National Awards

Laredo, Texas

National Award to students in Laredo, Texas, who cared enough to help children in a poor neighborhood get a necessity: warm clothes.

Her response was simple, the reward great. "I was happy," recalls Abigail Martinez, 9, after her family of six received warm clothes from Make A Difference Day participants. "They gave me shirts, pants and socks."

"We wanted to help," explains Gerardo Hernandez, a fifth-grader at Finley Elementary, in a middle-income neighborhood of Laredo. Gerardo and his classmates knew that Abigail's classmates at Kennedy-Zapata Elementary in El Cenizo (a neighborhood with average household income of $5,000) had no sweaters and only worn-out shoes.

With an assist from the Laredo Rotary, the Finley students collected 2,000 items of clothing and sorted it by size (even learning a little math along the way, teachers said). On Oct. 25, 59 volunteers hosted a free breakfast and clothing giveaway for 35 needy families. Finley teacher Emma Leza watched the families open their bags of clothes. "There were tears," she says.

$2,000 award will benefit Kennedy-Zapata Elementary School, El Cenizo, Texas.

Photo Credit JAMES MCGOON FOR USA WEEKEND.

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