Since the beginning of his career as a radio DJ, Mr. Mendez has been very involved in the community. During that time, he came to recognize the special needs of handicapped children in particular. Some parents of disabled children were English-deficient and couldn’t effectively communicate with the proper branches to apply for assistance, and many other parents had struggled with various organizations, only to be repeatedly denied assistance. As Mendez thought about the problem, he noticed that a lot of people threw their pennies away, viewing them as worthless. He realized that these unwanted pennies could be used to assist the parents of children who were poor or unable to qualify for SSI or Medicare. The money could help pay for medical care, wheelchairs, walkers, diapers, and other special needs.

Mendez also dreamed of providing the disabled with hats, blankets, and toys as well as helping to fund treatments like chemotherapy and dialysis. For the longest time, he wasn’t able to do as much as he wanted to because donations were scarce and he had to personally finance most of these efforts himself.

But in 1987, his dream began to take shape when he started organizing by visiting convalescent homes in the Los Angeles area. When the building he headquartered his organization from burned to the ground in 1989, he relocated operations to Orange County. Since that time, he has sought a low-power radio operating license from the FCC so that he can provide educational training in various fields to those who are disabled.