Students at St. Mary’s Central Catholic School held a fundraiser recently for children attending Sacred Heart Catholic School in Uvalde.
Many of the children affected by the tragic shooting at the elementary school there are attending Sacred Heart, St. Mary’s Principal Pat Salcido said.
A group is traveling to Uvalde this weekend to bring the funds raised and various items such as bicycles, services and food to the community and Sacred Heart.
Students at St. Mary’s presented Angie and Billy Garcia, a deacon at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Midland, with two checks totaling $1,793.
They raised the funds through a casual wear day and an additional donation was made in the memory of Robert Silva, the great-grandfather of two St. Mary’s students.
Cards with messages from each student and a banner poster featuring the message God Bless You also will be brought to Uvalde. Each word on the poster had its own separate sheet of paper and the words, God Bless You, were spelled out in multicolored hands cut out of construction paper with the St. Mary’s students’ names on them.
St. Mary’s has about 215 students in grade prekindergarten 3 through eighth grade.
“I’m just very proud of them for participating,” Salcido said. She added that she believes all the students took part.
“Anytime we do any kind of fundraiser, we always let the parents know what’s going on. Having the parents’ support means so much, too, because they’re really the ones that help us, especially with the little ones; helping them know what it really means and talking to the kids and them taking part in all of the activities that we did to prepare for this. I think … it’s not just telling them what to do, they actually put meaning behind it, especially when they were writing their cards,” Salcido said.
Mary Roman, who helps with after-school care at St. Mary’s, attended Sacred Heart from kindergarten through fifth grade as did many of her siblings. There were 10 children in her family. Seven graduated and three didn’t.
The school went through eighth grade. The ones that went all the way through paid their way by scrubbing, stripping and waxing floors every summer.
“I’m very grateful to our priests there at Sacred Heart, Fr. Eddie (Eduardo Morales). Actually, I know him personally because he was [our] neighbor when we were growing up, so … we go way back. But I’m very grateful to him and the school principal for participating and helping out in this manner, in this sad situation that happened there,” Ramon said.
Billy Garcia, a deacon at Our Lady of Guadalupe, and his wife Angie, will be among the group taking the roughly five-hour trip south. Billy said there will be about 100 people going by bus.
The Chuck Wagon Gang will help them cook 55 briskets, Angie Garcia said.
Billy Garcia said God touched his wife’s heart.
“We just wanted to go show them that they’re not alone in this world. And just kind of moments that we have in life unexpectedly, it shows the love of God works through all of us and we want to show Him that we are a part of them,” Billy Garcia said.
He added that it’s amazing to be able to help people in Uvalde in this way.
“You can’t find words to express [it] because we don’t know what they’re feeling, what their emotions are, but just being there showing them that we are there in prayer and in faith,” Billy Garcia said.
He added that everyone is enthusiastic and fully of energy just to go there.
“It’s amazing how it all came together. People were just willing and so full of love and joy to be a part of it,” Billy Garcia said.
Angie Garcia said the Fadduol law firm contributed $2,500 to help them.
“We’d just like to give a big thanks to each and every one of the people that are going with us and the ones that are praying for us. We’d just like to say thank you to each and every one of them,” Billy Garcia said.
