KC To Host NCLR 2015 Conference

By JOE ARCE (KC Hispanic News)

http://kchispanicnews.com/news_01.html

        This past Monday, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) President and CEO Janet Murguia made it official, “It’s exciting to bring the NCLR Annual Conference back to Kansas City, and it’s especially exciting to have the conference in my hometown.” Murguía delivered the news during a press conference in the Grand Ballroom of the Kansas City Convention Center in downtown Kansas City.

“As many of you already know, the Kansas City area Latino community has had a strong presence for more than a century, and the 2015 annual conference will not only highlight the area’s Hispanic community, but will reaffirm how our community has grown and continues to positively influence our country. I want to thank Mayor Sly James, the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association, our Kansas City Affiliates and everyone who has made this possible,” said Murguia.

She added that the area also boasts some of the “most respected and acclaimed members of our (NCLR) network.” Included in that group are: Cabot Westside Health Center, the only primary health care clinic targeting the Latino community, El Centro Inc., with a history of 40 years serving the Latino community in Kansas City, Kansas. Guadalupe Centers Inc., the oldest and one of the largest nonprofits serving the Latino community. Other agencies included Harvest America, Kansas Hispanic Economic Development Corporation and Mattie Rhodes Center.

“When most people think of the Latino community, they think about California, Texas, or Florida. And we are certainly big parts of all those states. The roots of the Hispanic community in the Midwest are nearly as long and deep. In fact, in addition to Mattie Rhodes, GCI started in this city nearly a century ago,” said Murguia.

NCLR is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. The NCLR Annual Conference is the nation’s largest annual gathering of leaders, advocates, elected officials, business executives and change-makers whose work impacts the Latino community. NCLR will also bring the National Latino Family Expo one of the largest events in the country focused on resources and activities for the Latino family, averaging 200 exhibitors showcasing their products and services.

This is NCLR’s second time hosting its annual conference in Kansas City. The last time was in 1989. “NCLR is a tremendous civil rights and advocacy organization that does great things across the country,” said Mayor Sly James. “I’m thrilled to welcome the group back to Kansas City, Missouri and look forward to a long-standing relationship with NCLR leadership, affiliates, and supporters. The fact that NCLR is headed back to Kansas City shows that we are a diverse, inclusive community that values people of all backgrounds.”

Cris Medina, president/CEO of Guadalupe Centers Inc., (GCI) was excited by the announcement. “A lot of things have happened since the last time they were here. It is a great opportunity to showcase the city.”

“We have been a part of the NCLR charter school network. We have done things with them across the country. We have been a part of their early college prep program ... their early Latino childcare network program. We have been involved with NCLR on a number of initiatives that they have spearheaded,” explained Medina in talking of the close relationship between the two organizations.

Medina added that the conference would provide an opportunity to highlight the work of the center. “There will be major Fortune 500 company representatives here. There is going to be a lot of the national foundations, corporate companies and a lot of elected officials, national as well as local. There will be an opportunity to network and meet a lot of these individuals to show them the work that our agency is doing here in Kansas City and that of other affiliate agencies as well.”

Medina’s enthusiasm for the conference is vindication of sorts for having taken a position back during Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s term against the organization coming to Kansas City for its annual conference. At that time, Funkhouser had appointed Frances Semler, a Minutemen supporter, to the Parks board. Her strong views on immigration and those of the Minutemen did not sit well with local and national Latino organizations and individuals.

At a national affiliate meeting in Miami prior to the conference, Medina told his colleagues that he did not feel comfortable inviting the organization to have their conference in the city as long as the mayor refused to remove Semler from the Parks board.

“That was very difficult because I love this city and always love to highlight it whenever possible,” explained Medina. “What kind of message are we sending to our organization? Here we are a national advocacy civil rights organization. We are going to come and this city has members of the Minutemen who are anti immigrant and a lot of hate rhetoric they passed on.”

Rick Hughes, president and CEO of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association, said he believes by the city hosting the NCLR conference in 2015 it could lead to other national Latino conferences coming to KC.

Medina added that the conference “Is going to have a huge economic impact on the city once people see the amenities and how affordable it is. … The people that are coming here will be pleasantly surprised to find that there are so many things to see and do and I hope that a lot of these people will come back and make some vacation plans with their families.”

El Centro president and CEO Mary Lou Jaramillo said, “It’s been a long time… it is good for us and it elevates our affiliates here in Kansas City and as Mayor Sly James said it shows others the value and strength of the Latino community.”

Medina conceded that the presence of Murguia as president and CEO of NCLR was a big help in getting the organization to Kansas City. Murguia is a native of the area, having been raised in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.

“Having Janet as the CEO of NCLR made our job easier. We did not have to sell her on Kansas City. She already knew that this is a great city and that we could host it and do a great job. … Once she knew that we had support from the local affiliates and the corporate community and there were no political issues we had to deal with, she was on the board,” said Medina.

Argentine Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

 

From "the end of the earth," the Catholic Church found a surprising new leader Wednesday, a pioneer pope from Argentina who took the name Francis, a pastor rather than a manager to resurrect a church and faith in crisis. He is the first pontiff from the New World and the first non-European since the Middle Ages.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires who has spent nearly his entire career in Argentina, was a fast and fitting choice for the most unpredictable papal succession - start to finish - in at least six centuries.

He is the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit and the first named Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, the humble friar who dedicated his life to helping the poor. The last non-European pope was Syria's Gregory III from 731-41.

"You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome," the new pontiff said as he waved shyly to the tens of thousands who braved a cold rain in St. Peter's Square. "It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth, but here we are. Thank you for the welcome."

The 76-year-old Bergoglio, said to have finished second when Pope Benedict XVI was elected in 2005, was chosen on just the fifth ballot to replace the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. In the past century, only Benedict, John Paul I in 1978 and Pius XII in 1939 were faster.
Francis' election elated Latin Americans, who number 40 percent of the world's Catholics but have long been underrepresented in the church leadership. On Wednesday, drivers honked their horns in the streets of Buenos Aires and television announcers screamed with elation at the news.
"It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait," said Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar at the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico. "Everyone from Canada down to Patagonia is going to feel blessed."
The new pontiff brings a common touch. The son of middle-class Italian immigrants, he denied himself the luxuries that previous cardinals in Buenos Aires enjoyed. He lived in a simple apartment, often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited slums that ring Argentina's capital.

He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the essential business of the church.
"As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than 2,000 years - that in each other, we see the face of God," President Barack Obama said in a statement.
As the 266th pope, Francis inherits a Catholic church in turmoil, beset by the clerical sex abuse scandal, internal divisions and dwindling numbers in parts of the world where Christianity had been strong for centuries.

While Latin America still boasts the largest bloc of Catholics on a single continent, it has faced competition from aggressive evangelical churches that have chipped away at strongholds like Brazil, where the number of Catholics has dropped from 74 percent of the population in 2000 to 65 percent today.

Francis is sure to bring the church closer to the poverty-wracked region, while also introducing the world to a very different type of pope, whose first words were a simple, "Brothers and sisters, good evening."

He asked for prayers for himself, and for Benedict, whose stunning resignation paved the way for his election.

"I want you to bless me," Francis said in his first appearance from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, asking the faithful to bow their heads in silent prayer.

Francis spoke by phone with Benedict, who has been living at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, and told cardinals he plans to visit the retired pontiff on Friday, according to U.S. Cardinal Timothy Dolan. The visit was significant because Benedict's resignation has raised concerns about potential power conflicts emerging from the peculiar situation of having a reigning pope and a retired one.
Earlier Wednesday, shouts of joy went up from the throng huddled under a sea of umbrellas when plumes of white smoke poured out of the copper chimney atop the Sistine Chapel a few minutes past 7 p.m. "Habemus Papam!" - "We have a pope!" - they chanted as the bells pealed in St. Peter's Basilica and churches across Rome.

After what seemed like an endless wait of more than an hour, they cheered again when the doors to the loggia opened and a cardinal stepped out and revealed the identity of the new pontiff, using his Latin name, then announced he would be called Francis.

In choosing to call himself Francis, the new pope was associating himself with the much-loved Italian saint from Assisi known as a symbol of peace, poverty and simplicity. St. Francis was born to a wealthy family but renounced his wealth and founded the Franciscan order of friars; he wandered about the countryside preaching to the people in very simple language.

He was so famed for his sanctity that he was canonized just two years after his death in 1226.
St. Francis Xavier is another important namesake. One of the 16th-century founders of the Jesuit order, Francis Xavier was a legendary missionary who spread the faith as far as India and Japan - giving the new pope's name further resonance in an age when the church is struggling to maintain its numbers.

In choosing Francis, the cardinals clearly decided that they didn't need a vigorous, young pope who would reign for decades but rather a seasoned, popular and humble pastor who would draw followers to the faith and help rebuild a church stained by scandal.

Catholics are still buzzing over his speech last year accusing fellow church officials of hypocrisy for forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.

In a lifetime of teaching and leading priests in Latin America, Bergoglio has also shown a keen political sensibility as well as the kind of self-effacing humility that fellow cardinals value highly, according to his official biographer, Sergio Rubin.

Bergoglio's legacy includes his efforts to repair the reputation of a church that lost many followers by failing to openly challenge Argentina's murderous 1976-83 dictatorship. His own record as the head of the Jesuit order in Argentina at the time has been tarnished as well.
Many Argentines remain angry over the church's acknowledged failure to openly confront a regime that was kidnapping and killing thousands of people as it sought to eliminate "subversive elements" in society. It's one reason why more than two-thirds of Argentines describe themselves as Catholic, but fewer than 10 percent regularly attend Mass.

Under Bergoglio's leadership, Argentina's bishops issued a collective apology in October 2012 for the church's failures to protect its flock. But the statement blamed the era's violence in roughly equal measure on both the junta and its enemies.

"Bergoglio has been very critical of human rights violations during the dictatorship, but he has always also criticized the leftist guerrillas; he doesn't forget that side," Rubin said.
Bergoglio's own role in the so-called Dirty War has been the subject of controversy.
At least two court cases directly involved Bergoglio. One examined the torture of two of his Jesuit priests who were kidnapped in 1976 from the slums where they advocated liberation theology. One accused Bergoglio of effectively handing him over to the junta.

Both men were freed after Bergoglio took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them - including persuading dictator Jorge Videla's family priest to call in sick so that Bergoglio himself could say Mass in the junta leader's home, where he privately appealed for mercy. His intervention likely saved their lives, but Bergoglio never shared the details until Rubin interviewed him for a 2010 biography.

Rubin said failing to challenge the dictators was simply pragmatic at a time when so many people were getting killed, and attributed Bergoglio's later reluctance to share his side of the story as a reflection of his humility.

Francis will celebrate his first Mass as pope in the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, and will be installed officially on Tuesday, according to the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
One of his first foreign trips is expected to be World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in July, an event that will likely energize the continent given their native son will be presiding.

Lombardi, also a Jesuit, said he was particularly stunned by the election given that Jesuits typically shun positions of authority in the church, instead offering their work in service to those in power.
But Lombardi said that in accepting the election, Francis must have felt it "a strong call to service," an antidote to all those who speculated that the papacy was about a search for power.

New York Cardinal Dolan gave an inside glimpse into the drama of the conclave, saying that when the tally reached the necessary 77 votes to make Bergoglio pope, the cardinals erupted in applause. And when he accepted the momentous responsibility thrust upon him, "there wasn't a dry eye in the place," the American cardinal recounted.

After the princes of the church had congratulated the new pope one by one, other Vatican officials wanted to do the same, but Francis preferred to go outside and greet the throngs of faithful. "Maybe we should go to the balcony first," Dolan recalled the pope as saying.

Later, the new pope shunned a special car and security detail provided to transport him to the Vatican hotel. He decided to stay with the cardinals.

"'I'll just go with the guys on the bus,'" Dolan quoted him as saying.

Hugo Chavez, fiery Venezuelan leader, dies at 58

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez was a fighter. The former paratroop commander and fiery populist waged continual battle for his socialist ideals and outsmarted his rivals time and again, defeating a coup attempt, winning re-election three times and using his country's vast oil wealth to his political advantage.

 

A self-described "subversive," Chavez fashioned himself after the 19th Century independence leader Simon Bolivar and renamed his country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
He called himself a "humble soldier" in a battle for socialism and against U.S. hegemony. He thrived on confrontation with Washington and his political opponents at home, and used those conflicts to rally his followers.

Almost the only adversary it seemed he couldn't beat was cancer.
During more than 14 years in office, his leftist politics and grandiose style polarized Venezuelans. The barrel-chested leader electrified crowds with his booming voice, and won admiration among the poor with government social programs and a folksy, nationalistic style.

His opponents seethed at the larger-than-life character who demonized them on television and ordered the expropriation of farms and businesses. Many in the middle class cringed at his bombast and complained about rising crime, soaring inflation and government economic controls.
Before his struggle with cancer, he appeared on television almost daily, frequently speaking for hours and breaking into song or philosophical discourse. He often wore the bright red of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or the fatigues and red beret of his army days. He had donned the same uniform in 1992 while leading an ill-fated coup attempt that first landed him in jail and then launched his political career.

The rest of the world watched as the country with the world's biggest proven oil reserves took a turn to the left under its unconventional leader, who considered himself above all else a revolutionary.
"I'm still a subversive," the president told The Associated Press in a 2007 interview, recalling his days as a rebel soldier. "I think the entire world has to be subverted."

Chavez was a master communicator and savvy political strategist, and managed to turn his struggle against cancer into a rallying cry, until the illness finally defeated him.
He died Tuesday in Caracas at 4:25 local time after his prolonged illness.
From the start, Chavez billed himself as the heir of Simon Bolivar, who led much of South America to independence. He often spoke beneath a portrait of Bolivar and presented replicas of the liberator's sword to allies. He built a soaring mausoleum in Caracas to house the remains of "El Libertador."
Chavez also was inspired by his mentor Fidel Castro and took on the Cuban leader's role as Washington's chief antagonist in the Western Hemisphere after the ailing Castro turned over the presidency to his brother Raul in 2006. Like Castro, Chavez vilified U.S.-style capitalism while forming alliances throughout Latin America and with distant powers such as Russia, China and Iran.
Supporters eagerly raised Chavez to the pantheon of revolutionary legends ranging from Castro to Argentine-born rebel Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Chavez nurtured that cult of personality, and even as he stayed out of sight for long stretches fighting cancer, his out-sized image appeared on buildings and billboard throughout Venezuela. The airwaves boomed with his baritone mantra: "I am a nation." Supporters carried posters and wore masks of his eyes, chanting, "I am Chavez."
In the battles Chavez waged at home and abroad, he captivated his base by championing his country's poor.

"This is the path: the hard, long path, filled with doubts, filled with errors, filled with bitterness, but this is the path," Chavez told his backers in 2011. "The path is this: socialism."
He invested Venezuela's oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. Chavez also organized poor neighborhoods into community councils that aided his party's political machine.
Official statistics showed poverty rates declined from 50 percent at the beginning of Chavez's first term in 1999 to 32 percent in the second half of 2011.

Chavez also won support through sheer charisma and a flair for drama.
He ordered Bolivar's sword removed from the Central Bank to unsheathe at key moments, and once raised it before militia troops urging them to be ready to "give your lives, if you have to, for the Bolivarian Revolution!"

On television, he would lambast his opponents as "oligarchs," scold his aides, tell jokes, reminisce about his childhood, lecture Venezuelans on socialism and make sudden announcements, such as expelling the U.S. ambassador or ordering tanks to Venezuela's border with Colombia. Sometimes he would burst into baritone renditions of folk songs.

Chavez carried his in-your-face style to the world stage as well. In a 2006 speech to the U.N. General Assembly, he called President George W. Bush the devil, saying the podium reeked of sulfur after the U.S. president's address.

At a summit in 2007, he repeatedly called Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a fascist, prompting Spain's King Juan Carlos to snap at Chavez, "Why don't you shut up?"
Critics saw Chavez as a typical Latin American caudillo, a strongman who ruled through force of personality and showed disdain for democratic rules. Chavez concentrated power in his hands as his allies dominated the congress and justices seen as doing his bidding controlled the Supreme Court.
Chavez insisted Venezuela remained a vibrant democracy and denied trying to restrict free speech. But some opponents faced criminal charges and were driven into exile. Chavez's government forced one opposition-aligned television channel, RCTV, off the air by refusing to renew its license.
While Chavez trumpeted plans for communes and an egalitarian society, his rhetoric regularly conflicted with reality. Despite government seizures of companies and farmland, the balance between Venezuela's public and private sectors changed little during his presidency. And even as the poor saw their incomes rise, those gains were blunted while the country's currency weakened amid the economic controls he imposed.

Nonetheless, Chavez maintained a core of supporters who stayed loyal to their "comandante" until the end.

"Chavez masterfully exploits the disenchantment of people who feel excluded ... and he feeds on controversy whenever he can," Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka wrote in their book "Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President."
Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was born on July 28, 1954, in the rural town of Sabaneta in Venezuela's western plains. He was the son of a schoolteacher father and was the second of six brothers. His mother was also a schoolteacher who met her husband at age 16.
Hugo and his older brother Adan grew up with their grandmother, Rosa Ines, in a home with a dirt floor, mud walls and a roof made of palm fronds.
Chavez was a fine baseball player and hoped he might on
e day pitch in the U.S. major leagues. When he joined the military at age 17, he aimed to keep honing his baseball skills in the capital.
But between his army duties and drills, the young soldier immersed himself in the history of Bolivar and other Venezuelan heroes who had overthrown Spanish rule, and his political ideas began to take shape.
Chavez burst into public view in 1992 as a paratroop commander leading a military rebellion that brought tanks to the presidential palace. The coup collapsed and the plotters were imprisoned.
When Chavez was allowed to speak on television, he said his movement had only failed "for now." Chavez's short speech, and especially those two defiant words, seared him into the memory of Venezuelans and became a springboard for his career.

President Rafael Caldera, long an advocate of political reconciliation, dropped charges against Chavez and other coup plotters in 1994 and released them from prison.
Chavez then organized a new political party and ran for president in 1998, pledging to clean up Venezuela's entrenched corruption and shatter its traditional two-party system. At age 44, he became the country's youngest president in four decades of democracy with 56 percent of the vote.
After he took office on Feb. 2, 1999, Chavez called for a new constitution, and an assembly filled with his allies drafted the document. Among various changes, it lengthened presidential terms from five years to six and changed the country's name to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Chavez was re-elected in 2000 in an election called under the new constitution. His increasingly confrontational style and close ties to Cuba, however, disenchanted many of the middle-class supporters who had voted for him, and the next several years saw bold attempts by opponents to dislodge him from power.

In 2002, he survived a short-lived coup, which began after large anti-Chavez street protests ended in shootings and bloodshed. Dissident military officers alarmed by Chavez's growing ties to Cuba detained the president and announced he had resigned. But within two days, he returned to power with the help of military loyalists amid massive protests by his supporters.
Chavez emerged a stronger president. He defeated an opposition-led strike that paralyzed the country's oil industry and fired thousands of state oil company employees.
The coup also turned Chavez more decidedly against the U.S. government, which had swiftly recognized the provisional leader who briefly replaced him. He created political and trade alliances that excluded the U.S., and he cozied up to Iran and Syria in large part, it seemed, due to their shared antagonism toward the U.S. government.
Despite the souring relationship, Chavez kept selling the bulk of Venezuela's oil to the United States.
By 2005, Chavez was espousing a new, vaguely defined "21st-century socialism." Yet the agenda didn't involve a sudden overhaul to the country's economic order, and some businesspeople continued to prosper. Those with lucrative ties to the government came to be known as the "Bolivarian bourgeoisie."

After easily winning re-election in 2006, Chavez began calling for a "multi-polar world" free of U.S. domination, part of an expanded international agenda. He boosted oil shipments to China, set up joint factories with Iran to produce tractors and cars, and sealed arms deals with Russia for assault rifles, helicopters and fighter jets. He focused on building alliances throughout Latin America and injected new energy into the region's left. Allies were elected in Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and other countries.

Chavez also cemented relationships with island countries in the Caribbean by selling them oil on preferential terms while severing ties with Israel, supporting the Palestinian cause and backing Iran's right to a nuclear energy program.
All the while, Chavez emphasized that it was necessary to prepare for any potential conflict with the "empire," his term for the United States.
He told the AP in 2007 that he loved the movie "Gladiator."
"It's confronting the empire, and confronting evil. ... And you end up relating to that gladiator," Chavez said as he drove across Venezuela's southern plains.
He said he felt a deep connection to those plains where he grew up, and that when died he hoped to be buried in the savanna.

"A man from the plains, from these great open spaces ... tends to be a nomad, tends not to see barriers. You don't see barriers from childhood on. What you see is the horizon," Chavez said.
Chavez wasn't shy about flaunting his government's achievements, such as free health clinics staffed by Cuban doctors, new public housing and laptops for needy children.

But even Chavez acknowledged in 2011 that one of his government's greatest weaknesses was a "lack of efficiency." He called it "a big error that many times has put in danger the government's policies."
Running a revolution ultimately left little time for a personal life. His second marriage, to journalist Marisabel Rodriguez, deteriorated in the early years of his presidency, and they divorced in 2004. In addition to their one daughter, Rosines, Chavez had three children from his first marriage, which ended before he ran for office. His daughters Maria and Rosa often appeared at his side at official events and during his trips.

Chavez acknowledged after he was diagnosed with cancer in June 2011 that he had recklessly neglected his health. He had taken to staying up late and drinking as many as 40 cups of coffee a day. He regularly summoned his Cabinet ministers to the presidential palace late at night.
Even as he appeared with head shaved while undergoing chemotherapy, he never revealed the exact location of tumors that were removed from his pelvic region, or the exact type of cancer.
Chavez exerted himself for one final election campaign in 2012 after saying tests showed he was cancer-free, and defeated younger challenger Henrique Capriles. With another six-year term in hand, he promised to keep pressing for revolutionary changes.

But two months later, he went to Cuba for a fourth cancer-related surgery, blowing a kiss to his country as he boarded the plane.

After a 10-week absence, the government announced that Chavez had returned to Venezuela and was being treated at a military hospital in Caracas. He was never seen again in public.
In his final years, Chavez frequently said Venezuela was well on its way toward socialism, and at least in his mind, there was no turning back.

His political movement, however, was mostly a one-man phenomenon. Only three days before his final surgery, Chavez named Vice President Nicolas Maduro as his chosen successor.
Now, it will be up to Venezuelans to determine whether the Chavismo movement can survive, and how it will evolve, without the leader who inspired it.

Next Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith is also a leader off the field

By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star

Alex Smith spoke with conviction and brought the energy it takes to play quarterback in the NFL.
The venue was not Candlestick Park, his home field at the time as the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback. Nor was it Arrowhead Stadium, which will be his new home starting with the 2013 season.

It was at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in midtown Kansas City. Smith, then in his sixth season with the 49ers, spent a March 2010 weekend here and shared his dedication to helping older teenagers as they “age out” of the foster care system and have nowhere to turn as young adults.
He outlined how The Alex Smith Foundation had put 23 foster teens through college in his hometown of San Diego and helped them transition to adulthood.
And now, thanks to Smith’s encouragement, a similar program is working in Kansas City.
“It was quite incredible to see and hear the passion he had for this issue and to see the time and commitment not only he devotes, but his entire family devotes, to help youth be successful,” said Denise Cross, president and CEO of Cornerstones of Care, a local organization that works with foster children.


“By him sharing their success and their model, we were able to adapt to the needs here in our broader Kansas City community and are working to make that happen.”
So before Smith even takes a snap for the Chiefs once a high-profile trade with San Francisco is consummated next week, he already has made an impact on Kansas City.
Cornerstones of Care, though a partnership with Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church, has 12 youngsters headed for schools such as Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley, MCC-Longview and the University of Central Missouri.

Smith’s success in Kansas City ultimately will be measured by whether he leads the Chiefs to their first playoff win in 20 years, and perhaps their first Super Bowl in more than 40 years.
But his experience assisting foster children at risk has helped prepare Smith for whatever adversity he encounters, be it fans booing him earlier in his career, coping with injuries or dealing with the unkindest cut of all: being benched in favor of a younger player after leading his team to the NFC championship game in the 2011 season and a 6-2 start in 2012 before he was sidelined because of a concussion.

Football, too, played a major role in the man Alex Smith would eventually become.
“You wouldn’t know it, but he’s a very tough-minded kid, and that’s half the battle as a quarterback — having that mental toughness,” said Gordon Wood, his high school coach at Helix High School.

---

Growing up comfortably in San Diego, Alex Smith never realized what hardship was. Not financial hardship, anyway.

He was the son of professionals, the third of four children, all of whom were accomplished athletes. A finalist for the Heisman Trophy at the University of Utah, he was the first overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft by the 49ers, a status that would provide a $49.5 million payday.
Shortly after the 2005 draft, Smith and his mother, Pam, who works in health and human services in San Diego, visited San Pasqual Academy, a high school of 135 students, all of them foster children. Smith wanted to congratulate the school’s football team, which had recently beaten La Jolla Country Day, a tony private school, for the eight-man California Interscholastic Federation football championship.

His outlook on life would never be the same.
“Alex met a lot of these kids who were 17, 18, getting ready to be out of the system,” Pam Smith said. “Kids at that point are pretty scared. … They wonder, ‘What am I going to do? … Where am I going to go?’ You’re 18 years old, now you’re on your own, you’ve come from a dysfunctional family, you’ve been in a bubble of foster care. It’s a pretty daunting future.
“Alex was facing his own daunting future. But Alex is the first to say he’s the opposite of a foster kid. He came from a very stable family, lots of extended family … aunts, uncles, cousins. … He could not imagine kids not having that. That triggered his interest.”
Within a year, Smith, who wasn’t available to speak for this story, had established The Alex Smith Foundation. The charity raised nearly $840,000 during 2008-10, Pam Smith said, for scholarships and grants to send foster teens to college through the Alex Smith Guardian Scholar Program at San Diego State University.

Smith not only has shared his vision in places like Kansas City, he has testified at California’s Capitol in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C. In 2007, he testified before the California General Assembly in favor of a bill that has extended support for foster kids beyond age 18.
In an informational video produced by California College Pathways, a program that provides resources and leadership to college campuses and community organizations, Smith emphasized that foster children are everyone’s responsibility.

“I don’t think anyone in this world can make it on their own totally,” he said. “I don’t care how fortunate you are or how much talent you have — who you are. You have to have some sort of support.”

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Alex Smith comes from an athletic family.
His father, Doug, played football at Weber State in Utah and went into coaching before serving as principal and director of Helix High.
Alex’s uncle, John L. Smith, also played at Weber State before becoming a head coach at several Division I schools.
Alex’s older brother, Joshua, preceded him as the starting quarterback at Helix, and his two sisters, Abbey (Cal State Northridge) and Mackenzie (University of California, Davis), played college soccer.
He was no stranger to the life lessons that sports can impart.
“Alex learned an awful lot from his dad,” Pam Smith said. “He was always a strong student of the game.”

Teaming with future NFL star running back Reggie Bush, Smith led Helix to a 25-1 record in their final two seasons. But while Bush had his pick of colleges and chose the University of Southern California, Smith was lightly recruited.
Smith’s choices came down to Louisville, where his uncle John L. Smith was the head coach, and the University of Utah, a campus situated not far from his family’s roots in Idaho and northern Utah.
Alex was leery of how long John L. Smith would remain at Louisville and chose Utah in the fall of 2002. Sure enough, his uncle moved on to Michigan State in 2003.
Because of Helix’s strong college preparatory program, Alex Smith arrived at Utah with so much advanced placement credit that he registered as a junior academically and picked economics as his major on the first day he arrived on campus.
He was backing up incumbent quarterback and close friend Brett Elliott when the 2003 season opened. In week two, Elliott suffered a broken wrist on the final play at Texas A&M, and Smith had four days to get ready to start a nationally televised game against California, a team led by future Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Smith led Utah to a comeback victory.
“He put in a lot of extra time studying the offense and knowing exactly what to do,” said Dan Mullen, the Utes’ quarterback coach at the time and now the head coach at Mississippi State.
From that point forward, the starting job at Utah belonged to Smith — and the cold reality of an injury determining a starting role would stick with him in his final season with the 49ers.
Smith went 22-1 as the Utes’ starter, a stellar run capped by a 12-0 season in 2004 and a 35-7 win over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.
He graduated in two years, worked on his master’s degree during his third year at Utah and then decided to enter the NFL Draft with a year of college eligibility remaining.
Being the first overall pick carried an immense burden. Smith played in nine games as a 49ers rookie, starting seven, and threw one touchdown pass with 11 interceptions for a team that went 4-12.
“When I was young, I just tried to please everybody,” Smith said in 2011. “Especially being the first pick, I was, ‘Man, I’m going to have to prove it to everybody … the fans, my teammates, coaches … and I’m going to do it on every single play.”
After struggling through five up-and-mostly-down seasons, Smith finally came of age in 2011.
The 49ers hired former Stanford coach and NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh as their head coach, but because of the lockout, the new coaching staff had just one day to meet the players and hand out playbooks.
While the players were unable to communicate with their new coaches because of the labor impasse, Smith took control of the team, hosting minicamps at San Jose State that some of his teammates called “Camp Alex.” When the lockout ended, the 49ers’ offense was ready for training camp and the season.

Smith led the 49ers to a 13-3 record, throwing 17 touchdown passes and just five interceptions. They beat New Orleans in their playoff opener but fell short of the Super Bowl with an overtime loss to the New York Giants in the NFC championship game.
When they finally reached the Super Bowl this past season, Smith was just along for the ride.
He was the NFL’s most accurate passer (70.2 percent completion percentage, 13 touchdown passes, five interceptions) before suffering a concussion on Nov. 11 against St. Louis.
Second-year wunderkind Colin Kaepernick replaced him, and even when Smith was cleared to play after missing one week, Harbaugh stayed with Kaepernick all the way through the 49ers’ Super Bowl loss to Baltimore.

Smith took the high road the entire time, harking back to his days at Utah.
“That’s how I got my start in college. It was no different,” Smith said during Super Bowl week. “Guy in front of me got hurt … so it would be pretty hypocritical to be upset about it. It’s just the nature of team sports.”
The emergence of Kaepernick made Smith expendable, especially because his contract guaranteed him $8.5 million if he was on the 49ers’ roster on April 1. So the 49ers are dealing him to the Chiefs, where he will play in a quarterback-friendly offense directed by new Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
Smith will move to Kansas City with his wife, Elizabeth, and 21-month-old son Hudson. The couple’s second child is due in mid-March.
Here he will be able to continue his work with foster teens and possibly reconnect with Cornerstones of Care.

In Kansas City, Smith will be following a lineage of community outreach that includes former Chiefs lineman Will Shields, whose Will to Succeed Foundation has been another model charity.
Shields is already impressed by what Smith has done.

“I think it’s awesome,” Shields said. “It’s part of how they were brought up and have good people around them who have supported them and helped them do different things. And also being in the position to help people makes a big difference, too.”

Those connected to the Cornerstones program are counting on it.
“It sounds like he’s very family-oriented and has a big heart and cares about people,” said Tia, an 18-year-old at Hope Academy Charter school who plans to attend MCC-Penn Valley through the Cornerstones program.

Six months ago, Tia dropped out of school, but then she realized what her future might be like without an education.

“I want to major in human services,” she said, “because I want to help kids who are like me in foster care.”