And theres no sign hell let up anytime soon. Michael im just doing what im doing here. Female good to see you. Michael have a good day. Announcer heres nbc bay areas garvin thomas. Garvin thomas thank you so much for joining us. For the next 30 minutes, well bring you stories about regular people doing extraordinary things and making the bay area proud. We begin with a young woman who took a simple fact about recycling and is turning it into a world of good. With a bit of money and a bit of knowledge, Sonali Ranaweera is doing remarkable things. Garvin at san joses del mar high school, there are a whole bunch of afterschool activities a new student can sign up for. Collecting the recycling is not one of them. Freshman Sonali Ranaweera came up with that one all by herself. You see, while the school is new to sonali, the job isnt. With the help of older brother mano, sonali has been collecting bottles and cans since the 6th grade, ever since she got a certain Christmas Present from her mom and dad. Sonali my parents gave me and my brother each 100 for christmas, and they told us use it to make a difference in someones life. Garvin sonali decided to use the money to help smiletrain a nonprofit that provides cleft lip surgeries to children around the world. Problem was a single surgery cost 250. Sonali was gonna need more money. It just so happens her Earth Science teacher was doing a lesson on the time on recycling, and sonali learned that recycling centers paid money for bottles and cans. She took that little bit of information and has since turned it into a whole lot of cash. Sonali thirtyfour thousand today, yeah. Garvin its the kind of money that gets a 14yearold noticed, and sonali has been recognized at the highest levels for her work. There are, for sure, other volunteer opportunities that are less work and not quite as smelly, but sonali says whenever she feels like stopping, shell get a picture of just one of the many children she is helping. Sonali yeah, when we pictures of all the kids weve helped, i just think that, like, wow, like, it just makes me happy to think, wow, what a difference weve made in their life. Garvin and frankly, what a difference it has made in other lives as well, for one simple lesson she learned in 6th grade is teaching all of us a Little Something about helping others. Garvin our next story is about getting back up after life knocks you down. In the case of sean maloney, literally. The former intel executive is determined to show the world there is life after a stroke. Sean maloney says, in all seriousness, the best advice he can give people about recovering from a stroke is to not have one in the first place. But, if they are unlucky enough to have one, they should know they are capable of more than they think they are, and hes taking the next 2 months to show them. Sean maloney okay. Garvin portola valleys old la honda road is well known in bay area cycling circles. Its relentless climb and nonstop twists and turns make it a popular proving ground. They also make it a darn good metaphor for sean maloneys life. Or, should we say, lives. Sean ive got two lives, really. Life before my stroke and now the life afterwards. Garvin seans life before his stroke in 2010 was one of a big time executive at one of the worlds Biggest Technology companies. Some say he was steps away from the top job, until he found himself flat on his back thinking it was the end. Sean i had a good life and its over, right . Thats what i thought. Its over. Garvin in a way sean was right. That life was over but a new one had begun. Always driven and remarkably fit, sean threw himself back into exercise to help his body recover. His brain, though, that was tougher. The stroke had left him unable to speak. Sean two months later the doctor said to me, you got to learn to speak out of the other side of your head. Garvin sean says doing that was the toughest thing hell ever do in life. Sean this is the journey, right . Garvin which is saying something considering whats next. Sean so, its a long way. Garvin sean is leaving sunday to bicycle across the United States. Male some of the decal guys are coming. Garvin hell be giving talks along the way, telling people about the warning signs of a stroke so they can hopefully avoid one. The biggest lesson hell give, though, wont be with his words. Itll be with his wheels, to let other stroke survivors know they have more willpower inside of them than they ever imagined. He certainly did. Sean you can come back. You can come back. Garvin it is said that food can feed the soul, but in the case of a chicken and waffles restaurant its doing much more than that. The owner of the popular oakland spot is inspiring and employing by giving some of his workers with a checkered past a Second Chance. Derreck johnson says growing up in oakland, he managed to stay out of trouble, though he saw others headed down a dangerous path. Derreck is now making sure those who went that way in the past still have a future. Garvin home of chicken and waffles in oaklands Jack London Square is a place where Second Chances never tasted so good. Derreck hello welcome to home of chicken and waffles how are you . Garvin Derreck Johnson opened the restaurant 11 years ago. At the time, derreck says, he knew almost nothing about running a restaurant, but knew a whole bunch about his home town of oakland. Derreck i grew up in the toughest neighborhood in the city; i grew up in acorn. Derreck how you doing over here . Female great, thank you. Derreck all right, great. Garvin derreck says he opened the restaurant wanting it to be a place where customers from all walks of life were welcome. The same went for putting together his staff. Derreck i knew that i would get an urban applicant. I knew id get applicants that were all mainly from low income areas in oakland. Garvin and applicants with criminal records, even those having spent some time doing hard time. That didnt matter to derreck. Derreck i saw people that were really wanting and eager to work. Thats all i needed to see. Derreck victoria comes in at 6, yama. Shaniqua cooper miesha namore. Garvin it is something he saw in shaniqua cooper. Shaniqua i made some careless decision and i owned up to em, served my time. Shaniqua yeah, let me show you the correct way to do it. Garvin now, though, less than a year working at home of chicken and waffles shaniqua is now derrecks assistant manager, helping to give others the Second Chance that she got. Shaniqua its amazing. Sometimes i go home and i just say thank you because you dont get a Second Chance sometimes, especially with the mistake i made. Thats hard to get back into the world. Garvin derreck says exoffenders make up a majority of his staff these days, because, he says, they have proven to be the most loyal, hardest working people he has ever hired, and grateful too. Derreck it was very fulfilling to watch a grown man cry when i handed him a check, cause i was like, okay, now why are you crying . cause usually people dont cry when they get a check. They were like, this is the first time ive ever received a check in my life. Garvin derreck wishes more businesses knew what he knew and hes happy to tell em about it, because this is one recipe for success that shouldnt be kept a secret. Derreck one day ill have to look back and say okay, i have all these restaurants and weve been very successful, but if we dont improve the quality of life of someone, i mean, i dont think it really matters. Garvin coming up, a real life detective takes on a very different case, one that has nothing to do with tracking down criminals. Mike ramos so, when i first walked in here and i saw that, yeah, i got the goosebumps. Garvin and performing with a purpose, how a young man used his own personal experience to help children express themselves on stage. Jaime dequine what hes doing, hes really impacting not just for a little bit, but hes impacting them forever. Garvin but first, a tutor with a gift for teaching gives seriously ill children something that lasts long after they leave the hospital. Garvin welcome back. You know, fighting a life threatening illness is tough at any age, but for a child it can seem so much tougher. Time at the hospital is time away from home and school. But jerry brody, retired chevron engineer, is doing what he can to make it a little easier on kids who end up missing so many classes, and hes using his own talents in math to make a lasting impact. Garvin at Childrens Hospital oakland, surrounded by doctors and nurses busy saving lives with medicine jerry okay, now this one is divided into how many parts . Garvin jerry brody quietly changes them with math. Jerry youre really good at this. Male thanks. Jerry okay, lets see what else we have. Garvin twice a week for 15 years, jerry has been coming to childrens, making sure kids too sick to go to class dont fall too far behind in school. Jerry sort of the mother of all parabolas is y equals x squared. Garvin jerry, a retired chevron engineer tutors children of all ages at every level. Jerry put this here. Garvin with even a game or two of chess thrown in. Jerry it was always in the back of my mind, at some point if i could, i would like to teach. Jerry so, once you get past 1 its gonna be a mixed number. Garvin he is plainly good at it. Very popular with the patients not to mention their parents. Jaime its amazing. I just couldnt thank him enough. What hes doing, hes really impacting not just for a little bit, but hes impacting them forever. Absolutely. Garvin now, if that seems to you a bit of an exaggeration, just take a trip to the university of nevada, reno and check in with jaime esquivel. Jaime esquivel he actually got me to love mathematics. Garvin when jaime was just 11 years old, he was treated at oakland childrens for an aggressive form of cancer. He missed some of the 6th grade, and all of 7th grade. But not only did jaime not fall behind in math, just the opposite in fact. Jaime, now an applied mathematics major in college, says it was jerry who not only influenced his course of study but the direction of his life. Jaime yeah, anyone who dedicates themselves to help people like that, i mean, any little thing that they might be doing to help can have a significant mark on that persons life. And in my case, thats exactly what happened. Jerry those are the things that you live for. I mean, those are the uber success stories. Jerry and if i multiply it by garvin and while those successes are nice, jerry always keeps them in perspective. What matters the most to him is not that his pupils go on to bigger and Better Things its just that they go, period. Jerry the thing that sustains me is that most of these children get well. They get better and they leave. Garvin our next story is about helping kids through a difficult time. The medicine of choice this time, not math, but theatre. It changed steven browns life when he needed it most. In fact, it transformed him so dramatically, he couldnt wait to try his act out on others. Steven brown five minutes before we start the run through. Garvin when your personal demons threaten to drag you to some dark places steven all right, ready . Go for it. Garvin bright lights might just be your best defense. They were, you see for steven brown. Steven so, go back to, i faced the window. Garvin discovering theatre 6 years ago, steven says didnt literally save his life. It did, though, save him from the life he was living. Steven i saw no future for myself except death, or jail or something very, very bad. Garvin steven grew up the fourth of seven brown kids. By the time he was a teenager, though, the shadow created by his older, overachieving siblings had overwhelmed him. Depression and obsessive compulsive disorder paralyzed steven. Steven it got to the point where ibasically all i could do was just, like, lie on the couch, cause justyou know itd take me half an hour just to walk down the hall. Garvin but at the urging of a friend one day when he was 17, steven tried out for a play. The moment the curtains parted he says, so did the clouds hovering above him. Steven kinda from the moment i walked in, it was no doubt it was, kind of like the right thing. It was okay to be shy and awkward, and it was okay to, you know, to be whoever it was you were. To stand on stage like that and act like that, it was very very revolutionary for me. Garvin and such a revelation steven couldnt wait to share it. He knew there must be other kids just as lost in this land of plenty as he, and couldnt wait for them to experience what he did. Steven we are all probably a little bit nervous, right . It happens. Garvin which is why at the age of 20 he started his very own theatre company. Steven a place where theres not gonna be any bullying, or backstabbing, or cliques, or anything like that. You know, where everybodys really working together and supporting each other together. Garvin just 3 years in at the chrysalis Youth Theatre is on its 7th show. Already close to 150 young people have acted for and learned from steven. The fact that just a few years removed from his darkest times these kids look to him as a Guiding Light amazes steven and his dad. Male hes just come hes come a very long way. Garvin steven realizes that, once he fell in love with theatre, he could have aspired to be a great actor. He would much rather work on being a better person. Steven you know, no matter how bad that youve messed your life up, or somebody else has messed your life up, you can recover from that and do something very special, you know . Something way beyond you. Garvin coming up, an oakland man takes pride in his neighborhood like few others do. What keeps him sweeping morning after morning, year after year . Plus. Shannon nottestad and i have to say, when i first got the email, i just looked at mikes job title and i thought oh my gosh, what have i done . Garvin hes used to investigating criminals, but a federal agents latest case paints him in a very different light. Garvin did you ever hear someone referred to as a history detective . Well, chances are that person probably wasnt a real detective, but Michael Ramos is. Hes a special agent with the United StatesGeneral Services administration. That means he normally catches bad guys who waste taxpayer money or steal government property. Though, a case hes been on the past few years doesnt quite fit that mold. Garvin the targets of his investigation special agent mike ramos was told could be found at the grand Avenue Branch of the South San Francisco public library. The fact the objects of his search were just hanging around, hiding in plain sight as it were mike these are exhibited by sophie brannan. Garvin didnt make their discovery any less sweet for mike. Mike so when i first walked in here and i saw that and yeah, i got the goosebumps. Garvin these two paintings by the late artist sophie brannan, though were just the beginning of what mike found. In back rooms, basements and behind boxes a dozen other works of art, all with one thing in common. [music] garvin at the height of the great depression, the Works Progress administration, or wpa put millions of unemployed americans back to work. That included artists. Hundreds of thousands of pieces were commissioned, then placed in public spaces, like libraries all over the country. The government then promptly lost track of most of them. Mike sometimes records were nonexistent, facilities closed administrations changed, and they lose track of the artwork. Garvin but a few years ago, mikes bosses at the General Services administration decided to track down the lost works of art. They reached out to mike and mike started reaching out to others, with a few bumps along the way. Shannon and i have to say when i first got the email, i just looked at mikes job title and i thought, oh my gosh, what have i done . Shannon we shuffled all these when garvin but shannon nottestad with the San Mateo County library was soon on board, happily showing mike more than 50 works of wpa art they had stored in their attic. Mike a lot of people are very passionate about wpa, and once youre able to make the connection to them you essentially have another investigator on your side. Garvin mike says all this has been time well spent. The more than 150 pieces of taxpayer property his office has tracked down are valued at close to 3 million, not to mention the value of making sure once lost pieces of American History dont stay that way. Mike theres a lot of work to be done, and we look forward to continuing the journey. Garvin up next, a clean sweep. Its far from a glamorous job, but an oakland man shows what true neighborhood spirit really means. Garvin the way city budgets are stretched these days sometimes its challenging just to keep the streets clean. One oakland neighborhood doesnt seem to have that problem though, thanks to the incredible dedication of just one man. Garvin if you take the time to stop and listen, youll notice early mornings in a city have a different sound than the rest of the day. Its true along oaklands piedmont avenue, though here there is one noise that is distinct from almost anywhere else. That would be the sound of dedication, created by michael lydons broom and dust pan. Every tuesday and thursday morning, you will find michael walking up and down piedmont avenue, removing every little thing that doesnt belong on piedmont avenue. Michael heres an interesting thing here all these cigarette butts. That guy up there throws em out the window. Geez. Garvin it is certainly a nice thing for a 70yearold retired man to do for his neighborhood. It is a remarkable mission when you learn just how long hes been doing it. Michael since 1979. Garvin that would be 36 years. Michael thats okay you candont pass out. I know im a young looking man. Michael morning. Garvin michael says the sweeping started when he began helping his retired father maintain the grounds of a nearby church. Michael noticing, only then, just how littered the streets were. Michael so, i would, on the way back after helping him i would clean the stuff up. And thats reallyit kind of started that way, and you know time moves on, and im still sweeping. Garvin early on, it didnt take long for the local Merchants Association to notice just how clean michaels part of the avenue looked. So, they asked him to start a program paying people to sweep 5 days a week. Michael did, keeping a couple days for himself, though but not taking a cent for the work. Michael no, im just doing what im doing here. Garvin if there is a lesson in this for all of us, though, it might just be that sometimes the simplest of tasks can make you the biggest of neighborhood heroes. Female its good to see you. Michael have a good day. Female okay. Michael okay. Garvin thanks again for joining us for this bay area proud special. You can see new bay area proud stories every tuesday and thursday evenings in our 5 p. M. Newscasts, and all of our reports are on our website. Just go to nbcbayarea. Com and scroll down to the bay area proud segment. And if you wonder where we get these stories we get them from viewers like you. If you know of someone who should be featured in a bay area proud story, i want to hear from you. Go to our website, where youll find links to facebook, twitter, or email. Have a good night. [music] around here, were all about fast. Thats why xfinity is perfect for me. With millions of wifi hotspots all over the place including one right here at the shop now we can stream all things fast and furious. Youve done it again, carlos with the fastest inhome wifi and millions of hotspots xfinity is perfect for people who love fast. Dont miss furious 7 in theaters now. 3 f2 podrian ser sus vecinos. Neighbors. Hes a beautiful toddler, running up and down the hall chasing our labrador retriever. They live with some of the most vulnerable among us. A Peanut Butter sandwich. And they rely on the care and kindness of others to get by. You can do it without the help. Until now. Were going to need these people, and i cant have them anymore. What are you most afraid of . His world is going to collapse. Tonight an intimate journey where youll meet eric and nick and their extraordinary mothers. Moms do what moms got to do