Claudia Mendoza-Carruth to receive Hospital Foundation ‘Pulse’ award

Claudia Mendoza-Carruth attended a Catholic high school in her native Bogota, Columbia, where the nuns taught her two things that have fueled her life and her philosophy.

The first? Fluent English.

But the second – and perhaps more important – was the lesson that, as Mendoza-Carruth puts it: “You receive? You give back.”

This year marks the 25th year since Mendoza-Carruth moved to California, where she has been a successful businesswoman – and avid volunteer. On Monday, May 23, Mendoza-Carruth – along with Sonoma resident Martha Rosenblatt – will receive the Pulse Award, Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation’s annual tribute to woman volunteers.

Mendoza-Carruth has served as president of the board of directors of La Luz and also spearheaded the inclusion of Latino films at the Sonoma International Film Festival. Currently she is working with the League of Woman Voters to encourage eligible Latinos to register to vote, and she recently worked with the Sonoma Ecology Center and El Verano Elementary School to organize a first-ever, four-hour nature walk in the Mayacamas for 40 Latino mothers and their children.

“I am a woman with octopus arms reaching out to find ways to make things happen,” said Mendoza-Carruth. “My mantra is connecting a need with a resource and a resource with a need.”

She enjoyed a long career with PG&E, where she developed a corporate diversity communications program, which reached out to low-income customers to assist with energy payments. Previously, in Bogota, she had been a community affairs television presenter, conducting on-air interviews with prominent personalities.

Mendoza-Carruth and her husband Kevin Carruth moved to Sonoma in 2006, when she left the corporate world and started MC(2) Multicultural Communications, which provides translations and specializes in communications plans for businesses with Spanish speaking workforces.

Kevin shares her dedication to community service, having served on the board of Sonoma Valley Hospital. From 2012 to 2014, Mendoza-Carruth was the president of La Luz at the same time her husband was on the hospital board. “It was so enriching, but for two years we couldn’t go anywhere,” she said.

The couple travels extensively, with Ireland, Africa and Cuba on the list of the many places they’ve enjoyed.

She said, “one the happiest moments of my life” was in 2012 when she was president of the La Luz board of directors and it was announced at the Impact 100 luncheon that La Luz had received its $100,000 grant. “It wonderful to be involved in something bigger than yourself.” The grant became the seed money that led to the additional funding needed for the new La Luz building, which is now under construction.

Mendoza-Carruth credits Ligia Booker, a fellow Columbian and the founder La Luz, with being her mentor and inspiration. “When I grow up I want to be like Ligia,” she said. She has also been a volunteer with Nuestra Voz, a Latino community support organization, and is active in the Springs Community Alliance.

Growing up in Columbia, Mendoza-Carruth had a loving but difficult childhood. Her father died when she was very young and her mother developed multiple sclerosis and used a wheelchair. “My mother had an iron-willed determination that I would get an English education,” she said, explaining that she went to the Catholic school on a scholarship. After high school she was able to immediately go to work for American companies in Columbia because she spoke English.

Mendoza-Carruth became a United States citizen in 2001, and in 2004 she earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish communications from San Jose State University; her mother made the difficult trip to see her graduate cum laude and receive several awards. Mendoza-Carruth is especially proud of having received the Paula Scholarship from acclaimed author Isabel Allende.

Her mother has passed away, but Mendoza-Carruth’s aunt and cousin will be traveling from Columbia to see her receive her award next week. She is especially touched that she is being honored by SVH, the hospital where she was successfully treated for breast cancer. “I put my complete trust in this hospital,” she said. Even so, she was stunned when she was told she was receiving the Pulse Award. “My first reaction was that I don’t feel deserving.”

Mendoza-Carruth says she will continue to reach out to help within the Latino community, saying, “the greatest emergency is the lack of low-income housing.” But she believes the community will join together to answer this and other needs. “I have never seen a community so into giving – time, skills and money – and as willing to help as people are in Sonoma.”

Last Easter, working in conjunction with Sebastiani Theatre manager Roger Rhoten, Mendoza-Carruth arranged for the Spanish language film “Father Jorge” - about Pope Francis - to be shown, and asked both Catholic churches in Sonoma to make an announcement about it. There was a terrific turnout, and when the audience was asked how many of them were in the Sebastiani Theatre for the first time, practically everyone raised their hand. This was the kind of integration of community for which Mendoza-Carruth strives.

Mendoza-Carruth describes volunteering as her “passport to integrating into the community.”

“Everything is an effort over an arch of time,” said Mendoza-Carruth. “You have to have a long-term view - and think about what it is going to be like for the next generation in Sonoma.”

The Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation’s 11th Annual Celebration of Women luncheon is May 23 at the Lodge at Sonoma – the event is sold out. Martha Rosenblatt will also receive a Pulse Award at the event, and will be profiled in the “Sonoma Index-Tribune” on Friday, May 20.