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HARLINGEN — Cold.
Not just any cold, but the sort of cold that has caught everyone by surprise, leaving people like Sofia Zambrano wondering how to keep her children warm and safe.
That’s why she and other parents and children filled the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District Clothes Closet seeking winter jackets and blankets and hoodies and gloves for their kids.
“I can’t afford to buy too much,” said Zambrano at the closet on Monday at 216 N. 21st St.
The clothing is free of charge.
“It’s good especially right now because I’m struggling,” Zambrano said. “It’s a big help because as you see they’re giving out pants, shirts, jackets, basically everything that they are going to need.”
The forecast said that, as cold as it was on Monday, temperatures would fall further in the coming days and Zambrano sort of raised her eyebrows at this.
“I’m getting them ready,” said Zambrano. Her two girls are in pre-kinder and kinder.
The mothers and the fathers and the kids searched through the shelves and the racks of shoes and jeans and jackets, reaping the benefits of a concerned and giving community.
“You didn’t get a hoodie?” asked an employee.
“It’s cold outside,” said a boy.
“It’s going to get colder,” said another.
They looked through racks of pink tennis shoes, red tennis shoes, black, gray and faded blue with frayed laces. Jeans faded and strong and usable lay folded on shelves. A plastic hangar fell to the floor and a young woman quickly returned it to the rack.
Volunteer Belia Vallejo moved about the shop as she has done for 25 years.
“I love to help out people, giving out jackets and the warm clothing, whatever they need,” she said.
Word of the approaching Arctic freeze spread Thursday and so did the call for the closet to open on Friday and again on Monday and certainly Tuesday also.
Patsy Sanchez, social worker for the Harlingen Consolidated independent School District family and community engagement, said the closet is usually open only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Of course these unusually low temperatures made necessary the extra days.
“A lot of students and families here are not really prepared for this type of weather and don’t have winter clothing,” Sanchez said. “We are here to help out these families with donations from the community.”
At that moment there was a knock at the door.
“There’s a man out there with blankets,” Sanchez called out.
Her colleague, Adriana Garcia, pointed out now that the closet is still accepting donations, that the community still needs them.
“We want to make sure we have proper clothing for our neighborhood students,” said Garcia, also a social worker for the district.
Students and the parents with red faces and shoulders clenched tight to their necks moved in a steady stream through the door of the closet.
This was a vital resource, especially for parents whose students must walk to school or wait outside for the buses.
While the closet made a difference between having and not having, spending or not spending, all were resolute that one way or another, their kids would have warm clothing.
“I would do anything I have to do to just get them what they need,” said Edward Vargas, 29, who carried shirts on hangars as he searched the shelves and the racks.
During the cold snap, the clothes closet is open between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
For more information, call the clothes closet at 956-427-3084.
