City Of Walnut: Women's History Month Honorees

Press release from the City of Walnut:

03/10/2022

The City of Walnut is pleased to recognize some of the incredible women we have in our community for International Women's Day & Women's History Month! Read their biographies below to learn more about their dedication to making the City of Walnut one of the best places to live!

Lily Eibert

Lily Eibert was born in Taiwan and immigrated with her family to Walnut in 3rd grade. She attended CJ Morris, Suzanne Middle School and Walnut High School. After graduating in 1989, she attended UC Irvine and then USC for her MBA. She met her husband, Joe Eibert, in business school and they started their family in the Westwood area. They decided to move back to Lily’s home town to be closer to family and to enroll her boys in the award winning Walnut Valley Unified School District. She has fond memories of attending the opening of Vons on Lemon in 7th grade and parading in the Walnut Family Festival with Chinese American Association of Walnut (CAAW) after college.

When her kids started school in 2010, Lily took an active role as a parent volunteer. She has served as Co-President of the Collegewood and Suzanne Community Clubs, respectively, and is currently the President of Walnut High Community Club, which she founded in 2019. She is also in her 3rd year as the lead parent coordinator for the WHS Marching band.

In 2015, Lily helped lead the celebration of Collegewood’s 50th anniversary with a campus wide lunch, time capsule and T-shirt sales in March and a big “Homecoming Carnival” in May where Collegewood alums and past teachers came to celebrate with the entire school.

In the Fall of 2015, Lily was asked to Co-Chair the School Bond Measure O. After months of campaigning, it failed to pass by a narrow margin. Undeterred, she then joined the committee to campaign for Measure WV, which did pass in 2016.

During the 2016-2018 school years, she served two terms as President of WVUSD Coordinating Council and found new ways to increase communication and cooperation between leaders of all the WVUSD schools.

In 2020, Lily joined Walnut Valley Educational Foundation (WVEF) and is currently serving as 2nd Vice President. In November of 2020, Lily was the co-chair of the committee to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of WVEF by doing its first ever Virtual Gala. It honored 25 of the most influential people from WVEF and WVUSD. In May of 2021, Lily was part of a producing team that made the first WVUSD Documentary “50 years of Excellence” as well as the www.WVUSD50.org website in celebrating our school district’s 50th Anniversary.. The website profiles the history of all 15 schools in the district as well as housed the sign up for the first virtual WVUSD 5k/1k Fun Run.

Lily’s kids will be graduating from Walnut High in 2023 and 2025, becoming the 13th and 15th Mustang to graduate from her family. She’s proud to have been a Walnut resident for the past 40+ years and so grateful she’s raising her boys here in such a wonderful city.

Yvonne Sevilla

Yvonne has been a resident of Walnut for over 50 years. Herself, her husband, and their daughter, Simone, moved to Walnut as they were expecting their youngest daughter Nicole.

Having been students at Mt.SAC, Yvonne and Ray were somewhat familiar with the rural characteristics and fell in love with the city. They knew they wanted to plant roots here. Little did they know that these roots would grow into lasting, lifelong friendships and endless opportunities to make a difference in the community. In Walnut, she has had the chance to serve as a community member, as a parent, and as an educator. Each role holds a special place in her heart.

When her daughter Simone began Kindergarten, Yvonne began her life as a volunteer.  Yvonne volunteered as an aide for her teacher and other classrooms, served in the Community Club, participated in all of the fundraising activities, and eventually served as a board member in the Community Club at Vejar Elementary. In addition, she participated as a Blue Bird Leader and a Camp Fire Girl Leader. 

During this time the Sheriff's Department asked if her neighbor, Ruth Clark and her would be willing to assist with the start-up of a Neighborhood Watch Program.  Yvonne set up meetings in her home, made newsletters to distribute in their neighborhood and made presentations in other neighborhoods with the Sheriff's Department.  She also worked against and carried placards in front of the proposed airport in the City of Industry and against the proposed MURF site.

Every year, the Walnut Family Festival Parade has been an important activity in the city. Their daughters participated in the Family Festival Parade. At that time there were approximately 13 entries.  Yvonne and her husband became involved with the parade and worked with the chairman to make it bigger and more inclusive of all parts of the city. They became the announcers of the parade and for announced for 10 years. In one of our parades, they even included a military tank as one of the entries! Their last participation with the parade had 56 entries including bands, sports entries, cultural entries, churches entering their floats, and dignitaries from the city riding in special cars.  They are proud to have worked to make this happen.

After attending many festivals over the years, Yvonne and Ray became co-leads of the Walnut Family Festival for 3 years. They organized, implemented and participated in all aspects including night dances for the teens.  It was a lively and wonderful time to meet other members and citizens from Walnut.  They created information booths for clubs, School Districts, Church Organizations, and a variety of vendors and medical assistance for citizens and pets.  In addition, they had entertainment groups ranging from city dance classes to professional entertainment.  The audience was always filled with parents, grandparents, and interested Walnut citizens.

Their daughters enjoyed playing sports, especially softball. She participated in the Walnut Youth Softball Girls Program as President of the League, Team Mom, Team Manager, and Team Coach.  She also conducted their own Tournament during Memorial Weekend.  This had been an ongoing event for All stars of neighboring Cities.  Citizens of Walnut participated by attending, cheering, and eagerly celebrating our All-Star Teams ranging in ages from 10 to 16. In addition, they had fundraising events and built better fields, scoreboards, and facilities for participating girls with incredible parent participation on the field and off the field.

As a member of the Walnut Valley Unified School District, Yvonne was a teacher, a mentor, a coordinator, a principal, a director, and an Administrative Director.  She was in charge of the Staff Development Program.  Yvonne made presentations to new and experienced teachers, administrators, classified personnel, parents, and citizens of Walnut Community Clubs and the School Board.  She taught classes at Cal Poly, Pomona.  Several of her students became teachers in Walnut Valley.  Yvonne also participated with the Diversity Committee to learn better ways of assisting the diverse community.  She was also an original member of the Walnut Valley Educational Foundation. They planned, organized, implemented, and participated in a variety of meetings.  Eventually she assisted with the Teddy Bear Tea and contacting organizations for contributions to assist with district and teacher needs. 

Yvonne also co-coordinated the Relay for Life Program for the District and the City.  She set up booths, contacted walkers, conducted the Opening ceremonies, coordinated the the Survivor Walk in the beginning of the Relays, and contacted donors for the Luminaries Walk, in which names of those passed and those fighting the disease were placed in bags around the WHS field and bleachers. Candles were lit during twilight and they decorated hundreds of bags for this heartfelt event. 

The last 18 years Yvonne has been privileged to have been a member of the Walnut Valley Women's Club.  She served in a variety of leadership capacities and on the board.  They have made contributions to the Walnut Library, Fire Department, elementary schools, middle schools, and High Schools in the City. They have also provided scholarships for seniors by fundraising.  In addition, they provided assistance and help to families in need at specific schools.  The Walnut Valley Women’s Club has participated in the Family Festival, the parade, and made presentations to City Council, Inter-Community Club Councils, and church groups.

She considers herself very fortunate to belong to such a great community that encourages and accepts participation from citizens.  She is proud to have been a part of the WVUSD and was able to contribute to it’s development as one of the best in the State of California

Yvonne and her family feel their lives have been enriched by the friendships they have made and the kindnesses they have received while living in Walnut!

This press release was produced by the City of Walnut. The views expressed here are the author’s own.