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“I just got tired of looking at it,” La Jollan Chris Cott said of the graffiti he helps clean up around town. “We live someplace that’s just so nice. It’s just like cleaning your house. It benefits me as much as anybody.”
Cott spends an average of an hour a day cleaning up graffiti he sees while driving around La Jolla for work or errands. He uses his own supplies, which is part of the reason La Jolla resident Sunny Donald nominated him for the
La Jolla Light’s Community Heroes series.
Cott is “an under-the-radar guy,” Donald said. “He’s really kind and compassionate.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic sent everyone into lockdown, senior citizens a population deemed among most the vulnerable were hit especially hard.
But at White Sands La Jolla, activities director and move-in coordinator Pat Guerrero made it her mission to make sure those in the senior living community didn’t feel alone and forgotten.
The La Jolla native came up with online-based activities and gatherings, dressed up for every holiday (even Bastille Day) to personally and safely deliver items to residents, and sought to bring joy to everyone she encountered.
Outside of work, she partners with a San Diego-based homelessness outreach group to donate food, clothing and other items throughout the year.
La Jolla Light’s Community Heroes series.
De La Loza has held the director position for nearly seven years. She came to the preschool after teaching and training others in early-childhood education for a few decades.
“I coordinate it all,” she said. “I partner with the parents, I do everything I can to support the teachers, providing everything they need to be the best early-childhood educators.”
De La Loza, who lives in Carlsbad with her husband, said she visits classrooms, meets regularly with teachers and supports their development to ensure that the roughly 85 students whom she calls her “little punkins” are thriving.
La Jolla Light’s Community Heroes nominations, there was a double heartwarmer this week.
La Jolla resident Sally Irwin was nominated for her volunteerism with San Diego Military Outreach Ministries. Though she said she was “honored,” Irwin has a family member in need of care and couldn’t commit to an interview.
So she nominated fellow La Jollan Kathryn Murphy, “one of the most generous people I know.”
Murphy said that to be nominated was “kind,” but because she doesn’t “feel like I’m currently spending enough time helping the community the way I used to,” she offered another nomination Sally Irwin.