Bringing Hope and Light

By: Nikki Villalobos

Community Writer

Photo Courtesy of:

Nikki Villalobos

Photo Description:

Helping a family have Christmas in their own home this holiday.

My name is Nicole Villalobos, but everybody calls me Nikki. My daughter was Arianna Villalobos. Her father and I oversee the #Aristrong foundation in her honor. We want to keep the community in the loop as to what the foundation is doing in bringing hope to hurting hearts throughout our beautiful community of Colton. We have been blessed to be able to speak at Joe Baca Middle School to a group of students to bring awareness to pediatric cancer and to talk with them about what our foundation does. The group we spoke with is called "The Anti-Bully Club," headed by teacher, Mrs. Janis Rodriguez. They are going to team up with us to make blankets for the Loma Linda pediatric oncology ward for Valentine’s Day.  Along with that amazing partnership we have also been helping a family in need in Colton. A friend of ours reached out to the #Aristrong foundation to see about helping this family. When we found the family, the living conditions for the four children were horrible. However, with the help of generous donors and laborers from our foundation we were able to make the house a home and bring joy to the family for Christmas. For the first time ever the children have a Christmas tree and will be receiving Christmas gifts on Monday, December 23. They even did a photo shoot in their new living room and were so excited to see all the new furniture and decorations in their house. Everything we do is always under the banner of Jesus Christ and it is to uphold our beautiful daughter’s legacy and her heart of compassion as she had asked us to start something to help kids in need in Colton before she passed in October.  We also have a food and toy giveaway on December 20th at the Four Seasons apartment complex where children will receive toys and families will receive food baskets from Santa. A hot cooked meal will also be served on December 22nd. Our foundation will be going to the Loma Linda Ronald McDonald House to give away toys on Monday, December 23rd.  We want to share these events with our community as we want the City of Colton and its surrounding neighbors to feel like the #Aristrong foundation is their foundation. We want to involve them in helping and volunteering to help make an impact in peoples lives, bring hope, and be a light in the midst of darkness.