Gregorio A. Ponce, Dean of San Diego State University, Imperial Valley, is pictured on the university’s Calexico campus. Ponce, who was named interim Dean in 2015 and in March 2017 was officially named to the permanent position, has announced a new initiative to bring growth to the local institution, which has two campuses–in Calexico and Brawley.

On Thanksgiving, Dr. Gregorio A. Ponce, Dean of San Diego State University, Imperial Valley, ran an advertisement in the local newspaper thanking his Calexico elementary, middle school and high school teachers, the staff and administrators for their guidance.

He thanked all 60 of them—all by name.

He included a picture of himself in the ad as he graduated from Calexico High School in 1981—beginning a journey that would lead him to the top post of the local branch of San Diego State University.

Just as his parents, Gregorio

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Ed Aranda, president of the local Imperial Valley chapter of the ABATE biker organization, talks about the group’s Turkey Run to help poor families have a Thanksgiving meal. He is pictured outside the Sister Evelyn Mourey Center, an El Centro charitable organization that receives turkeys from ABATE. This year’s Turkey Run will be held Nov. 18.

Ed Aranda sits on his Harley Davidson bike. Dressed in a black leather vest, jeans and a red bandana underneath a cap bearing the name of his biker organization—ABATE—the 63-year-old Imperial resident talks of a 20-year passion of his to serve the community.

November is a special month for this biker.

It is this month in which ABATE Local 38, the Imperial Valley chapter of what is a very large motorcycle organization, holds its annual Turkey Run, an event to provide turkeys to charitable groups and churches throughout the

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Sylvia Preciado-Platero, manager of the American Red Cross’ Imperial Valley Service Center, part of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Chapter of the Red Cross, is pictured in front of an emergency response vehicle outside her El Centro office. Preciado-Platero has led the local office for 16 years.

In the conference room of the American Red Cross’ Imperial Valley Service Center are two plaques–one signed by President Warren G. Harding, the other by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Both commemorate the work of the Red Cross office in the Imperial Valley. Both point to the history of the American Red Cross and the important role it has played nationwide, but more specifically the role of the organization in this remote part of California.

Sylvia Preciado-Platero, manager of the Imperial Valley arm of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Chapter of the Red Cross, takes pride in the long history of the organization in the Imperial Valley,

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