30 Local Families Received Turkeys

Updated: December 9, 2016

City officials join with UTRGV volunteers to distribute holiday turkeys: (l-r) Tabitha Outlaw, Event Coordinator; Florence Reichle, Administrative Assistant and Event Coordinator; Jaime Sandoval, City Manager; City Commissioner Jesse Zuniga; City Commissioner Julian Guevara; Paula Rodriguez, La Feria Community Planner, and Dr. Sharon Schembri, UTRGV Professor of Marketing and Turkey project supervisor. Photos: Bill Keltner/LFN

UTRGV Outreach Project included La Feria

Bill Keltner

A motivated team of University of Texas students from Edinburg made a whirlwind visit touring 6 cities in three Valley counties to deliver 180 turkeys in brightly-colored baskets as their part in a national student outreach program. The cities included La Feria, Alamo, Edinburg, Mission, Penitas, and Rio Grande City.

Each of the cities received 30 turkeys as selected by the City Manager and commissioners in each city. La Feria City Manager Jaime Sandoval also worked with Precinct 4 Commissioner Dan Sanchez to facilitate the distribution and welcome the university volunteers. They located qualified local needy citizens who could benefit from the generous donation. Sandoval arranged to have the distributions made at the La Feria Community Resource Center. Several La Feria city officials took part in the planning stage and distribution of the turkeys to local citizens.

Commissioner Eric Hoff and UTRGV Professor Dr. Sharon Schembri.

The leader of the university program was Dr. Sharon Schembri, Professor of Marketing from Vackar College of Business Entrepreneurship. She explained that this pre-holiday project came under the guidelines of the UTRGV student organization known as ENACTUS. It is also associated with SHRM, which stands for Society for Human Resource Management.

UTRGV student volunteers unloading turkeys

Schembri stated the program teaches the students how to get deliberately involved with the needs of the people after graduation. “The program is very involved with the Food Bank,” she said, adding, “The students themselves raised the funds for the turkey delivery program by volunteer donations and advertising on the website.”

Anyone interested in more information or questions regarding the Community Resource Center (CRC) is invited to contact UTRGV staff members Alex Garcia at 956 862 1068 9(c) Leticia Hayes at 956 393 0819(c) or ENACTUS President Rebecca Reyes at 956-215-9522.