dinner menu, along with greens and either a roast or ham.
She read a braille recipe, worked with instructor Diane Starin to use an electric opener on a can of jalapenos to give her cornbread some kick and did everything while wearing a sleep mask. While some blind people retain limited peripheral vision, the Society has everyone learn to cook with their eyes covered so they know how to do it.
“I feel pretty confident,” Raye said after she put her cornbread into the oven for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. “Because I was able to do that with a blindfold on.”
‘Thank God for these organizations’
Readers of the Bee’s Book of Dreams stories have been moved by an earlier story on the Society for the Blind, donating to help the group meet its request for $5,075 for a new cooktop, microwaves and knives.
Carol, a Sacramento retiree from Carmichael, l said she and her husband have given to other organizations that help those who are blind and they didn’t hesitate to do it again when they read this month about the society’s work.
“Can you imagine your world without sight?” said Carol, who asked that her last name not be used in this story.
She added: “Thank God for these organizations that help them.”
Barbara Christl of Sacramento also earmarked her contribution for the Society for the Blind.
Christl, who retired after a career as an employee benefits administrator with the San Juan Unified School District, said her mother had macular degeneration, making her sensitive to the needs of blind people.
“I think it’s just wonderful what they’re doing for these people,” she said. “It’s fantastic that they’re helping.”
Donations come in all sizes
Those two women are among the more than 200 people who have made contributions so far in this year’s Book of Dreams Fund at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. The money will be distributed to the 10 organizations that have been profiled in Bee stories running since Thanksgiving Day, and to another 20 or so groups that were nominated for funding but were not profiled.
The donations have come in all sizes. Some people offered $5 or $10 each. Others chipped in with contributions in the hundred of dollars, And two donors contributed $5,000 each. Most of the donors are Sacramentans, but money also came in from people in Encino, Bishop, Hawaii and Arkansas.
Last year’s Book of Dreams haul was more than $95,000. How much will come in this year is uncertain and could be expected to drop given inflation, general worries about the state of the world and appeals for cash from victims of natural disasters.
But Kerry Wood, chief executive officer of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, which administers the Book of Dreams project for The Bee, said there’s no evidence that charitable giving is declining in this region or nationwide.
She said dollars raised through her foundation’s campaigns rose in 2023, and the group’s largest event, the Big Day of Giving, brought in $13.5 million in 2024, roughly the same amount that it has generated for the past four years.
Wood suggested that tough times may actually spur charitable activity as people see friends and neighbors encountering difficulties.
“There are such a wide variety of reasons why people give, and one of them is that people rally around challenging times,” she said, “and 2023 and 2024 have had their fair share of challenges.”
‘People taking care of each other’
Underlying that impetus for giving is simple compassion.
“I really believe it all boils down to this,” Wood said. “There are a lot of good people who want to help others — and it feels good to give.”
Among those embracing giving are Elk Grove couple Robert and Stephanie Wells, who this year selected a children’s reading support group, Sight Word Busters, for their Book of Dreams contribution.
Last year, they donated to buy MamaRoo baby swings for infants in neonatal intensive care units. A few years earlier they responded to a request for a power washer to clean Loaves & Fishes’ Friendship Park in downtown Sacramento.
“We choose the ones that tug most at our heartstrings,” said Stephanie Wells.
Wells worked in human resources for the Association of California School Administrators, the same organization where her husband served as executive director before his retirement. They see their Book of Dreams contributions as a complement to their 12-year involvement in a program called Random Acts of Christmas Kindness, where people independently and sometimes spontaneously help out needy people they may not even know.
For the Wells family, during the holidays, that can include paying for the coffee order of people behind them in line at Starbucks, or walking up to the layaway counter at a Burlington store and paying anonymously for gifts that families had put on hold.
“What makes a community terrific is people taking care of each other,” said Robert, explaining the couple’s commitment to charitable giving. The holiday season, he said, “should be bigger than just giving and receiving gifts” among friends and family.
A similar sentiment was shared by retired attorney Teresa Boron Irwin, who said she is compelled to share the good fortune she has experienced in life.
She said her interest in helping others started when she was a high school freshman in Carmichael and her parents suggested that family members stop exchanging gifts among themselves and instead “adopt” a less-fortunate family.
Information about needy families was included in envelopes decorating a tree at Teresa’s family’s church. Her family selected one and Teresa and her five siblings then used allowance money saved throughout the year to buy gifts for the “adopted” family.
“What we found out really soon,” Boron Irwin said, “was that it was really better to give than to receive… It was just a good feeling to give to someone who really needed something.”
Deeper inspiration
Her Book of Dreams gift this year went to the Multiple Sclerosis Achievement Center, a Citrus Heights group that provides exercise equipment and a supportive environment for people dealing with the chronic disease. She said she is looking to make an additional donation to support Open Arms, a small shelter that serves people who are HIV-positive or living with AIDS.
John Eng, a retired state auditor, donated to the Book of Dreams’ general fund, aiming to support all of the organizations that have been highlighted this year.
He noted that too many people are “just getting by in life” and he wanted to help.
But he also cited a deeper inspiration for his giving. His mother, May Eng, emigrated from China in 1949 and often talked about how tough her life was in a village near what is now Guangzhou.
“There was no collective organization to provide for (them)... Everyone was on their own,” he said.
Eng’s mother, who died in 2012, never went hungry but she told her son about people who did. And it left an impression.
“I always felt sadness for people who didn’t have … just the basics of life.”
There is still plenty of time to donate to the Book of Dreams. Donations are tax deductible and none of the dollars received is used for administrative costs. You can donate by going to sacbee.com/bookofdreams.
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