Community advocate Diaz Bonville dies
For the past 30 years, Diaz Bonville and Brenda Milbourne have almost been tied at the hip as co-founders of West Side New Beginnings in West Rehoboth.
Milbourne, and Bonville’s wife, children and other loved ones, were by Diaz’s bedside when he died Sept. 14.
“Life won’t be the same without Mr. D,” said Milbourne a few days later.
Milbourne and Bonville had known each other through church and civic organizations when she approached him about starting a new program in West Rehoboth to help the kids.
“We both loved children and wanted to change the local stigma that nothing good came out of West Rehoboth,” said Milbourne.
The two began the program in 1990 and then established the West Rehoboth Children and Youth Program in 2002.
The goal was to educate, and provide food, housing and a sense of family, said Milbourne.
“We wanted this place to be a safe haven,” she said.
When the program started, there wasn’t any money, but after hard work and years of trying, people started to believe.
“Mr. D would say, ‘I’m the paper pusher, you’re the talker, and we’re going to make it,” said Milbourne. “We couldn’t help everybody, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.”
Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, said he was attending the Sussex County Democratic Jamboree when he heard the news about Bonville. “I was shocked,” he said.
In addition to his work as a community advocate, Bonville was active in local politics, so he and Schwartzkopf, who is retiring from his seat in the General Assembly later this year after first being elected in 2002, had known each other for a long time. “For all these years, part of my job has been to know who to go to when there are issues that needed to be resolved or I needed more information. Diaz was one of those people,” said Schwartzkopf. “He was a good voice for the community. He’s going to be missed.”
The last time Schwartzkopf saw Bonville was Sept. 10, the day of the state primaries. He had just come from treatment and was noticeably weak, but he had to get his vote in, said Schwartzkopf. Bonville was always one to talk and he wanted to talk that day too, even though he was weak, he said.
Bonville worked for Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester for a number of years as the outreach coordinator for Kent and Sussex counties after she was first elected.
Schwartzkopf said he knew it would be a perfect fit.
“When he got that job, I remember thinking, ‘Now, he’s going to be getting paid for what he’s already been doing for free all these years,’” said Schwartzkopf.
For her part, Blunt Rochester said Bonville was a man whose spirit was invigorated by a deep devotion to his community, family and faith. She echoed Schwartzkopf’s sentiment that he was a person other people could call on. “Diaz knew everybody, and everybody knew Diaz. It’s one of the reasons why he was such a prolific community leader, advocate and friend,” said Blunt Rochester, in a prepared statement Sept. 17. “If there was a problem, people knew they could count on him to do something about it.”
Blunt Rochester said she’ll always be grateful for his invaluable insight, because the issues being tackled weren’t just professional, they were also personal.
“While his passing is an enormous loss, the example he set – to actively serve one’s community while never losing sight of what’s truly important – must be our guiding light going forward,” said Blunt Rochester.
