The UTRGV Office of Community Engagement has partnered with Hearts4Kids, a nonprofit organization serving children and families in the Rio Grande Valley colonias, to organize Vaqueros for Kids, an event designed to bring joy to those in need.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, the UTRGV community is invited to donate new and unwrapped toys for children ages 1 to 12 in the University Ballroom on the Edinburg campus and at the same time Thursday in the Student Union on the Brownsville campus.
“Vaqueros for Kids is a brand-new, year one initiative,” said Christian Corrales, assistant vice president for Community Engagement. “[Our] goal [is] collecting 500 unwrapped new toys. … There’s homes that don’t have a Christmas tree. They don’t have a toy to unwrap. And so, it’s a really cool initiative. … We are very happy to partner with [Hearts4Kids].”
The student engagement ambassadors are leading the Vaqueros for Kids drive.
“This is a student-led initiative,” Corrales said. “So our students are behind the scenes and will be in the front row [and] center. So they plan, they coordinated, and they will execute this event.”
The purpose of the event is to promote an opportunity of service.
“To promote community engagement through the acts of service, that’s the main purpose,” Corrales said. “To engage our Vaquero family in giving back. I think, sometimes, it’s hard for folks to give their time. So it’s harder for them to volunteer and go somewhere to volunteer. This is another way that they can contribute in giving back … to promote community engagement through acts of service.”
George Zapata Jr., mission director of Hearts4Kids, said the organization, which is based in La Feria, always tries to give during Christmastime.
“The children that we would see, some of them didn’t have shoes, they didn’t have jackets, and sometimes it was cold,” Zapata said.
He said they give out toys during Christmastime because “maybe mom and dad can’t afford to give them a toy that year.”
“We want them to feel special,” Zapata said. “… We are thankful that UTRGV partnered up with us this year.”
The toys collected will be distributed in Valley colonias and those in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
“[The] reason we give to a lot of the children of migrants in Mexico is because a lot of them come … with the clothes on their back, that’s it,” Zapata said. “And the reason we give them a stuffed toy, or we give them toys [is] because we try to put hope in their life again. That’s what we try to do with the children also in the colonias.”
Alondra Marquez, a social work sophomore, said the event will give the children some joy.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Marquez said. “I feel like kids need to be validated more. … I feel like that would be a good idea for them to feel happy.”
Zapata said children realize that it is more than receiving toys, but also about being compassionate to others.
“About two or three years ago, there was a child, and we gave him a toy,” he said. “It had three cars on it. At the end of the event, two more families showed up and there’s two little boys, and they are crying because we ran out of toys. That one little boy told his mom, ‘Just get those two toys and give them to them.’ He blessed those children.”
Corrales hopes the UTRGV community will join the Office of Community Engagement and Hearts4Kids in supporting the cause.
“We are wanting to encourage everyone to participate,” he said. “You know, don’t … limit yourself with just one toy. If you could bring more than one, the more, the merrier. This was a very intentional strategic event for the university community to participate, to engage and to give back.”
