Arbor Day - April 30, 2010

On Friday, April 30, 2010, Arbor Day took place in Inwood Subdivision near 802 and Dana Road, Brownsville, TX. In collaboration with Greg Flores of Youth Build, UTB/TSC gathered 70 volunteers from the CCE Scholars Club, environmental science architecture, architecture biology, and other disciplines. The volunteers participated in construction work and planting native trees and shrubs and met at the Cueto building at 7a.m. for breakfast, which Stripes provided. The professors who participated in Arbor Day were Tamara K. Pease, Elizabeth Heise, Murad Abusalim, and Nikola Barjaktarevic. Greg Flores and the Center for Civic Engagement took shovels, rakes, picks and gardening tools for planting. Joe Lee Rubio began by showing the volunteers how and where to plant the trees. Anacua, Brasil, Capul, Chile Pequin, Crucillo, Elbow bush, Tropical Sage, Ebano, Golden eye, and Guayacan are a few of the native trees and shrubs which were donated by Susan Thompson from Perez Ranch Nursery and James Lovegren from L&L Growers. Tamara Pease called Channel 4 to broadcast the event and this station interviewed her, Moises Torres, and others about Arbor Day. At the end of the event Chick-Fil-A and Valley Regional Medical Center donated sandwiches for the volunteers. Overall the purpose was to engage students and teachers from UTB/TSC to beautify a new affordable housing unit and to help our local ecology by planting native trees and shrubs. Another goal of this successful project was to increase curricular and co-curricular service learning.

Leadership Brownsville Lends a Hand

The Leadership Brownsville Class XXV joined with future homeowners on Saturday January 23, 2010 to lend some elbow grease towards their goal to complete ten homes by mid-February. Each year the classes of Leadership Brownsville must choose a project that promotes service to the community. To celebrate the quarter-century mark of Leadership Brownsville the exuberant members of this special class have chosen three projects with the CDCB homes as the second undertaking. LB XXV member, Nancy Rodriguez, was the one responsible for coordinating this project with Greg Flores.

Beginning in the morning, the group was divided in two by Juan Ramirez of CDCB. Most of the women worked on one home’s framing where the quantity of nails didn’t always meet the requirements of the building inspector. Our instructions: "edges need a nail on both sides every 4" and studs every 6". As a result, the building echoed with a dozen beating hammers working away. The other half of the group worked on preparing a driveway for concrete. The truck was already here and pouring concrete just a few houses away. The team got one driveway dug out and began on the next working along side some of the families' workers.

The families were spread out working on framing, digging, smoothing concrete, preparing forms for concrete, painting, mudding sheetrock and cleaning/sanding. It was an industrious atmosphere the entire day. The new neighborhood was bustling with activity that offered a promise of a good future for both these families and our community. As some of us were preparing to leave and others joining in, we posed with the families and the two supervisors, Juan Ramirez and Mario Garza. Juan explained their deadline requirements. We think they will need additional help to meet this deadline. We plan to spread the word!

Members from Leadership Brownsville: Nancy Rodriguez, Hoelscher Steven, Richard Abete, Chris Davis, Sandy Galvan, Eric Garza, Sergio Lainez, Abbas Mahvash, Emma Miller, Noe Ortiz, Blanca Perez-Moreno, Melida Pinales, Lindsay, Anna Rodriguez, Jenica Saldivar, Marcia Selsor, and Andres Zamarripa

UTB Build BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS - November 23, 2009 - The Center for Civic Engagement and the Civic Engagement Scholars organized a community event where UTB/TSC students, faculty and staff could go and help Brownsville families build their own homes. The last UTB Volunteers for the Fall 2009 semester was held on Saturday, November 21st from 8am to 1pm. The Center worked with the Brownsville Community Development Corporation in their Self-Help Program. The program helps low-income families reduce their loan amount by up to $12,000 per family as long as they build 65% of their home on their own. With the help of Mr. Greg Flores, YouthBuild Director, and Mr. Juan Ramirez, Self-Help Construction Supervisor, UTB Build was a great success. The volunteers were able to dig foundation trenches in one house, level the trenches for the foundation in a second house and put up plywood for the exterior walls of a third house. There was a total of about 30-35 volunteers who joined in on the effort to help Brownsville families. Different student organizations attended the event and they included the Civic Engagement Scholars Club, Chi Alpha, Circle K International and Texas State Teacher’s Association – Student Program. A light breakfast was served before going to the work site and after the job was finished lunch was served which included Pizza Patron and donations from Jason’s Deli and Texas Roadhouse. The event was a great success and helped the families get a step closer to their goal of finishing 5 houses by the end of February. The volunteers showed so much dedication to their work that they even stayed an hour and half after the event was over to finish their work! Hope and change begins here!
(written by UTB's Center for Civic Engagement)

Representatives and volunteers from Texas Roadhouse, Home Depot and the YoutbBuild Brownsville Alumni Program recently came together to help a local family build a home after it was destroyed by Hurricane Dolly last year. Read more about it and see photos of the event here.

Saint Joseph Academy volunteered with CDCB Mutual Self-Help Program in the French River Subdivision: