Award named for woman

Anna Bernal didn’t just receive the Community Achievement Award from Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas recently. She became the award.

From now on the award, which recognizes volunteerism in the legal community, will carry Bernal’s name.

After a 15-year career with various legal agencies, Bernal decided to enroll at Odessa College in 2008. Bernal, 51, hopes that majoring in criminal justice with a minor in social work will help her enhance her career.

Bernal has spent time as a pre-sentence investigator in Ector County’s adult probation office. She also worked on the criminal response team and as a legal advocate for the Crisis Center.

Just before she went back to school, Bernal worked for Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, a nonprofit that provides free legal services to low-income residents in 114 counties. But after returning to college, Bernal kept working for the group as a volunteer by conducting workshops and recruiting attorneys to work pro bono cases.

“I believe in the purpose, I believe in the cause,” is why Bernal said she’s continued volunteering for Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas. “I’ve seen them help people of all sorts. You’re talking about the young, the elderly. Legal aid is very expensive. When you have that relationship with the community, it really is easy to get people to believe in what you do.”

Bernal’s work goes beyond merely raising money, Legal Aid managing attorney Dorothy Holguin said. Through her connections in the community, Bernal has gone out and gotten the West Side Lions Club and B’nai B’rith to have events to raise money for the agency.

“People think a lot of her,” Holguin said. “When she said she loved our organization and what they do for the community, they all wanted to help.”

Bernal said she was taken aback when the award, which was presented by State Rep. Tryon Lewis, R-Odessa, was named in her honor.

“I knew I was going to get a volunteerism award, but to see that the award was renamed after myself — it was a very emotional moment to know that the award will outlive me,” she said. “It was an honor. I don’t have words. I was like, ‘Wow.’ ”

Bernal also volunteers for agencies like the Texas Civil Rights Project and agencies that prosecute domestic violence cases.

“It’s about empowering women who are victims of domestic violence,” she said.

Assisting domestic violence victims in divorce proceedings is one of the areas Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas assists on, Bernal said. It also helps with cases involving wills and eviction notices.

After she gets her associate’s degree from Odessa College, for which she said she will graduate cum laude on Dec. 10, Bernal plans to attend the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, where she will seek a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

Although she already had a career in legal services, Bernal said she can do more with a college education.

“Without my degree, even as long as I worked at the probation office, I still needed a degree to be an actual probation officer,” she said. “At the Crisis Center, it’s like, without the degree, you really won’t advance to director, even if you have all the experience in the world.”

Although she has more than 300 hours of training in subjects like sexual assault and cyber crime, Bernal wants to be the first person in her family with a college degree.

“I have all the training and all the knowledge, but, for me, that wasn’t enough, so I set a goal for myself, to get a college degree,” she said.

Bernal plans to have her husband and three sons in attendance at her graduation, including middle son, Jacob Bernal, 20, who is also an Odessa College student. Her father, Jesus Mendez, will be there, but Bernal lost her mother, Maura Mendez, in April.

“Physically, I know she won’t be there to see me, but, emotionally, I know she’ll be with me,” Anna Bernal said.

Holguin said she hopes that future recipients of the Anna Bernal Community Achievement Award will express curiosity about the honor’s namesake.

“To me, she epitomizes, what volunteerism is,” Holguin said. “When there’s a need, she’ll fill it. She’s a very warm and sincere person. It seems like her life is to help others.”