IBEW 1245 members at the City of Lompoc are setting the pace for union engagement in the community, and getting recognition in their local newspaper for their efforts.
IBEW 1245 members (from left) Shawn Wynne, Jaime Tinoco, John Daniel and Bobby Garcia present the donation to Fallen Warrior Project committee member Laurie Lane (center).
For starters, the Lompoc Unit donated $500 from their Community Fund to the Lompoc Valley Fallen Warriors Memorial Project. The funds will go towards construction of a new Veterans Memorial in Lompoc to honor veterans who died in the line of duty.
IBEW 1245 member and veteran John Daniel said he hopes the IBEW 1245 donation will spur other local groups and organizations to pitch in and make the memorial a reality. “It’s a worthy cause,” Daniel said in an interview with the Lompoc Record.
The Cabrillo High team at the Tie Dye Volleyball game. The event was organized by Fallon Wynne (far left, in the pink headband) the daughter of IBEW 1245 member Shawn and Angela Wynne.
IBEW 1245 members in Lompoc are also engaged in the fight against cancer. Along with members of the IBEW 1245 Veterans Group they contributed more than $200 to support the Lompoc-Cabrillo Tie Dye Volleyball game in late September to benefit the American Cancer Society.
The game was organized by Cabrillo High Volleyball Team Captain Fallon Wynne, the daughter of IBEW 1245 members Shawn and Angela Wynne, as part of Wynne’s senior project. Previously known as the Pink Game benefitting breast cancer research, Wynne decided to expand the project and make it more inclusive.
“I always knew my senior project was going to be the game for cancer. As captain, I inherited the project, but I thought, why not incorporate all the cancers so it’s not biased toward one? Tie Dye, benefiting all cancer research, means more to the community than pink,” Wynne told the Lompoc Record.
This year’s game raised more than $1,300 for the American Cancer Society, surpassing the amount previous years.
Make A Difference
Lompoc Unit members, along with members of the IBEW 1245 Veterans Group, continued to exemplify the spirit of community involvement when they participated in the community’s annual “Make a Difference Day,” planting trees, cleaning up public spaces and performing maintenance work to make their community a little brighter.
IBEW members step forward to “Make a Difference.”
The IBEW members from Lompoc contributed money out of their own pockets to host a BBQ for all 80 community volunteers participating in “Make a Difference Day.”
“Members Tony Vickery, Jose Valdez, Bobby Garcia, Leo Ramirez and John Daniel did the BBQing. Other members of the unit, including Gus Lopes, Stacy Trip, Sherrill Wood, Dorine Fabing and Maria Villareal also donated their time and food for this event,” reported Jaime Tinoco, chair of the Lompoc Unit and member of the IBEW 1245 Advisory Council and Veterans Group.
The Lompoc Fusion Under-14 AllStar girls softball team.
The Lompoc Unit, with Tinoco’s encouragement, also stepped up to the plate and raised about $800 to support Lompoc’s Fusion Under-14 AllStar girls’ softball team in their quest to participate in the Western National Championship games in Medford, Oregon. Tinoco had a special reason to go to bat for this fundraising effort: his daughter is a member of the Fusion team.
When the team qualified for the championship in Medford by placing second at the California Regional games, Tinoco worked tirelessly to help them raise the funds needed to get to Medford. Thanks to generous support from City of Lompoc employees, the IBEW 1245 Advisory Council and union staff, the team reached their fundraising goal and went to the championship games in Oregon, placing 16th out of 30 teams in the tournament.
“The team is very grateful for all the monetary contributions given by members and staff of IBEW Local 1245,” Tinoco said.