“Why are you here?” my supervisor asked me. It was 2004 and I had, not long before, started a job as an apprentice at Goodwill’s warehouse in Cordelia.

Back in 2006, when I was incarcerated at Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW), I had to attend a re-entry class in order to get paroled. One of the assignments in this class was to find ten resources within your county from a resource guide VSPW supplied. Looking for any place to write down, I noticed that Goodwill was listed five different times. I wrote down Goodwill and made a mental note for myself when I paroled.

My story begins with addiction. I dropped out of school and was in and out of prison. I couldn’t keep a job and eventually, I stopped trying to work.

Then my fiancé got pregnant and I knew I had to change. I started looking for work and trying to get clean.

Shawn Pangelinan has a smile you won’t forget, one you may have seen brightening up the side of a Goodwill truck as it passes you on the street. The story of how he became Calidad’s facilities manager at Camp Parks is memorable too. 

It was during high school that Michelle fell in with the wrong crowd and started experimenting with alcohol, then drugs. She fell in love- first with a man, then with methamphetamine. Not long after, her daughter, Nichelle, was born.

Maria Harral knows what commitment, determination, and motivation is about.

Life wasn’t always easy. As a kid, I moved between my dad and my grandparents’ house. My uncle would beat my brother and me, and my granddad died of a heart attack right in front of me. When my brother entered gang life, I followed in his footsteps.

In the early 80s, a dependency on marijuana, then methamphetamine, kicked off my tour of the county jail system. What started with minor infractions quickly advanced to assault and battery, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of a loaded gun.

Belen Zarate came to Goodwill for her first job, her first opportu-nity to earn her own money, and to stand on her own.

Raymond Hernandez came to Goodwill Application Orientation June 2012 after two terms in prison for drug abuse. He was having a difficult time kicking his addiction after being released. But that all changed after hearing that his significant other was expecting their first child.