Mendez Middle School students held their second annual Thanksgiving Family Night on November 20th. Mendez’s free afterschool enrichment program is coordinated through Boys and Girls Club and ACE-Austin as part of our out-of-school time (OST curriculum), is open to any student at the school and hosts an annual Thanksgiving event for families of students to come meet afterschool staff and learn about what their kids do in the program.
Before their community Thanksgiving feast, students created ornaments for community events, made holiday-themed bookmarks to be distributed with donated books and created cards as gifts for family and friends.
Broadway Bank donated seven Thanksgiving meal kits that were raffled off to families who attended. Each kit included the makings of a delicious holiday meal, including a ham, corn, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, an H-E-B gift card and more. Over 97% of students at Mendez are economically disadvantaged.
“Broadway Bankers give with a thankful heart during the holiday season and throughout the year. We established Care Corps to honor the legacy of giving handed down from our founders Col. Charles E. Cheever Sr. and Betty Cheever. Care Corps serves 13,000 hours with more than a hundred projects throughout the year. For Broadway Bank being “here for good” means putting our community first because we live and work here too. Giving back is how we do our part to keep our local communities strong and thriving.” –Jackie Oliver, Broadway Bank
Arthur Castillo, Director of Boys & Girls Club, sees this as an opportunity to bring everyone together, and to show parents and families the value of afterschool programs. It also makes great use of volunteer generosity with time and food contributions.
At Webb Middle School, another campus we support through Middle School Matters, eBay donated 800 holiday meal kits to be given to families who attended the ENCORE Conference. The ENCORE Conference teaches parents about community resources and also encourages discussion about how to best support middle-school-aged children.
On November 12th, eBay employees worked in teams to pack the 800 meal kits. They delivered the meal kits to Webb the following day (we had to rent a U-Haul to deliver them all!) and stayed around to volunteer in the Webb Learning Gardens.
Thank you to eBay and Broadway Bank for working together to make Thanksgiving special for struggling families in our community!