Aguilar’s $5K donation

boosts Park View computer lab

Staff reports

The Ripon Record

    Ripon businessman John Aguilar exemplified the meaning of community generosity as a frequent contributor toward several charitable endeavors and worthwhile projects in and around Ripon, before he passed away earlier this year in July at the age of 49.

     One of his last wishes involved funding an educational endeavor at the local level, one that would assist Park View Elementary.  Aguilar was the founder, president and chief executive officer of Vernon Transportation in Stockton, a company that has grown in leaps and bounds.

     “John was a good guy,” said Gregg Wilson. “John was one of my dad Dave Wilson’s business partners. John was a very caring individual who really supported activities. He’d support crab feeds for the Ripon Aquatics Center and was highly supportive of many local Ripon organizations. John had always told me to find something to support.”

     Toward that end, Wilson has directed a $5,000 donation on behalf of  Aguilar toward the computer lab at Park View Elementary, Ripon’s newest elementary school at 751 Cindy Drive that opened earlier this decade.

     “The students at Park View Elementary are lucky to have such a generous benefactor in Mr. Aguilar,” Park View principal Mona Ogden said. “His magnanimous support of the education of our children in the area of technology shows a vision that supports not only the future of our students but of the community as a whole. It is apparent that his vision is being carried on and we truly appreciate this.”

      Aguilar’s generous $5,000 donation will fund approximately five computers, Ogden said. His name and company name will be on a plaque and a computer at the school. “We hope to have the computer lab up and running by the end of the 2009-10 school year,” Ogden said. So far, at least $14,000 has been donated toward the Park View computer lab. Ogden said she hopes to have 30 computers in the lab by the time it is completed.