UPDATE: Hands Across Hemet overwhelmed by community’s support

HEMET – Hands Across Hemet, a local charitable group, has been overwhelmed at the outpouring of generosity they have received over the last week from across the San Jacinto Valley.

Just a few days ago, with only one week left before the group was scheduled to have it’s annual Christmas Gift Giveaway, Hands Across Hemet’s founder, Tanya Cortez, was getting worried and hoping for a Christmas miracle.

Cortez was seeking last-minute donations so the group could meet their most basic goal of providing one wrapped Christmas present to the children of more than 30 needy families who had already been selected to receive gifts.

Cortez admitted at the time that she was getting a bit desperate, because the group was so far behind in gathering the toys the group needed for the families that had been chosen from throughout the San Jacinto Valley.

Now, the group has more toys than they ever could have imagined after many from the community stepped forward to help, including an entire local school that made a huge donation of toys to the group.

Cortez explained how within the span of a few days, things quickly changed from Grinchy grim to Christmas joy.

“We were truly blessed this last week thanks in large part to a Riverside County News Source article that shared our needs with the community,” Cortez said.

“After the article first came out, the toy donations had been steadily coming in, a couple each day or so. Nothing too major, just good-hearted people donating one or two toys each,” Cortez explained. “I thought to myself that if the toys continued to come in like this for the next few days we might meet our goal, but I had no idea what was in store.”

According to Cortez, the news article caught the attention of Lauren Armijo, the principal at De Anza Elementary School in San Jacinto. Armijo’s students had just finished a toy drive and had a large quantity of new toys left over with no children to take them home.

“She messaged me completely out of the blue. It was so unexpected and she was so low profile about it,” Cortez recalled.

Armijo told Cortez her students had gathered hundreds of toys during a very successful recent toy drive, intended to gather toys for needy children from their own school.

The toy drive was so successful, that after all the needs of their own children had been met, the school still had hundreds of toys left over. After seeing the news article, Armijo offered to donate half of the left over new toys to Hands Across Hemet.

The school ended up donating more than 100 brand new toys to the group, according to Cortez.

“When I found out she wanted to donate to our group in such a big way, I was so excited. I didn’t know what to do,” Cortez explained. “I literally just sat there for about five minutes in disbelief.”

“You just don’t even know. I cried like a freaking baby when I got her message,” Cortez said. “Now all the kids on our primary waiting list are covered. Each will get at least one or two new toys, maybe more; and we can even add a few more kids off our secondary waiting list. I’m just so relieved!”

Armijo later explained how her student’s at De Anza Elementary came to have so many toys that were donated to Hands Across Hemet.

“Each month De Anza is involving our students and families in some kind of community project,” Armijo explained. “We’ve done Socktober and a drive to raise money to buy treats for our local heroes.”

“Due to how much our families had given we weren’t planning something for December, but we had given one of our 5th grade students the challenge of creating some kind of positive event to give back to the school or community,” Armijo said. “He came up with the toy drive and involved his friends to create banners and advertise it.”

“His teacher, Kristen Guzman, helped create online flyers and we started collecting,” Armijo recalled. “We were shocked when over 280 new toys were collected in just two and a half weeks.”

Armijo credited her students willingness to give of themselves and their time with their parents who, “still care enough to teach their children the power of giving.”

“I just want them to know how proud I am of their desire to make our community a better place and realizing that by working as a team we can make a difference,” Armijo said. “They model the true spirit of a De Anza Tiger and I am grateful I spend each day with them!”

Now that Hands Across Hemets toy needs are taken care of, Cortez said she can focus all her groups efforts on gathering enough food for the dinner part of Hands Across Hemet’s giveaway.

The group is still lacking many of the essentials needed to put together simple food baskets for each of the families. The baskets include Christmas meal basics, such as turkey or ham, fresh or canned vegetables, potatoes, stuffing, and rolls or bread.

“Even though all of our toy needs have been met, we are still in need of any food donations to be able to help at least a few families with food at our giveaway this Thursday,” Cortez explained. “Luckily, there are not many families left on our list that have asked for help with food, but we still have about 10-15 families left to cover.”

“I thank you all from the bottom of my heart,” Cortez said to all those who had already helped. “To everyone who has donated in any way or even just shared our posts, thank you all so much.”

Undeterred by only having three days left before Hands Across Hemet’s event, scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 22, Cortez explained, “I definitely feel it is an achievable goal. When a community comes together we can make it happen. We can do anything.”

Anyone who is able to purchase or donate a meal for a family, or even give an item or two towards a meal, can contact Cortez directly or through the Hands Across Hemet Facebook page. Donations can also be made through Hands Across Hemet’s gofundme page.

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including the Robert Presley Detention Center, the Southwest Station in Temecula, the Hemet Station, and the Lake Elsinore Station, along with many other locations.