Sedalian Venezuelan wants to turn Royals 50-50 winnings into $1 million campaign
When Sedalia businessman Jorge Guevara saw on social media Tuesday that the Royals’ 50-50 charity raffle was going toward the American Red Cross’ earthquake relief efforts in Venezuela, he instantly was compelled to enter online.
“I knew I had to be a part of it,” he said Wednesday night in a phone interview with The Star.
So much so that as he immediately pulled out an alternate credit card when the first one he used was declined as he was attending a Sedalia Steamers collegiate summer league game.
So much so that sitting in the bleachers at Liberty Park Stadium he prayed he would win so he could donate it to his devastated home country, where more than 2,000 are confirmed dead and some 50,000 are unaccounted for in the wake of the recent earthquakes.
Still, he couldn’t believe it when he got home and checked and told his wife, Megan, they had won $13,679 …
Even if they never thought of it as their money.
“It was magical,” said Guevara, an admirer of Salvador Perez whose wedding rehearsal dinner was held at The K in 2016. “It was definitely a blessing.”
One he aims to grow into something more entirely — and not just through the Royals, whose foundation rounded up its part of the donation from $13,679 to $20,000.
“I am going to try to raise a million from this,” he said. “I’m going to try to use any platform that I can to challenge other major league teams to make a match — a contribution of $13,000.”
With a laugh, he noted a certain symbolism in the number.
“Guess who’s No. 13?” he said, referring to Perez — the longtime Royals star whose name two of his four children had called out Wednesday when he appeared on the TV screen.
Indeed, he’ll hope to have MLB players themselves join in, too, particularly Venezuelans. And he wondered aloud if the Chiefs would contribute once he gets it all set up.
So Guevara already is working with what he called a major law firm to figure out a properly transparent and accountable approach toward managing the donations and determining how they could do the most good.
“Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, for example, or anything else that is relevant that we can actually get medicine to the hospitals,” he said. “That’s my main goal. I know the hospitals are extremely shorthanded, medicines are scarce, equipment is scarce (because) it’s been a decline for the past 30 years in the infrastructure down there.”
Guevara was 16 when he arrived to attend Sacred Heart School in Sedalia as a Rotary International exchange student from bustling Caracas on Aug. 10, 2002.
As he put it, he went from having neighbors behind a 20-foot concrete wall next door to the nearest being half a mile away with 30 cows in between.
“It was a culture shock,” he said, “and I could not be any happier that it worked out.”
Amid constant economic and political chaos in Venezuela, he and much of his family sought lives elsewhere.
In his case, he acclimated rapidly here by volunteering as a translator with a number of public safety agencies. Then he earned an associate’s degree in nursing at State Fair Community College and a business degree from Central Missouri.
As he started his own business developing properties, it took him some 15 years of “jumping through the hoops that everybody thinks is so easy to do” to become a U.S. citizen.
He already was a baseball fan when he arrived and initially more partial to the St. Louis Cardinals. But he ultimately became enamored of the Royals through Sedalia’s proximity to Kansas City and the emergence of Perez in 2011.
“His personality, his demeanor, everything about him just says ‘Venezuela,’” said Guevara, a season ticket-holder for several years up until the pandemic.
As much as he’s adopted the USA and considers it home, Guevara’s heart still beats for Venezuela, too.
And humanity, for that matter, as he wrote in a recent Facebook post about the world trying to help Venezuela.
“No one truly cares where you’re from, what language you speak, the color of your skin, or the flag you stand behind,” he wrote. “In times of need, it is the people who come together. Different beliefs, different backgrounds, different cultures—but united by compassion and humanity.
“As I watch countries around the world come together to help Venezuela, my home country, I’m reminded that our greatest strength is not our differences, but our ability to care for one another. Maybe it’s time we get back to the basics: being human, helping others, and standing together when it matters most.”
Something he’s grateful to be all the more a part of now.
“Honestly, it’s all been about giving back; that’s my motto …” he said Wednesday. “It just takes the one person to start it, (and) I do believe that people will jump on. People want to be good. People want to do good.”