TJWC Spotlights

Cheryl Maifert

Cheryl grew up in Kansas City, Mo. After graduating from the university there with a BS in Dental Hygiene she married and moved to Madison, WI where she lived for 8 years.
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She then moved to San Diego in 1984 (Tierrasanta), divorced, and has been here ever since. She married her current husband, Steve, in 1999 right after he retired from 34 years as a Navy Captain. Cheryl worked as a dental hygienist for 34 years before retiring in 2009.

Cheryl officially joined the TJWC in 1994 but had helped with Oktoberfest before that. Over the years she has served as President for 4 years, and many, many years as Recording Secretary and a couple of years as Parliamentarian. Next year will mark her 30-year Anniversary as a TJWC member.
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She goes roller skating twice a week, enjoys traveling, gym time with friends, reading, and jigsaw puzzles.

​Sandy Riddle ​

Sandy has been a member of the TJWC since 2008. She says it’s one of the best things she has ever done because she got to know a group of wonderful ladies.

She was born in San Diego, raised in Pacific Beach and lived in Kansas for three years where both her daughter and son were born. Then she moved back to San Diego and has lived in Tierrasanta for the last 17 years.
 
She has two granddaughters and two great granddaughters, which are all a joy in her life. She is active at Saint Brigid church in Pacific Beach. She also volunteers as an usher at the Old Globe Theater and enjoys gardening.

​She has traveled to Hawaii twice, Alaska, Boston and Sonoma to attend her granddaughter’s wedding.
 
 

Julie Adams

Candi Martinez
Julie was inducted as a member in February this year and she is thrilled to be part of the TJWC sisterhood.
 
​When Covid hit she became a permanent resident of Tierrasanta by moving in with her boyfriend, Fred, of eight years at that time. She didn’t want to give up the beach but it made sense. He has lived in their home on La Cuenta Drive for 32 years, which he purchased immediately after immigrating from France.
 
Her family; including her parents, brother, and Fred’s two young boys are here in San Diego. They keep her quite busy when she’s not selling homes or publishing the Tierrasanta Pulse with her business partner Erika.
 
She says her parents gave her the picture-perfect childhood in Maryland. In 2004, her mother encouraged her to try real estate sales after she had already been an agent for 15 years. Previous to that her career as a graphic designer led her to manage all of Microsoft’s branding on their tradeshow exhibits while living in Portland, Oregon. 
 
In 1994, she left Arizona where she graduated from Arizona State University in Tempe with a degree in graphic design. She traveled with her boyfriend and cat to Woodstock 94’ and then explored our beautiful country for almost 2 years in a VW Westfalia van…before cell phones and GPS.
 
She is forever grateful to be a Realtor in San Diego because it gives her the opportunity to meet awesome people and at least once a month she explores new areas that she hasen’t seen before.
 
​Candi was born in Mexico in the city of Mazatan, a city with beautiful beaches and friendly people. She came to the United States at the age of nine and lived in Chula Vista with her sister Nelly. She attended Chula Vista Jr High and Chula Vista High school.

Candi has a total of seven sisters and two bothers that live in both Mexicao and the United States. Fortunately, all nine are still with us today.
She worked for San Diego Unified School as a bilingual translator for 17 years and as a Preschool Director for the District of San Marcos.

In 2015, our TJWC member Miriam invited Candi to attend a meeting for the Tierrasanta Junior Women’s Club. Candi says she admires the strong commitment and dedication the Tierrasanta Junior Women’s Club has for their community and she is proud to be one of them. She is blessed to be part of this fabulous group of ladies.

Candi has been married to her husband Carlos Martinez fifty-seven years. They have three wonderful children; two sons and one daughter plus five beautiful grandchildren that she adores.
Her favorite time is being with her family, especially during Christmas time when they make Tamales. This brings the whole family together and keeps the traditions she’s learned alive as well as teaching the future generation; her beautiful grandchildren.

In the past fifty-seven years, she has had the opportunity to travel the world with her husband going to Europe (Spain, Germany, Italy, France, England), Egypt, China, Japan and many other cities in the United States.
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She also enjoys watercolor painting, gardening, cooking, trying new recipes, spending time with friends, shopping, traveling and meeting new people. 

Candy Yolles​

Janet Leeder
Candy was born and raised in San Diego and grew up in Clairemont. She has been married for 24 years to her husband, Craig. She has 2 sons; Raymond, 37 and Anthony, 21. All 3 of these guys are her world. And of course, she has a fur baby, Honey, who is 8 years old. 
She worked at Paychex Inc for 21 plus years. She had the opportunity to retire in 2005 to be a stay home mom with Anthony. She has spent the last 7 years caring for her parents but lost her dad 15 months ago so now she cares for her mom.
Candy has been with TJWC since 2007 and enjoys helping our own community. She has done volunteer work with the San Diego Blood Bank since 1995 and continues to do so. She also continues to work on many other volunteer projects where she feels needed and can make a difference.
Since her entire family and friends are like family and are important to her, she works on keeping her family unit together by planning get togethers. She loves to old school skate at Miramar lake, hike, walk, boat and now back to the gym. She love loves the beach and has grown up going to it all the time. She continues to make it a big part of her life by walking and trashercizing (picking up trash and getting exercise) at least once a week. And of course, travel is part of her world ~ which is truly enjoyed.
Janet has been a member of the TJWC since 2004. She very much loves the Tierrasanta Junior Women’s Club and the feeling of working with the community on many events and all the socials. She moved to San Diego in 1989 with her husband, Earl, and their son from Pittsburgh, PA.
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Janet worked for the Department of Defense starting at Miramar then she moved to the Naval Facilities Engineering Command across from the Train Station on Pacific Hwy, working as a purchasing agent. She went on to work at the Office of Naval Research across from UTC in Contracts and Grants. She retired in 2001. Janet’s husband, Earl, had many health issues and had not worked for quite a while. He passed away on Christmas Eve in 2018. 
 
Janet currently lives in the Villa Monterey town homes. She has enjoyed Tierrasanta all these years. She says that San Diego has gotten crowded and was much nicer in the beginning when you could go to the beach and find parking easily but she still loves it here. She especially likes the Tierrasanta community for its convenient location to everything and the nice friendly people here. She would not want to live anywhere else in San Diego.

Leslie Larranga-Britt

Michelle McVay
Leslie has been a member of the TJWC since 2004. She joined TJWC shortly after she moved to Tierrasanta in hopes to meet friends in her new neighborhood and give back to her new community. Almost 20 years later, she cherishes the friendships she has made and is proud of the efforts the club has done in giving back to the community.
 
Leslie is a San Diego local who grew up in Clairemont. She moved to San Francisco for three years where she attended SFSU and worked in Advertising, then she returned back to San Diego.
 
She has been married for 29 years and has two boys, one in High School and the other at UC Berkeley.
 
Leslie owns her own Advertising company and when she is not working she is volunteering and spending time with her family and friends. She also enjoys Pilates, walking on the beach and traveling as much as possible.
 
Michelle was born in San Diego and has lived here for almost her whole life. She moved to Villa Portofino with her late husband in 1973. They loved the community then and she still loves it now. She can’t imagine living anywhere else and has lived in Tierrasanta for 50 years!!!

She has had more careers than, as she puts it, you can shake a stick at. She was a flight attendant back in the day when they were referred to stewardesses. As well as, a waitress and an exercise instructor. For 15 years she was a manicurist and for the last 20 years of her work life she was an office manager and medical biller for a great doctor. She retired at 65 after finding out she was, for the second time, going to be a grandmother.

She first joined TJWC in the mid 70’s for a few years but her life got too hectic with work, family and home to be able to really do more than lend a hand when needed. She returned in 2015 and for several years she has been responsible for putting together the TJWC club newsletter each month. She is very glad to be a part of TJWC and is looking forward to the work required to put our upcoming celebrations together for Patriots Day, which includes a parade, TierraFest Craft Fair and the dinner with desserts after. TJWC is the center of her social life and gives her the opportunity to help create a better community, side by side, with her fellow Juniors.