Students spend MLK Day of Service volunteering

Volunteer opportunities, such as making meals and goody bags were available for students and the community in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day of Service on Monday.

Organizations opened their doors for students to volunteer and help their community. Students were able to sign up for volunteer opportunities through UTRGV’s Engagement Zone.

The participating organizations included:

–Access Esperanza Clinic, Inc.

–Advocacy Alliance Center of Texas

–Amigos Del Valle, Inc.

–Catholic Charities of the RGV

–Good Neighbor Settlement House (GNSH)

–Healthy Communities of Brownsville

–Humanitarian Respite Center

–La Union Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE)

–Laurie P. Andrews PAWS Center

–Loaves and Fishes

–McAllen Nature Center

–Palm Valley Animal Center

–Proyecto Juan Diego

–Rio Grande Habit for Humanity (Harlingen)

–Rio Grande Habitat for Humanity McAllen

–Sabal Palm Sanctuary

–Spanish Meadows

During MLK’s Day of Service, volunteers at the GNSH made goody bags as part of the Point in Time count, which records numbers of “sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single night in January,” according to the Texas Homeless Network website.

Marisela Almeida, a volunteer coordinator for GNSH, said volunteers put together 300 goody bags to be distributed on Thursday across Brownsville and Harlingen to homeless individuals.

“We go out for 24 hours,” Almeida said. “We send groups of three or four. We survey the individual, but in order for us to get their trust or their confidence, we create the goody bags. … We tell them, ‘Answer a couple of questions, we’ll give you in return a goody bag.’ We will have a few out there that will not be willing to participate and that’s OK. We still provide them with the goody bag.”

Goody bags include hygiene items, such as deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrush and, for the females, a small “feminine bag.” Other items include water, juice, cookies, a T-shirt, underwear, socks and a washcloth.

Donations for the Point in Time goody bags will be accepted until Wednesday. Donations may be dropped off at the Good Neighbor Settlement House or call 542-2368 to have them picked up.  

UTRGV and Brownsville Early College High School students helped with the bags.

Laura Guevara, an interdisciplinary senior, said it is important to volunteer, be involved in the community and be aware.

“A lot of people stay home when they could be doing something,” Guevara said. “It helps you grow as a person and helps you really see what people struggle with out there.”

Alexandra Guzman, a UTRGV alumna and volunteer coordinator at the GNSH, said volunteers are important because more people allows more surveys to be conducted. Survey data shows Brownsville’s financial necessity, which helps with funding.

“It’s very important to volunteer because, like, the more volunteers we have, that means the more people that are able to cover the county and that means, like, basically we’re not missing a homeless person out there,” Guzman said.

Volunteers at Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit organization established in 1991 in Harlingen, prepared meals consisting of ground meat with broccoli, a salad and a side dish for those in need. Loaves & Fishes usually expects about 75 to 125 people for breakfast and lunch, and 125 to 250 for dinner, according to Joe Lopez, the kitchen manager.

 “There’s a lot of people that are down [on] their luck right now and thank God Loaves & Fishes is around to help them out as far as feeding them, giving them shelter,” Lopez said.

He said people who want to volunteer may speak to Volunteer Coordinator Estella Ruiz.

Aimee Gutierrez, a psychology senior, said she decided to help at Loaves & Fishes because she had always wanted to volunteer at a kitchen.

Gutierrez said thanks to volunteering, she has been able to have many different experiences she never thought possible.

“You meet new people that you would have never been introduced to otherwise,” she said.

Araceli Castillo, a criminal justice senior, participated as part of the AmeriCorps. Castillo thinks it is important to volunteer to see a different aspect and not take what you have for granted.

“I’ve always volunteered since I was very little,” she said. “I’ve always done, really just any type of event, whether it was beach cleanups or even cleaning up parks. … I’ve always felt like it’s just a part of my life.”

For more volunteer opportunities, visit UTRGV Engagement Zone at ez.utrgv.edu.