The weather outside was frightful Saturday morning and even Bing Crosby agreed as he crooned the beginning of “ Let it Snow!” while volunteers and staff from the Moody Clinic and H-E-B worked to provide a helping of holiday cheer during a steady downpour to 50 of the clinic’s families outside their clinic.
The drive through event was part of a partnership between H-E-B and the Moody Clinic to provide a joyful surprise to those of the clinic’s families most in need this season. The Moody Clinic, a nonprofit with 60 years in the Brownsville community, is an outpatient rehab facility for children with special needs that provides speech, language and occupational therapy.
H-E-B provided a $200 store gift card, a certificate for a turkey and an H-E-B basket full of toy groceries for each family. In addition small bottles of hand sanitizer and a goodie bag with a holiday cookie with a pouch of hot cocoa were also handed out.
“It is just a nice little thing that H-E-B is doing for our families. The families that are being picked are some of our most financially vulnerable and so we are just so excited that H-E-B has decided to partner up with us,” said Christine Cavazos, the Director of Development and Communications for the clinic.
With holiday music blaring and staff and volunteers sporting jaunty Santa hats, the group prepared to surprise their families with a little holiday magic and support this season.
When Gabriela Ramirez drove up to the clinic’s driveway with her two children, Manolo, her 4-year-old son who is a patient at the clinic and 2-year-old daughter Julia, she wasn’t expecting to be greeted by massive holiday inflatables, a Christmas tree, holiday tunes and gifts for her family.
“They told me that they had a surprise for Christmas and had chosen some families to come over because they usually do a Christmas party, but this year of course it wasn’t possible,” said Ramirez.
“It was definitely a surprise,” she said.
However, for her family, especially Julia, it wasn’t just about the gifts, but the appearance of a certain jolly figure in a red suit.
“I love that there was a Santa there. I thought that we were not going to see Santa this year at all,” said Ramirez.
For Ramirez and her children, due to the health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was really the first taste of the holidays outside of getting a Christmas tree that they’ve had this year.
Audrey Treviño Guerra, H-E-B Public Affairs Specialist, says that seeing the impact of events like these, especially during the pandemic, is all part of H-E-B’s year-round mission to help local organizations support their communities.
“It is so important to us that we continue to stay connected to our communities, if not even more so now not only because it is a holiday season, but to continue to fight hunger relief and create the spirit of giving and partnerships with these great organizations,” said Treviño Guerra.
During the event as each car drove up, Treviño Guerra stepped up to personally hand each family the $200 gift card and explain just what was in the white envelope in her hand. For her personally, seeing that moment of joy on people’s faces is what events like these are all about.
“To just to see the smile on their face, whether it’s the first smile of the day, the first smile of the week, just ensuring that we had a little part in their happiness and to continue to celebrate that holiday spirit,” she said.
