Meet Your Neighbor - Keli Arnold

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Keli Arnold, I work at the T-Shirt factory which is a family owned business of mine. My Mom and my Dad started it and my sister owns it now. I help run the store. I volunteer with San Leandro Relay for Life, I have been doing it for 13 years now. I also coach at San Leandro High School (cheer).

What do you love about San Leandro?

There are a lot of small businesses that have been around for a long time, that have stayed around, that's my favorite part. Being part of a small business I know how hard it is. San Leandro is very community based. 

Tell me more about the relay, you have been doing it for 13 years, you put your heart and soul into it.

Everyone has a reason they do it, everyone has been effected by cancer.  I choose relay because it's for all cancer. Cancer  that I have been effected by isn't breast cancer, that's what everybody knows about. I feel it's really important to do Relay because it's every single caner. I know about childhood cancer and brain cancer that no one knows about. 

This year I will be working with Jessi Cutter and Evelyn Gonzalez, all 3 of us are leading it this year (San Leandro Relay for life), it's a great team.  We are on the same page of making it all cancers, not just breast cancer.

How can people get involved or put together a team for May 30th?

So the website www.relayforlife.org/sanleandroca . Anybody can make a team.  Last year I had an 8 year old child who started a team, their parents helped them, this year we have the police department. So however you want to make your team, it's very community based, it's a bunch of people from San Leandro getting together for one purpose.

Your other passion is coaching the high school cheer leaders, tell us about that.

I have about 50 daughters every year, we do it because we love it. All three coaches went to San Leandro High (Jenna Hewitt and Jessica Potchenco). Jenna had a different experience than me, she had several coaches I had one amazing coach when I went there. I just want to be able to give them that stability, some girls really need that, maybe at home they don't have that. Yes it's cheerleading woow hoo! that's great, but at the end of the day some of the girls really need that stability. They have a coach that they can talk to. That's why I do it.

It never seems that it's just cheerleading for you or your girls, they are really engaged.

They help at Roosevelt, they do a team at Relay for Life. I really like them to do community stuff. It's not just about cheerleading, they are representing their city and their school. Not just cute in their skirts at the games but involved in the community.

How long have you been a coach?

I did it in 2007 then came back in 2012, this is the first year that we have had our freshmen become seniors. We have done the whole loop.

Final quote or words of wisdom?

I would say get your kids involved with community stuff, my son doesn't know anything but Relay, when people say they aren't doing Relay he is so confused. I think a lot more kids and youth should be involved in community, find things they can volunteer with.  It's important that kids learn that at a young age.