Single mom Erika Elizondo was working as a front-desk receptionist less than two years ago at a resort on South Padre Island. She was earning $9.30 an hour when a friend told her about Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement. “I was always interested in the medical field to help relieve people’s suffering,” Elizondo said. “I chose Emergency Medical Science because of the fast pace, I love the adrenaline rush.” There…
Jacob Zuniga lives in McAllen. He was working part-time at H-E-B, knowing he had to graduate from college to reach his goal of becoming a radiology technician. Yet, he was unable to attend school full time because he also needed to provide for his family. His path to graduation had countless stumbling blocks. Zuniga knew about Valley Initiative for Development because his mom is a VIDA graduate who became a…
For a week in early February, McAllen businessman and City of McAllen Public Utilities Vice Chairman Tony Aguirre spent countless hours at Edinburg Regional Medical Center where his mom was a patient. He watched TV with her and sang conjunto songs playing on his phone’s Pandora app with her. He monitored her vitals while she slept and had conversations with all of the medical professionals treating her. One of the…
Aime Bautista was a single mother of an 8-year-old daughter, working as a sales associate and earning $8.25 per hour. A lifelong resident of Mercedes who was raised by her grandparents, Bautista and her daughter were living with her grandmother. In the summer of 2019, Bautista gave birth to another daughter and no longer had a job. A student in the Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement told Bautista about…
Picking up a new book for the first time, leafing through the crisp pages and taking in that ‘new book’ smell is something most of us have done. It’s a connection we make before we dive into a new world or whichever adventure the book will take us on. Ida H. Acuna-Garza, EdD, wants to inspire that kind of excitement for books in children across the region. In her role…
Anna Martinez may not have imagined what coming home would mean for her and her 8-year-old daughter. Born and raised in Weslaco, Martinez and her family moved to Houston when she was in fourth grade. The years that followed were difficult. When Martinez became a teen parent, depression and anger sent her on a downward spiral. Then Martinez’s parents separated, adding to her pain. Three years ago, Martinez decided to…
In 2012, two suicide survivors teamed up to create the first Out of the Darkness Community Walk in the Valley. Melissa Zamora lost her dad to suicide when she was a child. Missy Moreno lost her brother to suicide in 2011. “We found that many people around us had been affected by suicide,” Zamora said. “Yet no one was talking about it. No one was talking about it because, as…
On Nov. 2, the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas hosted its 24 annual Texas Butterfly Festival free community day. The National Butterfly Center is a non-profit organization geared towards butterfly conservation. The center has plenty of nature to explore throughout the 100-acre property, and more than 300 different butterfly species to catch sight of. On this specific day of the festival, there were plenty of free activities to take part…
Gary Glick, president of the nonprofit group Friends of RGV Reef, said recreational red snapper fishing generates several times the economic force of commercial red snapper fishing. People who come to fish also spend money on food and lodging, gas, tackle, charter trips, etc. Glick estimates that Friends of RGV Reef has spent about $400,000 on deploying reef material so far. The group has managed to do it for roughly…
In Spanish, the word vida means “life.” In the Rio Grande Valley, VIDA means a much better life for individuals and families and a stronger economy for communities across Deep South Texas. The Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1995 by Valley Interfaith and a group of local business leaders. They realized providing people with education, training and support to obtain higher-paying jobs would…