By Diane A. Rhodes | Special to Valley News
Menifee residents and siblings Paul Harvey and Valerie Rocio Raecke established Kai’s and Cora’s Foundation for Kids to honor their spouses, who both died in 2020. Valley News/Courtesy photo
When siblings Valerie Rocio Raecke and Paul Harvey lost their spouses within a year of each other they decided to join forces and create a nonprofit that would keep their memories alive while helping a cause near and dear to all of them, children. “We miss our spouses each day, and our love for them is eternal”, Rocio Raecke said about herself and her brother. We would like to think that we have found a way to turn our grief into relief for others and share the love that we have for them by doing good things for children who may be a s blessed as we have been.” The duo founded Kai’s and Cora’s Foundation for Kid’s in honor of Kai Raecke, who died of glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer in April 2020, and Corazon Rivera Harvey who died of COVID-19 in November 2020.
The nonprofit was formally established about a year ago to help underserved children of the Tapinac Elementary School in Olongapo City, Philippines, and to help children with special needs residing at the Fundacion Sinapsis Vital orphanage in Pereira, Colombia. The siblings were recently recognized via a zoom meeting by the Republic of the Philippines Department of Education with an appreciation awed for he donations they have provided to support students engaged in education, especially when the children are working remotely. “After my brother-in-law’s passing and my sister approaching me with he idea of establishing our Foundation in honor of our departed spouses, I immediately thought of my wife’s often discussed wishes and desires to try and lend some of her time, efforts and resources to help the students at the elementary school she attend in the Philippine”, Paul Harvey said. He said that based on Cora’s personal experiences of growing up relatively poor, where choices had to made between purchasing either food or school supplies, she had always wanted to share her many blessings with those less fortunate kids and families that she could personally relate
to. The couple were married for almost 39 years!
Valerie Rocio Raecke and her husband purchased their forever home in the San Fernando Valley in May 2019, shortly after Kai retired for working as an editor and photograph for Paisano Publications, the publishers of motorcycle and hotrod magazines such as Easyriders, V-twin
and Rebel Rodz. Together since 2003, the couple were married nearly 3 years. “We had just returned from a trip to the orphanage in Colombia in April of 2019 where we renewed our commitment to help them,” she said. “Unfortunately, Kai was not able to fulfill his desire to help. Eight weeks after moving into our new home, he was diagnosed.
A move to Menifee
In July 2021, Valerie Rocio Raecke retired from her job as a special education teacher and moved to Menifee to be closer to her bother, who retired after a 40 year career in the U.S. Navy. He enlisted after high school graduation in 1976. “We live within two miles of each other, which is great because now as widowed individuals, we have come to rely on each other a lot more
than when we lived 90 miles apart”, she said. “We get together more often, whether is for dinner, a barbecue or to discuss our fundraising strategies. Being so close really helps when I enlist my big brother’s help on fixing things around my house, too.” “While most immigrant kids were coming from Latin America to the U.S., we did the reverse; we immigrated to South America,” she said. “Our parents, who were ahead of their time in many ways, felt that we would benefit from being bilingual. Thanks to our mom, we were able to live in Bogota, Colombia, and learn her culture and language. There was never a dull moment when you grow up in a family of 21 cousins.”
“(Our foundation) has been blessed with donations from our family and friends, who heard about our cause and supported it,” Valerie Raecke said. “We are looking at ways to reach out to a corporate sponsor that does business with the two countries we do charity work in to see if they would like to be involved. In addition, we are setting up a pop-up store at the outdoor markets to sell packaged Colombian coffee and Filipino goods with all the proceeds going to the foundation.”
School kits provided
Since its inception, the foundation has provided school kits for 150 kindergartners and reams of copier paper and printer ink for the staff to create schoolwork packets for the students since the Philippines was still under COVID-19 lockdown at the start of the academic ear. For the orphanage in Colombia, they donated a much-needed dryer in December, and also threw them a Christmas party, partnering with local merchants and the local government administration. Before this gift, they donated a 43-inch television for the residents’ use and clothes, paints, brushes, and sewing material to assist with special interest of some of the
children there. Wheelchairs will be delivered soon. The siblings said they are fortunate to have “boots on the ground” in the form of on-site liaisons in both countries. In Olongapo City, the
Philippines, Paul’s niece, Maria Victoria Rivera, assists with purchasing items in the country which becomes more cost effective than purchasing them here and taking them overseas, due to the exchange rate.
Assisting locally
Valerie said a cousin in Colombia, Dr. Janeth Huertas Bohorquez, is the regional director of Propiedad Horizontal in Pereira, Colombia, and she assists locally with obtaining goods for the orphanage’s use and gets the local government administration involved. She is also active in government herself and helps bring awareness to the needs of the children of the
orphanage.
The siblings aid they found many advantages of working together. Paul Harvey aid that supporting each other while working toward a common goal and purpose of remembering and honoring their departed spouses has been fulfilling. “Knowing that the love we have for our spouses will positively impact a child’s life, who is not our own is priceless,” Valerie Rocio Raecke said. May is National Brain Tumor Awareness month, which is dedicated to bringing awareness, support for research, education, and ongoing support to find a cure. Valerie Rocio Raecke said that despite some promising advancements in treating glioblastoma, about 200,000 people die from the disease each year. Ten percent of donations to Kai’s and Cora’s Foundation for Kids goes toward supporting the American Brain Tumor Association. Paul Harvey and Valerie Rocio Raecke chose to base their foundation on the following Bible verse, “…to whom much is given, much will be required…” in Luke 12:48.
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