[MUSIC PLAYING]
STEVE JACKSON: Coming from Chaffey High School in Ontario,
I was recruited to play baseball here from the late great Howard
Lowder, who was a baseball coach here for many, many years.
Coming to Chaffey, instilled in me about being responsible,
and that's where I started becoming really an adult.
And I received a baseball scholarship in Alabama.
After I graduated, I came back here
and then I got into the fire service,
and I've been a full time firefighter now
for about 30 years total so far in the fire service.
I'm a Deputy Chief for the Montclair Fire Department.
The biggest thing to me is helping people,
and that's very rewarding to me.
In my position, I'll hold a lot of meetings
with the younger guys, and I try to explain
to them the importance why we became firefighters.
And it's about giving back to others.
We do a lot of fundraisers to raise funds for charities
that our association would give to,
and my biggest involvement with a community
is coaching youth sports, primarily baseball.
The first time that I had done it, a neighbor friend of mine
said, hey, I know you play baseball.
Would you be interested in taking on a team and coaching?
And then I kind of stepped backwards and I
started coaching my son, who was five years of age at that time.
And then I just started coaching teams
for approximately 20 years, and I just--
I loved it.
On one of the teams that I had, two of the kids
are playing in the majors right now,
one for the Cleveland Indians and one is the starting
infielder for the Rays.
And they weren't even the best players
on the team during that time.
They just took it and ran with it,
and got better and better and better.
In fact, the one that plays for the Indians,
he had given me this bat and it has my name engraved in it,
but he had hand written me a--
probably a two page letter, and it was very touching,
you know, as far as what I had done for him in his life.
And not only did it-- you know, was
I trying to make them a better ballplayer,
but more so, just teaching them about life and life skills.
And just about integrity and being honest,
and treat those like you want to be treated, with respect.
I just love helping others, because so many people had
helped me throughout my life.
If they weren't there for me, I wouldn't be here today.