Community Stories

Taxpayers who are the least able to pay for help preparing their tax returns often end up paying more in taxes than they should, an inequity that a free tax preparation program on the North Coast is trying to address.

“We brought back $1.3 million in refunds last year to the Sonoma County community,” said Ilene Moran of Santa Rosa. “When our taxpayer receives that income, they go to the local grocery store that is in our economy.

It is said the refunds trickle out sevenfold.”

Moran for the past decade has been a tax preparer and a coordinator for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, which offers free tax preparation services for people who can’t afford commercial tax preparation.

The program this year serves Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties under the umbrella of the United Way of the Wine Country, which has a grant of $41,800 from the Internal Revenue Service to offset part of the cost.

The group serves working people who are low- to moderate-income wage earners, and the majority have dependent children, said Darlene Fiscus, United Way vice president. “Either they don’t have a computer to do their taxes or they are not fluent in English, and tax forms are not in Spanish.”

The program serves those with a family income of less than $50,000. It includes illegal residents who may not have a Social Security Number, but pay taxes using a Taxpayer Identification Number.

“People who are making that level of wages don’t have expendable income to pay $150 to $300 or $400 to get their taxes done,” Fiscus said.

Last year, tax preparers in the program prepared 1,385 returns and brought in $2 million in refunds to the three counties, Fiscus said.

The program has 70 preparers who are certified by the IRS to prepare state and federal returns, she said.

Moran is an accountant for Sonoma County Human Services, one of 30 government agencies, businesses and non-profits that are involved.

“I enjoy doing taxes and also like to volunteer in one way or another,” Moran said. “This opportunity was a great way to combine both, to do taxes as well as provide something to the community.”

The volunteers prepare basic tax returns that take advantage of many credits such as the earned income tax credit and education and child and dependent care credits that might otherwise be overlooked.

“The taxpayers who come to us are so genuinely grateful we have this program” Moran said. “They get cash back in their pockets. It is for items they need; they pay rent, buy a new car. It is so neat to see how grateful they are.”

The decade-old program is modeled after one started in Alameda County.

“When I started as a tax preparer, I would do maybe three or six a week, maybe 100 tax returns a season,” Moran said. “Now I fill in to do tax returns and I am also a site coordinator. I am go-to person for volunteers at a site and I teach the volunteers in a classroom-type setting on weekends.”

The tax preparation sessions, which take about an hour, are done at 30 locations in the three counties. Information and appointments can be scheduled by calling 211, the Sonoma County Volunteer Center information center, or at www.unitedwaywinecountry.org/eitc.

You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.

Blake Ridgway enjoys working with kids and animals. At Forget Me Not Farm in Santa Rosa, he found a perfect place to volunteer.

Ridgway mentors foster kids who are learning how to care for animals at the farm, a program of Sonoma County’s Humane Society. “It’s an opportunity to change the lives of kids and help animals, too,” he said.

Last year, he worked with a 17-year-old boy inside the Humane Society’s animal shelter. They helped abused dogs with socialization and training by walking the dogs and teaching them to obey basic commands.

“Working as a team was really great,” Ridgway said. His young partner, who was raised in foster homes, had a knack for helping troubled animals.

“He had an innate ability to work with dogs that were highly aggressive,” Ridgway said. “He’s a really mellow kid.”

The animal shelter’s staff was impressed with the young man and gave him more challenging assignments. “Once they saw how the dogs reacted to him, they upped the ante,” Ridgway said.

“There was a real sense of pride for him. It was neat to see his confidence.”

Ridgway now is mentoring his second foster teen.

Forget Me Not Farm’s mentoring program is for foster youth aged 14 to 19. They learn skills that can lead to jobs as veterinary assistants, dog trainers, dog groomers or animal care technicians.

About 100 kids have been through the program, said director Carol Rathmann. For those who have been exposed to violence, it’s a way to learn compassion.

“Our goal is to break the cycle of abuse,” she said. “We teach them nurturing and caring skills.”

Mentors and teens get orientation and training. Staff match them based on the teens’ talents and needs.

Most volunteer in the animal shelter, next door to Forget Me Not Farm. Others work with farm animals or in the farm’s horticultural program. The farm also offers humane education, farm tours and an adventure camp.

Ridgway, an avid bicyclist, learned about the farm from Levi’s GranFondo, the annual Sonoma County charity ride. GranFondo is Forget Me Not Farm’s largest private supporter, donating $160,000 over the past three years.

Ridgway lives in Santa Rosa and works for a lumber company in Richmond, where he sells sustainable forest products.

“He works great with the kids,” Rathmann said. “He’s very understanding and patient, an incredible role model.” Forget Me Not Farm always needs mentors, but men are especially in demand, she said.

“Anything you do for kids has ramifications way down the road,” Ridgway said. “They may not remember your name, but they remember an act. You can let them know you believe in them.”

You can reach Staff Writer Steve Hart at 521-5205 or steve.hart@ pressdemocrat.com.

By MARTIN ESPINOZA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Gordie Stedman, a retired Santa Rosa firefighter who frequently dons period clothing to recount historic tales of the Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, will tell you flat out that he has neither a fascination with history nor any thespian talents.

But what he does have is the urge to educate and give a little bit of his time.

“After retiring, I decided to give something back to the community, so I started doing this docent work,” he said.

Six hours a month, Stedman volunteers his time with Sonoma State Historic Park, which includes the mission, the Sonoma Barracks and the home of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. He recounts the rich history of the mission to groups of students, seniors and tourists.

“It’s a good feeling to pass on the information,” he said. “I try to have some kind of anecdote from virtually every corner of the mission.”

His costume includes a loose-fitting shirt worn over Levi’s. He has a band of red tied around the waist and the shirt hangs over the pants to hide the historically incorrect rivets on his Levi’s.

The clothes, though far from authentic, set the stage for the history he conveys in anecdotes.

Stedman points out that San Francisco Solano, the last of the California missions, was founded in 1823 as a military outpost by Mexican authorities to counter the Russian presence at Fort Ross.

The area had become part of the newly formed Mexican Empire after Mexico gained its independence from Spain two years earlier.

“The major purpose was to make sure the Russians didn’t encroach on the newly obtained territory,” Stedman said.

General Vallejo’s story illustrates the transition of the North Coast from Spanish to Mexican to American territory.

When construction of the mission was completed in 1834, the mission was placed in the control of a young Vallejo.

But Vallejo, an admirer of the “great Republic” of the United States, soon realized that Mexico would have a difficult time holding onto California and eventually threw his lot in with the American expansion.

Stedman, 73, has been volunteering at the historic Sonoma park since 2003. He also was a docent at the Petaluma Adobe until the Adobe’s operating hours were cut significantly as part of state budget cuts.

He still is part of the Petaluma Adobe Living History Day, helping kids make candle holders for candles they make. He performs similar volunteer work at the Victorian Christmas day at the Vallejo House.

Stedman was born in New York and came with his family to California when he was an infant. The family moved from Burlingame to Sonoma Valley in 1948, when he was a fifth-grader. He attended El Verano School and Sonoma High.

He was a Santa Rosa firefighter for 30 years, 23 as a deputy chief. After “retiring” a couple of times, Stedman finally ended his department duties in 1997. After that, he worked as the administrator of the local Moose lodge until 2001.

Two years later, he learned about the docent work and took a training course.

“I’m not a historian,” he said. “It was there and someone needed to do it, so I decided to help out.”

Stedman said he likes “to pass on information,” as well as trying to “make the mission come alive.”

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.