Our nominee is a great father, husband, and co-worker. He is the production Coordinator of CCOA’s Energy Zone LLC. His name is Jessie Lumbreras, a “Top Tier” role model, and we proudly nominate him for this award. When we think of this man we are nominating, several words to describe him come to our minds.

Caring is the first word. As our home energy auditor, Jessie is the first to meet the client in their home. He cares about their concerns for their home. He is patient and kind, taking the time to make the client feel at ease. Most of our clients are elderly who are living independently and Jessie embodies our mission statement, “To provide assistance to elderly, disabled and financially limited individual, through a variety of human programs, to promote self-sufficiency and to protect dignity, safety, and independence.” He knows how important it is to each of them to be able to stay in their home. He will go the extra mile for them if he sees a need that might be other than weatherization on their home. He is a dedicated employee that has an enormous, caring heart.

The second is Faithful – He is not only faithful to his job & family, he is faithful to his church and to his faith. Jessie is one of the Pastor on staff at the Christian Faith Center in Nampa. He brings messages to men at the church’s men group “One Voice” exhorting men to take interest in those around and the things they enjoy, opening up the door of relationship that will allow openness to the Gospel. Relationships are very important to Jessie. He is also involved with the Children’s ministry at church. He does understand the importance of being good examples and being involved in the lives of children. His young son, age 12, is in Martial Arts and Jessie is very involved with his competitions as Jessie himself is a Brown Belt. The family enjoys being together, biking, and camping.

We couldn’t talk about Jessie without mentioning our last word – Tacos. On the humorous side, you cannot even mention the word “food” that Jessie doesn’t yell out tacos. He posted once on Facebook, “Sometimes when I’m driving I totally space out and forget where I’m going… then I always end up at a Taco Truck.” Hey, he’s helping the small business owner. While Jessie is eating Mexican food, he is always talking about its taste. Basically he is saying Yum, Yum which each bite.

A few years ago when a young boy in the community had a brain tumor and needed a clean house to be able to come home from the hospital, he along with a neighbor coordinate donations and volunteers, for a complete remodel of the family’s house, inside and out, along with landscaping. He wrote letters to the community asking for help.

This year, he went to a call with a non-responsive 7-month-old baby. He got in the ambulance and performed CPR on the way to the hospital. The baby passed away at the hospital, but Chief Erickson checked on the family every day to see what they needed. He found out that their car was broken down, and then gave them his personal family van that same day.

The City of Parma had a monument to the veterans from the community who gave their lives in the service of their country, and a monument for a law enforcement officer who died in the line of duty. Chief Erickson wanted to improve the area and turn it into a fitting memorial for those who serve their country and community. This was a huge undertaking so he asked two Scouts if they would help him and take it on as their Eagle Scout projects, teaching them about hard work and how to be a leader along the way.

Chief Erickson does many things every day that goes unnoticed by the public. For example, he has recited “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” every Christmas for the last 23 years to all ages, schools, libraries, church groups, and private gatherings. One year, he we went to over 26 classrooms in the Caldwell School district. Always on personal time.

To touch the lives of others is a gift; a special gift bestowed upon a few. To impact the future of youth is to leave a legacy. I want to tell you about Rick Godina.

Rick grew up in a family of migrant farmworkers, working in the fields himself; a fact that he takes great pride in. From his family, he learned the values of hard work, humility, helping others and never forgetting where you came from. Rick has honored the sacrifices of his family by being the man that he is. He is a man of intergrity, dedication and honesty. He has served as a role model and mentor for numerous youth and peers in various capacities; giving back to and impacting the futures of generations to come. He has volunteered his time as a coach, and as a motivational speaker to both youth and parents of Latino children.

Rick serves as an Employment and Training Specialist for the Community Council of Idaho’s Employment and Training program. About five years ago, Rick had a vision of organizing a conference to expose Latino youth to careers in the health field. He recognized that so many intelligient Latino youth possess the skills and knowledge to go to college and achieve the “American Dream”. What they lacked was opportunity and role models. Well, he wasn’t going to sit around and just let that happen. He began to gather people in the community who believed in the vision and who would commit to making it happen. Demonstrating strong leadership, he coordinated a committee of fifteen people. He set the expectations, timelines and follow-through to ensure that the health conference would become a reality. He didn’t stop at just approaching young adults in the community. He approached the youth involved in FHLA (Future Hispanic Leaders of America) programs in high schools across the state with the message that the future is in their hands, and that what they want for themselves will only come from their own hard work and commitment. There are no hand-outs. To achieve your dreams, you must invest the time and effort in yourself. He required them to be part of the planning and coordination for the conference. He set the expectations and followed through with everyone to motivate them and keep them on track.

Rick was creative in combining a few goals into one project. He encouraged the student to sell raffle tickets so that the proceeds would support the sustainabilty of the conference year after year. To motivate the students to sell tickets, each student that sell $500 in tickets attends a national conference on leadership sponsored by the National Council for La Raza. This provides students the opportunity to get a world of view of professional Latinos and the advocacy they do every day to improve the lives of so many. The experience allows students to expand their dreams and hope for the future.

On April 2nd, 2016, the third annual Hispanic Health and Technical Careers Conference was held at the College of Idaho in Caldwell. The first was held at Boise State University, the second at Northwest Nazarene College, and the fourth will be held at College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls in the spring of 2017. You can see why I mention “legacy” from the beginning. Rick’s vision has seized the attention of all the Colleges and Junior Colleges in southern Idaho. BSU, U of I, CSI, NNU, ISU, CWI and College of Idaho sponsor the conference, provide scholarships and recruit students. Businesses donate materials, time and money. Lationo health and technical professionals share their stories with the students, and each year, an inspiring keynote speaker whom the youth can relate to is brought in to meet and speak to the students. All of this was started with Rick’s vision, and it is changing the lives of many youths.

Rick is an unsung hero! He does what he does every day so that others learn to believe in themselves and take risks in life. He inspires both youth and adults to dream and to pursue those dreams. He believes in and models hard work and integrity. He sets a standard for professionalism and settles for nothing less. I can go on and on about how he trains youth and college students in interview skills, contributes his own money in causes he believes in, etc. But I know there is a limit and I appreciate your time in reading about Rick Godina. I will finish by saying that we are proud to submit this nomination for “Men in Top Tiers Award” on behalf of the Community Council of Idaho.