Helping out the Roosevelt community and other local schools, DATA sophomore Pedro Cordova has taken part in the work along with community volunteer Vickie Caceres, who leads a group of volunteers who are making and distributing masks where they are needed in schools.
“I wanted to volunteer because (due to COVID) I knew I was going to have a lot of free time to myself, and decided that it would be best if I found something productive to do,” Cordova said.
Cordova and other students who want or need volunteer hours are able to earn them by helping make masks for the community.
“Finding that students needed volunteer time and we needed volunteers, we incorporated the two through the student volunteer portal by creating a volunteer opportunity for students,” Ms Caceres said. “We created a system of take-home kits to do the various stages of mask making.”
Cordova has found a way to do balance his studies and volunteer work in a way that works for him.
“A typical day that I will work on a mask will usually be a weekend where most of my regular schoolwork is finished and I am sitting on a couch watching videos,” Cordova said. “Normally I would just be sitting there and looking at my phone here and there, but on these days I instead just start cutting out masks. Whenever I have them finished I will drop them off at Ms. Vickie’s house while running errands.”
He’s getting a lot of good feedback for his efforts.
“The community around me have all liked what I’m doing and appreciate that it will be helping others out during the pandemic,” Cordova said. “The benefits from doing the volunteer work would be that you get to help schools make sure that they are able to provide a sufficient amount of masks for the students that they have, while also being able to get volunteer hours during a time that is somewhat difficult to find volunteer work.”
NEISD schools from elementary to high school have gotten the masks that they have needed with the help of the mask making group. All schools have responded with gratitude.
“They responded beyond my expectations. What started as a few are now hundreds who help to create these masks,” Caceres said. “Every day I remind myself how blessed I am to help coordinate this terrific group of volunteers. With the help of so many wonderful people, we have been able to flourish and created thousands of masks to donate to the schools.”
Students who are looking for volunteer work can join this group if they wish to earn volunteer hours. The student volunteers are recruited through the Skyward student portal under the volunteer section and word of mouth from other students. All the student has to do is login to their Skyward account, click the volunteer box at the bottom, click the volunteer tab on the side, then scroll down to “Super Hero Volunteer Mask Makers for San Antonio TX Teachers and Students.”
