December 2025 Update: Good News!

 It’s been a hard few years for our little board. First there was Covid, which shut down the Wonder Valley Community Center -- our primary venue for events and programming. Then several board members were hit with personal hardships. Our dear friend and board member, Gary Tufel, died in May of 2025. In addition to all of this, renovations were started on the WVCC, making it unavailable to us.

Despite all of this, the Friends of Wonder Valley (FOWV) continued hosting the monthly social meeting Chit Chat & Chew; and we continue to buy supplies for, and support, the USDA Food Distribution.

THE GOOD NEWS IS…
We are thrilled to announce that in our recent end-of-the-year board meeting, we added three new board members: Nick Harmon, Reeyna Daniel, and Kelly Hake, and confirmed Jeffrey Barrett as our Community Outreach Liaison.

This is in addition to board members: Teresa Sitz, Ken Sitz, Isul Kim, and Stewart West.

We are meeting early in January to start planning events and programs, and are excited to begin working together.

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Dark Skies & Wonder Valley - Fri, April 14, 2023 @ WVCC

Join us to learn how we can protect the Dark Skies in Wonder Valley.

Friday, April 14, 2023 • 7:30pm

Wonder Valley Community Center

80526-1/2 Amboy Road, 92277

Free and open to the public.

Upcoming events at the Wonder Valley Community Center

It's been a busy Spring so far at the Wonder Valley Community Center (WVCC) with many of the events sponsored by the Friends of Wonder Valley (FOWV) or staffed by volunteers working with the FOWV.

Here's a calendar of events at the WVCC through the beginning of Summer. Besides the monthly USDA food distributions we've supported there an Bystanders Overdose Response Training (Narcan training) in February, a Dale Basin Well Owners Association membership meeting in March, and the first of a series of monthly 'Chit-Chat and Chew' Saturday morning community drop-in's scheduled for 2nd Saturdays through June.

New Projects in the Works

SBC Special Districts are currently in the process in applying for special funding for a couple of projects to benefit the Morongo Basin. The first is an upgrade to the Wonder Valley Kitchen and Playground. The second is a Phase II project for the DVCA Recreational Trails. This Presentation briefly outlines the projects. 

Please go to these perspective surveys to provide input on these projects or to express interest in being more involved in the planning process: 

• Wonder Valley Commercial Kitchen and Playground Survey
  bit.ly/wvcckitchen
  The kitchen project is near to our FOWV hearts as we have long hoped to provide salvage food programs and perhaps a test run on a soup kitchen. But we can't do either until the kitchen can be graded and licensed.
• 
  
• Desert View Conservation Area (DVCA). Recreational Trails Phase II Survey
  
  
  

Click here for a .pdf file of photos of the DVCA Recreational Trails Phase I project completed 06/30/2020. 

Thank you for your support! 

Third Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway

The Friends of Wonder Valley was thrilled to be able to provide Thanksgiving turkeys to the Wonder Valley community on Saturday, November 21st. 

This year we partnered with the 29 Palms Community Pantry & Outreach and Ministries Inc. Because of this partnership we were also able to deliver a bag of fixin's with each turkey. The FOWV contributed $500 to the effort and we were able to deliver the turkeys and groceries to 65 Wonder Valley residents in need. This far exceeded our previous two years wherein we served about 40 or 50 people.

This drive through event was in compliance with State and Local COVID 19 guidelines. Masks were required by all participants and social distancing was practiced.

Lucky Dog Event a GREAT Success!

FOWV Board Member Jill Reinig holds dog Andy.

FOWV Board Member Jill Reinig produced the Lucky Dog event on Saturday, October 3, 2020.

The event was a great success. Everyone remained masked and observed social distancing. The event provided needed shots administered by a licensed veterinarian.

A previous fundraising event raised $803. Friends of Wonder Valley matched $100 in donations, and later contributed another $200.

The event served 19 Wonder Valley residents and their 27 dogs and 2 cats.

Residents were also treated to donated gifts including pet food, cages, leashes, beds, and other things. 

Many thanks to Jill Reinig for putting together this amazing event.

Photo credit: Florrie Holloway

Grocery Bag Distributions

 

The Friends of Wonder Valley has partnered with the 29 Palms Community Pantry & Outreach and Ministries Inc. to provide the community of Wonder Valley with bags of groceries in between USDA Food Distributions.

We were worried that people might be running out of food near the first of the month. We've had three drive through grocery distributions this fall, and plan to continue the program through the new year. 

This has been a drive-through event to protect the health of our residents and our volunteers.