New Community Advisory Board members bring fresh eyes to Modesto Bee editorials

Anita Hellam, Nico Solorio and Bunny Stevens have joined the latest rotation of The Modesto Bee’s Community Advisory Board.

The board is composed of nonjournalist volunteers bringing fresh eyes and diverse life experiences to this opinions page. They will meet with and advise The Bee’s Editorial Board, helping to develop stances on important issues of the day for the next six months.

Hellam, 58, is chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity, Stanislaus County, helping families break into home ownership with sweat equity for the past 21 years. She appears from time to time on pages of The Bee, taking readers through home-building projects or Habitat’s Modesto ReStore, which sells second-hand, donated and overstocked home improvement materials and furnishings.

Because of her father’s military career, Hellam’s childhood was spent in places like Thailand, Iran, Boston and Southern California, and she lived and worked six years in Mexico before settling here in the Central Valley.

Solorio, 30, is a 2011 graduate of Enochs High School in Modesto. Five years ago, he founded an ATM maintenance company and last year became a board member of Modesto’s First Federal Credit Union. He has been involved in rental assistance and currently supervises the Housing is Key program for City Ministry Network in Modesto.

The expertise of Hellam and Solorio in sheltering people, gained through years of hands-on involvement, will serve The Bee well in deliberations on homelessness and affordable housing. Solorio’s experience as a committee member of Modesto’s Forward Together effort will further inform The Bee’s editorial opinion on police reform as city leaders establish its Community Police Review Board in coming weeks and months.

A typical weekday for Stevens, 81, starts at 4 a.m. at Modesto’s Safeway, where she works a five-hour shift “because I choose to,” prepping the store to greet “my customers.” She was born in the former Robertson Hospital in Modesto and spent many years in Monterey County, where she wrote a column for the weekly newspaper. She also worked in photojournalism on the Oregon coast before returning to Modesto be near family a few years ago.

“Isn’t life wonderful?” Stevens said. “At every age?”

While The Bee is eager to welcome Hellam, Solorio and Stevens, it’s hard to say goodbye to Tahmirah Mecca, Doug Maner and Tina Driskill, who served with passion and dedication the last half of 2022, assisting as the Editorial Board met with government, business and nonprofit leaders. Their insights were invaluable after endorsement interviews for the fall election, as were those of Joyce Parker, Rosalee Rush and Salvatore Salerno before the June primary.

If you are interested in serving with the next Community Advisory Board cohort in the second half of 2023, or know someone who should, drop us a line at mfigueroa@modbee.com.

This story was originally published January 17, 2023 at 9:00 AM.