February 13, 2007

Blanket drive reminds community of selflessness, helping others

Second annual charity drive commemorates life of 2003 Santa Teresa High graduate

By Ali Abdollahi
Editor

March 12 has taken on a bitter-sweet significance in Santa Teresa and its surrounding neighborhoods. Slowly, it is becoming a day that celebrates selflessness, helping others, community spirit and the human spirit. Though the date is now annually used as a remembrance of the best qualities human beings have to offer, it also marks the occasion of one of the worst tragedies a community can face.

Volunteers from the Southside Senior Center and the Los Gatos Superior Court assisted in "Jakey's Magic Blanket Drive" by crocheting new blankets and collecting donated items.

The second annual “Jakey’s Magic Blanket Drive,” a charitable program that donates blankets, caps, scarves and other materials to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, honors the life of Winton “Jakey” Jaco, Jr., who lost his battle with colon caner on March 12, 2005.

A 2003 graduate from Santa Teresa High School, Jakey was an elite baseball player. A skilled pitcher and outfielder, Jakey represented the best of American amatuer baseball as part of the USA Eagles, an internationally competitive youth team. “He was going to play pro ball,” said Kerry Jaco, Jakey’s mother. “That’s all he ever thought about doing.”

Jakey was also well known to family and friends for his devotion to helping those he loved. “There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his friends,” said Kerry Jaco. Even after learning of his illness, Jakey never stopped trying to help those around him.k

After Derrick Hernandez, a younger schoolmate and the younger brother of one of Jakey’s teammates, suffered a herniated disk that prevented him from playing baseball, Jakey would make frequent visits to play video games with Hernandez in attempts to cheer him up. “It was amazing,” said Derrick’s mother Roselyn Hernandez. “Here Jakey was facing this terrible illness, and he made a point to come over to make my son feel better. It just shows the type of person he was.”

The extent to which Jakey had touched the lives of those around him became evident at a Febrary 2005 fundraiser. While Jakey’s family and other organizers expected a couple of hundred people to come out in support for Jakey, they did not anticipate the more than 600 people that attended.

Jakey passed away just three weeks after that fundraiser. “Our greatest fear at that point was that Jakey would be forgotten forever,” said Hernandez.

So Hernandez and other community members approached Jaco about organizing the blanket drive. Said Hernandez, “We learned about how Jakey was attached to the blankets his mom used to crochet for him.”

Jaco fondly recalls her son’s relationship with her crocheted piece. “I crocheted him a blanket when he was 12 or 13 (years-old), and he made a big deal about it,” laughed Jaco. “He kept that blanket all the way through high school.”

Winston "Jakey" Jaco, Jr. lost his battle with colon cancer in 2005. After his passing, friends and family established "Jakey's Magic Blanket Drive" to commemorate his life.

With help from more than two dozen volunteers from the Souside Senior Center and the Los Gatos Superior Court, the inaugural blanket drive netted over 60 items that were crocheted or collected for donation. Lucile Packard seemed like a perfect recipient to the organizers because Jakey had received treatment there.

While the occasion has now become one of celebration and remembrance, Jaco still feels anger at the lack of preventative measures that could have helped save her son. “The advertising from the American Cancer Society says that you don’t need to get checked for colon cancer until age 50, and that’s a lie,” said Jaco. “They already have the blood samples, and it takes just one test to locate the cancer early as a preventative step. We didn’t find out until it was too late.”

Jaco has become a proponent for early prevention and testing for such illnesses. “If you go on-line, you see tons of teenagers that have died or are suffering from colon cancer, and I don’t want any other families to go through what we’ve gone through,” said Jaco. “Jakey was a great kid, and he didn’t ask for this. He lived his life the way it should be lived.”

For those Jakey touched, he remains a reminder of a life lived the way it was supposed to be lived.

Donations will be accepted until March 2. For more information, please contact Roselyn Hernandez or Sandy Warn by email at jakeymagic@yahoo.com.