Community lends a hand to needy families

HARLINGEN -- Operation Noel is the Valley Morning Star’s annual Christmas appeal to readers to help out a few families facing hard times during the holiday season. They come to our attention in various ways. We ask readers and relief agencies if they know anyone who might need help; we also ask our reporters to keep an eye on their beats throughout the year in case they encounter or hear of someone having difficulties.

When the holidays approach, we look at our list and check it out twice, choosing those families whose cases seem appropriate in terms of need. Then our reporters write stories detailing the situation of each.

And this year, just as in previous years, people in the community have responded. Although the final tally is not complete, by Friday cash donations had already exceeded by almost $800 last year’s all-time high.

The families’ stories follow.

THE SAUCEDO FAMILY

Last week, Ana Saucedo and her three children, Ana, Hector and Selene, were living in an empty apartment. They had lost virtually everything when their mobile home in San Benito burned in October.

Their only furniture was a plastic lawn chair and four chairs from a dinette set that had plywood for seats.

“When our trailer burned we only told family and a few friends,” Saucedo said. “We had nothing, nothing, nothing.”

A school counselor brought the family to the attention of Operation Noel.

“I had hoped people would help us but I had no idea they would give us so much,” Saucedo said.

The San Benito Police Department donated a Christmas tree. The JROTC program donated a TV set, a microwave and a clothes dryer.

The family members now have beds and dressers, a couch, a love seat, a recliner and a dinette set along with boxes of housewares. There is also a new member of the family: Sasha, a miniature poodle someone donated.

Along with the furniture and housewares came $1,000 from Operation Noel. Saucedo said she would use the money to buy her children a computer to use for their schoolwork.

THE REYES FAMILY

San Juana Candelaria Reyes and her family smiled as they clutched boxes and bags of presents that had been donated through Operation Noel.

Chickens crowed and the family dogs wagged their tails at their Santa Rosa home as Reyes struggled to find words of gratitude in English.

“We thank everyone for giving us the toys and helping us,” she said in Spanish.

Victor Mancilla, 15, Reyes’ oldest son, said that since their story was published on the front page of the newspaper, his mother has been hired for two jobs, one in Mercedes and one in La Feria.

“My dad has also gotten work,” Victor said of Refugio Marroquin Sandoval.

“Now we’ve got money for my glasses,” said Victor, who has had trouble reading the blackboard and printed materials at school. But he still needs to find a way to see a heart specialist for a condition other doctors have checked, he said.

The younger children, Cesar Mancilla, 13, Alejandro Mancilla, 9, and Dania Mancilla, 8, smiled as they examined wrapped Christmas packages and bags of unwrapped toys and games.

Alejandro also needs to find an eye doctor who will help save his sight, Reyes said. He is losing his peripheral vision and may eventually go blind if he does not get help, his mother said.

The family also received gifts and money for school supplies at their school in Santa Rosa from people who became aware of their circumstances by reading about them in the newspaper, Victor said.

“We read the newspaper,” too, he said, referring to accounts of other families featured in Operation Noel stories.

THE TORRES FAMILY

Three-year-old Sandra Torres was stunned to see a big stack of Christmas presents next to the old trailer in La Feria that her family calls home.

“She doesn’t know what to do,” her father Jorge Torres said with a chuckle.

“Now they’re really going to have a merry Christmas,” said Torres, who works odd jobs to feed his family in the trailer in which three little beds stand in a row. “They were sad. There hasn’t been enough work so I haven’t been able to earn enough money.”

When 6-year-old Carlos goes to school, his mother Maria stays home to take care of Sandra.

For the children, it’s a dream Christmas, their mother said.

“I’m grateful and happy for the children,” said Maria, who’s eight months pregnant. “Now they’re happy to get a gift.”

Money will go to move in to a bigger trailer, her husband said.

“We’re going to look for a place that’s a little more comfortable and buy things that we don’t have — clothes, shoes, things that they need,” she said.