Three alumni giving back to organizations that helped shape them
Through 2024, Naples Children & Education Foundation — with funds raised by the Naples Winter Wine Festival — has helped more than 350,000 area children achieve their dreams through its support of child advocacy, early learning, education programs, health care and more.
And for anyone looking to measure the profound effect that the programs funded by NCEF have had on children in need in Collier County, proof can be found in the lives of three young adults. They are all alumni of at least one program funded by NCEF — and all three are now contributing as adults to the programs that helped shape their lives.
In advance of the 25th Naples Winter Wine Festival, The Naples Press spoke with Elizabeth Cuevas, 28, community and volunteer engagement manager at the Guadalupe Center; Leslie Gallegos, 25, now in her fourth year as a teacher at Eden Park Elementary School in Immokalee; and Jeffrey Zacarias, 20, a college student and assistive technology assistant at Lighthouse of Collier.
‘Paving the way’ Elizabeth Cuevas
Community and volunteer engagement manager, Guadalupe Center
Born in Naples to a migrant family and raised in Immokalee, Elizabeth Cuevas remembers “chasing the crops” with her parents and siblings, always traveling with the seasons to pick fruits and vegetables.
Click here to read the full story https://www.naplespress.com/2025/01/24/faces-of-ncef/
