Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel came to Pescadero 13 years ago for what she thought would be a month’s vacation. Then she got involved with Puente as a volunteer, and one month became two. In 2007, she was asked to preside over the merger of Puente and North Street Community Resource Center, and she became Interim Executive Director of Puente. She was such a perfect fit that she decided to stay.  I came to Pescadero because I was leaving a job as executive director for a Washington-based LGBT-rights group and needed a rest. I was pretty tired and not really looking to become involved in anything new. But I think you can’t grow up in California, as I did, without being compelled by the stories of farm workers and the farm worker movement. And the South Coast is a powerful and magical place. I was interested abstractly in what Puente did, but on my first volunteer day I went to help with the food distribution and I was very touched and moved by the people that I met. They were so hardworking and had such powerful stories, and were so grateful for what I considered so little. I was really struck by the efforts Puente had made to connect people who wouldn’t normally connect with each other. At that point … Continue reading Kerry Lobel: Discovering Puente was “a dream come true.”