San Diego County retirees making a difference: 4 volunteers share their stories
The secret to a longer, happier life? It's not kale smoothies or expensive gym memberships. It's helping others.
Research consistently shows that senior volunteers are
happier, healthier, and live longer than their couch-bound
counterparts. For these four San Diego County seniors, volunteering
isn’t just something they do — it’s a core part of their lives.
Ernie Alvarez: Hollywood comes to Escondido
Pace-TV San Diego President Ernie Alvarez, left, speaks to camera operator Leslie Couch as the show’s director Kevin Marty looks on. "I just thought it would be fun, but it has turned into something extra special," Alvarez said. (Charlie Neuman / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
At 84, Escondido resident Ernie “Angel” Alvarez traded his computer programming career for something far more glamorous: He became a movie mogul. As president of Pace-TV Productions for six years, Alvarez leads a crew of senior filmmakers who have made over 1,000 videos that showcase the best of our county.
Working from a converted garage studio in Escondido, this 12-to-15-member group creates 28-minute documentaries on everything from therapeutic horseback riding to behind-the-scenes tours of the Fleet Science Center. They’re running this entire operation on annual dues of just $40 per member—making them possibly the most budget-conscious production company in entertainment history.
“I just thought it would be fun, but it has turned into something extra special,” Alvarez reflects. The group trains every new member in the full spectrum of television production — from filming to editing to getting shows on air. No special skills required, just “the ability to learn something new and the willingness to learn.”
When COVID forced them out of their original Spectrum studio, one enterprising member converted the third bay of his garage into their new headquarters, they bought all new equipment and kept rolling. “It is amazing to me how we have managed,” Alvarez marvels, “but somehow it just seems to work.”
Leslie Bruce: Scholarship superheroine
At 70, Leslie Bruce discovered that retirement doesn’t have to mean missing the brilliant minds that energized her health care leadership career at UC San Diego. She joined 100 other “smart women” (her words) in the San Diego Chapter of the ARCS Foundation (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists).
Bruce dedicates about 20 hours weekly to helping raise approximately $500,000 annually in scholarships for graduate students. “ARCS offers a family of smart women dedicated to helping bright students doing promising research,” Bruce explains from her Loma Portal home.
The ARCS scholars receive $10,000 annual awards that can make the difference between pursuing groundbreaking research or abandoning their studies. Bruce and her colleagues are literally funding the future — one brilliant student at a time, at UC San Diego, San Diego State, the University of San Diego and Scripps Research.
Her retirement philosophy came from an unexpected source: “I attended a pre-retirement seminar at UCSD where someone recommended a book called ‘Purposeful Retirement.’ I bought the book but never even cracked the cover. The title said it all.”
Terry Weeks: From engineer to earth warrior
Terry Weeks discovered that the best post-retirement hobby isn’t golf — it’s getting dirty. What started as a once-monthly trail maintenance activity in 2007 (after his wife, Barbara, spotted volunteers working and thought it would be a pleasant way to give back) has evolved into a twice-weekly, six-hour commitment since his 2022 retirement from manufacturing engineering.
When new volunteers ask why he does it, Weeks has a ready answer: “I usually say I want the community service hours for use as credits against any future crime I might commit. Just kidding — I asked the park rangers, and they tell me it doesn’t work that way.”
“Volunteering gives us a way to do something more. Life is not just getting by, but being freely able to give something of ourselves to help those around us. We have also gained a larger circle of friends,” explains the 67-year-old Rancho Bernardo resident.
Weeks splits his time between the Tuesday inland crew and the Friday coastal crew, engaging in what he describes as “good-natured rivalry between the coastal elites and the practical no-nonsense inlanders.” Weeks went from someone who “could barely tell the difference between a bush and bird” to becoming an informed naturalist. Meanwhile, he’s been surprised by “how few young people these days know how to use a shovel properly” — perhaps they’ll “stay in school so they can learn a valuable skill that avoids manual labor,” he jokes.
Irene Barajas: The troop leader who won’t quit
Irene Barajas, 72, started the first Girl Scout troop in the U.S. with Hispanic girls in the 1980s and led a multilevel troop of 50 girls for 25 years. She now supports two former Scouts who have taken over leadership of the reconstituted Troop 5912.
“It was only natural that after two of my Gold recipient co-leaders decided to keep the troop going with first-time Daisies that I had to support them,” the San Ysidro resident explains. “I won’t say mentoring because they got that while being girls in the troop for 10 years — now as adults they just need to know I am there and respect my ideas.”
Raised by a World War II veteran father with mottos like “rise and shine” and “do or die” (talk about effective parenting), Barajas has instilled community service values throughout her leadership. Her troop regularly provides Color Guard presentations for cities and military organizations, including the Military Order of the World Wars, while also volunteering for seven years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Wildcoast, planting over 700 native plants in restoration projects across the Otay Valley.
She is proud that one of her former troop members is Fabiola Bagula, superintendent for the San Diego Unified School District, who posted on LinkedIn, “When I was a Brownie, the Girl Scouts (and my beautiful Girl Scout leader Ms. Irene who is STILL serving San Ysidro), gave me so many experiences and opportunities that I know I would not have had if it wasn’t for this organization.”
