Groups around El Paso gather food, toys ahead of holidays

With Christmas right around the corner, groups around El Paso are working to make it a merry holiday for those who might not otherwise have one.

Volunteers gathered at Hillcrest Baptist Church in northeast El Paso Saturday to sort soup, beans and more, all donated by the community to help out wounded warriors, veterans and families. The donations were collected and organized by volunteers with the El Paso Veterans and Riders Association and County Clerk Delia Briones.

“How this will work is that we have groups coming in from all over like San Elizario, Clint, Anthony,” said Darrell Mond, president of the El Paso Veterans and Riders Association, “and they’ll come here and they’ll pick up bulk rate and then they’ll go out and distribute it to their communities.”

The EPVRA was dealing with an estimated 22,000 to 25,000 pounds of food, and the Hillcrest Baptist Church had the space to help them deal with it all.

“They told us they were in need of a place for us to house and store some food,” said Pastor Joe Dickinson of Hillcrest Baptist, “and we were looking for opportunities and ways to I guess just be a help to a community, especially the veteran community.”

At the same time, a few miles away at Caf Mayapan, organizers were gathering toys for the children of the former workers of the Lexmark maquiladora in Juarez.

“The company closed yesterday,” said Susana Prieto, attorney and representative for the workers, “and they retained the annual bonus, named aguinaldo in Mexico, and they don’t have any money in order to have a happy, a happy Christmas. So we are trying to help these employees of this company in order to have a better Christmas.”

For more information on how you can help out with the toy drive and the maquila workers overall, you can contact Prieto at (915) 929-8962.