#0020 - Albert Hernandez

Discover the incredible journey of Albert Hernandez, a man whose life has been molded by service and resilience. From joining Rotary at the age of 19 to leading District 5280 in Los Angeles, Albert's story is one of inspiration. As CEO of Home Again Los Angeles, he dedicates his life to aiding unhoused families, drawing on lessons learned from his upbringing as one of 11 siblings. Albert's account of a young boy's selflessness in the "Shop with the Cop" project resonates with Rotary's mission of "service above self," offering a poignant reminder of the impact one can make in a community.

Join us to explore Rotary District 5280's global relief efforts, from supporting fire disaster survivors to long-term recovery initiatives. Our conversation with Albert sheds light on how Rotary has been a beacon of hope during crises, such as the COVID pandemic, through relentless fundraising and support to first responders. We also celebrate the collaborative spirit within Rotary, drawing inspiration from the Rotary Buzz podcast, and emphasize the importance of maintaining connections across districts for a united global response. This episode is a testament to the power of community and the unwavering commitment to service that defines the Rotary family.

Chapters

• 0:29 Rotary Impact in Los Angeles Wildfires
• 10:18 Rotary Relief Efforts and Long-Term Plans

Transcript

Brian Triger: 0:29

Welcome to the Rotary Spark podcast, albert, tell us a little bit about what your roles are inside and outside of Rotary.

Albert Hernandez: 0:39

Yeah, so my name is Albert Hernandez and I serve as the district governor for Rotary International District 5280, which is in Los Angeles, California. I've been a Rotarian. It'll be 20 years this year, in 2025, that I've been a part of the Rotary family. I actually joined Rotary when I was 19 years old, fresh out of high school and excited to get my hands dirty and do community service projects. And here I am, 20 years later, serving and volunteering as the district governor of this amazing district that's so diverse in Los Angeles. We've got over 60 clubs. We've got about 10 Rotaract clubs and so many Interact clubs, and it's an honor to serve as district governor this year and really help our clubs. Our Rotarians really find that Rotary moment in their journey of being a Rotarian.

Albert Hernandez: 1:37

What I do for a living is actually I also have been in the nonprofit sector for 20 years now. I also have been in the nonprofit sector for 20 years now. Today I get to be the chief executive officer of Home Again Los Angeles, which is a nonprofit homeless service agency in Los Angeles that helps unhoused families with children by providing them shelter, and then our goal is to get them the resources that they need to be financially stable and then move back into permanent housing and my day job and my time in Rotary. I love them both. They're both in alignment with their missions. It's all about helping people and that's really what I enjoy doing.

Albert Hernandez: 2:20

I'm number five of 11 brothers and sisters. My father passed away when I was a teenager and my mom had to work two jobs just to make ends meet, and I think going through that experience kind of reinforced in me the importance of helping those that are going through difficult times and giving them a hand up difficult times and giving them a hand up, and so I couldn't say I couldn't be any happier with my life right now, being a Rotarian and doing the work that I get to do each and every day.

Brian Triger: 2:54

That's a fantastic story. I think that it's extremely rare to hear someone at the age of 39 having 20 years of experience and I love you know, on the surface I haven't dug too deep into your nonprofit, but I think that it's fantastic that you're helping out all of these families. Out of curiosity, you mentioned that rotary moment, did you?

Albert Hernandez: 3:24

You know what? I've had so many Rotary moments in my time, but I will say my first one was through a project that our Rotary Club, which is in the city of Burbank I'm a proud member of the Rotary Club of Burbank, I think it was my first or second year and we did a shopping spree for children that are in low-income families. We actually called it Shop with the Cop and what we did was we matched a police officer and a student and a Rotarian, and this was back in 2005, 2006. And we gave every child $100 to go and purchase items for school. It was a back-to-school shopping spree and the idea of really pulling in the police officers was really to see, at least here in Los Angeles. It was important to me that the children realize that officers are here to protect us. They're here, they're a wonderful, dependable individual that really cares about the community, and so we partnered them together and I was matched with an officer and a child and I got to tell you that child I would think that he wanted school supplies or toys or jeans or, you know, shirts.

Albert Hernandez: 4:45

You know he did get some of the essential school supplies, but he pulled out a little list out of his pocket and he said I need to get my mom some shoes. She doesn't have good shoes and I want to buy her those shoes. And underneath that he had put that he wanted to get his brother, his younger brother, a book. And I just thought to myself. I said how amazing for this young man, this, this child um, I think it was about 10 or 11 years old to think about others before he thought about himself. And I will always remember that and it's it brings back that motto of service above self, always taking care of others. And that story will always be in my heart and I always reflect on it from time to time as I go through my journey in life and I just remember it's so important to help others as much as possible.

Brian Triger: 5:40

Based on the background story that you shared with us. Do you see yourself in a lot of these people that you're helping?

Albert Hernandez: 5:48

Yeah, you know I do. I don't think I realized that in the beginning, I think I just wanted to help, but as time progressed, you know there's so many families that came to our nonprofit Home Again LA. You know I realized boy, that person reminds me of my mom or that mom that this, this family, is a single parent and they went through the same struggles as as my mom did in my, in my family. And then there was sometimes there was some teenagers that would be in our shelter that I would say you know what they're going through? The same situation or similar situation. You know my family didn't become homeless or we didn't lose our home, but we were certainly a paycheck away and that was scary. It was really scary.

Albert Hernandez: 6:32

And I think what was even scarier was not being able to see my mom as often as possible, because she had to be at her first job at six in the morning and then her second job didn't allow her to come home to about 10 o'clock at night. So you know people are just fighting to survive. You know that was 20 plus years ago and we still have people all over the world, even here in the United States, that are just trying to make ends meet and you know Rotary is always on the forefront providing you know Thanksgiving meals or providing gifts to families that are low income. And it just makes me proud to be a Rotarian because I see it every day here at my job. People are in dire need. The COVID pandemic started almost five years ago and there's still families that are struggling. And Rotary is always there. They've always been there and I know they will always continue to be there to help people.

Brian Triger: 7:28

I see that too here. It's taken me a little while I'm only about a year and a half to two years in and it's touching, whether it's listening to your story or anyone else's story within our district, or really any other district for that matter. So I am also proud to be a Rotarian and honored to be elevated to a point of understanding or at least a little bit more of an enlightened mindset where I can think of others before myself.

Albert Hernandez: 8:02

Right, yeah, yeah.

Brian Triger: 8:05

So great. So what projects are you guys working on right now?

Albert Hernandez: 8:13

So you know what Rotary here in Los Angeles has been. We've been so active, as you know. January 6th, january 7th, you know, the local media was posting signs that we were going to be hit with winds as strong as 80 to 100 miles per hour. They were giving us warnings. You know, bring your patio furniture inside, make sure things are held down tight. Winds are going to be powerful.

Albert Hernandez: 8:42

And then January 8th hit, and not only were we seeing all these powerful winds, but we were hit with wildfires left and right. There was a wildfire in Palisades, there was a fire in Altadena, pasadena area, there was a wildfire that popped up on the north side of the county, in the city of Sylmar, and then that evening we're seeing wildfires show up in the Hollywood Hills and Calabasas. And boy we just everybody I spoke to those few days everyone's trying to figure out what in the world is going on here, dealing with anxiety or uncertainty because of all these fires. Imagine what our kids are facing. What are they thinking? Those innocent children are thinking oh boy, am I to blame? What's going on? Why am I not in school? Why are schools closed? It's been so chaotic for the past month here, but at the same time, it's been so emotional because we've been seeing the outpour of support from Rotarians, not just here in Los Angeles, but Rotarians from every country, calling, emailing, texting us how they can help. The amount of monetary contributions that have been coming in from countries like Puerto Rico and Ecuador and Belize and France. I mean it's been amazing, you know. I think those kind of things and those kind of experiences have really lifted us up and reminded us the impact of Rotary.

Albert Hernandez: 10:18

It's not just our respective districts that you and I belong to, it's a global movement, and so we've been raising funds so that we can conduct projects. We've been providing essential services to the fire disaster survivors. We've been taking them to the disaster zones, getting people water, food, clothing, warm blankets. We've been delivering meals warm meals to those that have been impacted. We've been sending funding to firefighters who have been battling those fires 24-7. I mean I know firemen and firewomen who were sleeping in their cars and then waking up and getting back on the front lines battling those flames. It wasn't an intense three weeks, but Rotary's been doing all these service projects to at least try to bring some sense of comfort and normalcy to these people that have been impacted.

Albert Hernandez: 11:14

My own non-profit. We've welcomed 13 families into our shelter and we've already been able to support them in finding permanent housing, two of them out of the 13 so far. So we're just, we're trying to find ways to support those that have been impacted. But now, here we are, a month later. Now we're trying to think about long-term projects. What can we do? How can we help rebuild housing, how can we rebuild community centers, things of that nature. So we definitely have our hands full. You know, it's as I said, it's only been a month, but it's. It feels like it's been a year that we've been doing this. It's it's been so much, it's been a lot, but we're doing our best to to be active, to respond to the needs of the community and those that have been impacted. And, again, rotary's been there this entire time.

Brian Triger: 12:08

That's fantastic and to get plugged into what your district is currently working on. If I'm not mistaken, I've been to your website several times, we would go to rotary5280.org.

Albert Hernandez: 12:26

Is that correct? Yeah, so anyone interested in making a monetary contribution or just reading what we're doing Because what I've been doing is I've been updating our website and kind of journaling in a way, putting what we're working on what's the latest news, what's the impact that your monetary contribution has made in our community, what's the impact that your monetary contribution has made in our community, so you can make a monetary contribution on our website or you can read up-to-date information on what our Rotarians are doing, and it is rotary5280.org. I got to also say we're very, very active on social media. So if you've got a Facebook account or an Insta account, check us out, find us on both of those social medias. It's Rotary District 5280, and you get to see some of the projects that we're working on. And then, of course, we've been very active this year and we've got a YouTube channel as well. So if you go to YouTubecom, just type in Rotary District 5280, and you'll see some of the updates of projects and people's lives that we're changing on that platform as well.

Brian Triger: 13:32

Perfect. Yeah, we'll make sure to share those links in any follow-up media. And then also for Home Again LA. Just correct me if I miss anything. It's wwwhomeagainlaorg. Is that correct?

Albert Hernandez: 13:49

You got it. That's the website, definitely.

Brian Triger: 13:52

All right, great, I look forward to reaching into or not even reaching in, just kind of opening up those windows to see what, what is going on. And I also want to take this opportunity. I've thanked you several times. I see you as kind of the unofficial grandfather of this, uh, this podcast, because the very first time that I saw your website, I noticed that you guys were doing uh the buzz. Is that correct?

Albert Hernandez: 14:21

That's it. That's the name of our podcast.

Brian Triger: 14:24

The rotary buzz podcast, the second that I heard the quality and just saw some of the graphics and stuff, I something clicked and I realized, hey, we could probably, you know, do something like this too. And you know, I reached out to you. I actually found out, found you guys in a backwards way through discord, I think through one of your Rotaract discord servers, when I was intending to not only create a district discord but also potentially an unofficial Rotary International discord, and that was a little bit of a mess. But one of your leaders in one of your Rotaract clubs was kind enough to send me your way and that's how I discovered your website, the podcast and got inspired to create this.

Brian Triger: 15:12

So thank you so much for all your support that you've given us.

Albert Hernandez: 15:15

No, don't worry about it. I mean, generally, we really are a Rotary family and if there's anything that we can share with one another, we may be in different districts, different states, but there really is no boundaries in Rotary. We're here to lift each other up and share ideas because ultimately it's going. Some of your podcasts and I'm very impressed with your speakers, yourself and um, I hope you continue running with this because it's a wonderful outlet for for people who are driving and just want to listen to something, or waking up on a Saturday morning and wanting to hear an update about a story in rotary. I think it's a wonderful way to to way to share those stories of Rotarians and others. So kudos to you.

Brian Triger: 16:07

Yeah, thank you. I hope that this and any other episode, whether it's on your podcast or Voices or any other district podcast, that it inspires the connection and collaboration of other districts in additional ways Because, as you said, it's just going to build on top of Rotary, which gives support to the rest of the world.

Albert Hernandez: 16:27

Yeah agreed.

Brian Triger: 16:28

So any shout outs you want to give, I'm sure that there are tons of people's lives that you've touched and that have supported you too, but any family members or individuals in your district that you want to embarrass for a second and give kudos to, yeah, yeah, you know what?

Albert Hernandez: 16:46

Always, I think every rootarian in our district of 5280 has done such a wonderful job this year, this past month, as you said. You know, I'm very fortunate this year to serve as district governor. You know, when I was, when I was in elementary school, and my teacher asked me what do you want to be when you grow up? I definitely didn't say district governor. But here I am and I'm excited about the journey and you know, I think being district governor is definitely just a title.

Albert Hernandez: 17:17

I think the team that we've established, that we put together from our chief of staff, may Stacy, and Glenn Gomez They've been there the entire way with me on this journey. The club presidents have been phenomenal. We're focusing this year on collaboration. Our whole theme in our district is teamwork makes the dream work and our club presidents have really knocked it out of the park. They're doing more projects together. They're, you know, they're combining their funds and and helping more people. They're having socials together. So any shout out that I want to give is just the amazing Rotarians from 5280, who are just doing a wonderful job, especially with this recent disaster that we're facing. They continue to remain on course and, you know, putting others before themselves. So just a big shout out to our entire district for everything that they've done and continue to do.

Brian Triger: 18:13

Thank you for joining us, albert. Thank you to District 5280, 5750, the Metropolitan Library System, itspark and our subscribers for all of your support. Have a good night, everyone. You.