April 21, 2025 • 29 mins
1-Amber Banda interviews David Chayer, Executive Director for Family Service of El Paso, the largest non profit mental health agency in the city. David talks about the mental health services that are offered to our community, as well as their upcoming 2nd annual "Mental Health Stars of El Paso" event May 28th. For more information go to familyserviceofelpaso.org
2-Amber Banda interviews Bryan Godfrey, Director of Marketing & Outreach for Relentless IQ, one of El Paso's newest non-profits for youth that are differently-abled and have aged out of school. They provide events and activties for youth with disabilities and their families. They are having a golf tournament April 26t at Ascarate Golf Course, includin a "beat the pro" contest with backswing golf. For more information go to relentlessIQ.org
3-Amber Banda speaks with Tonya Longoria, Event Coordinator and Board Member for SVT Mustang Elite's "Festival of Fords" event, as well as Starr Lucero, Community Outreach Coordinator for Reynold's Home. April 26th, the "Festival of Fords" carshow on April 26th at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino will benefit the Reynold's Home which provides services to women and children. For more information go to SVTmustanglite.com.
2-Amber Banda interviews Bryan Godfrey, Director of Marketing & Outreach for Relentless IQ, one of El Paso's newest non-profits for youth that are differently-abled and have aged out of school. They provide events and activties for youth with disabilities and their families. They are having a golf tournament April 26t at Ascarate Golf Course, includin a "beat the pro" contest with backswing golf. For more information go to relentlessIQ.org
3-Amber Banda speaks with Tonya Longoria, Event Coordinator and Board Member for SVT Mustang Elite's "Festival of Fords" event, as well as Starr Lucero, Community Outreach Coordinator for Reynold's Home. April 26th, the "Festival of Fords" carshow on April 26th at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino will benefit the Reynold's Home which provides services to women and children. For more information go to SVTmustanglite.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to El Paso Public Forum, a weekly half hour
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio el Paso for over twenty years,
featuring local news and interviews of interest to our listeners
in West Texas and southern New Mexico. All views and
opinions expressed on this program are those of the host
and guest, and not necessarily those of iHeartRadio Management and
now El Paso Public Forum.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome back to the al Paso Public Forum. I'm your host,
Amber Banda, and right now we are joined by the
executive director for Family Service of al Paso. This is
David Share. David, thank you for being here with me today.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hey, thank you so much. Amber. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Of course, so you and I have gotten to know
each other a little bit more. I just joined the
board of Family Service of El Paso. I'm very happy
to be on that board. I'm very impressed with the
little interaction that I've had with you and what I
know of what everyone said. I'm very impressed with how
you've handled because you've just been a point executive director
in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Correct, yeah, right, at the end of twenty twenty three,
our longtime executive director, Richard Salcido retired after an extremely
amazing career forty years with the organization and so had
some pretty big shoes to fill. But we have such
a great mession in our staff, our board of community
partners that we work with. It's just been a really
great experience and most importantly the mission of helping people
(01:21):
who are really having a hard day. So we have
over over two thousand clients that we served last year.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Folks that is some type.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Of mental health, whether it's anxiety, depression, trauma, there's a
number of things that folks just every day things that
we all struggle with that they can call Family Services
of a Passo and know that they're going to be
able to get that treatment that's going to be helpful
for them.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So Family Service of al Paso, for those that aren't familiar,
is the largest mental health agency in El Paso. It
is a nonprofit, which is how I initially got connected
to you, and yeah, I knew Richard. He was amazing.
So you know, you have this facility over there, kind
of your Basset center and it is a nonprofit. So
(02:06):
what does that mean for the l passive community.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Well, most importantly is that we are providing mental health
services regardless of a person's income, and so kind of
in some respects like a charitable hospital in some ways
where folks regardless of your income, if you have insurance,
if you don't have insurance, and a lot of folks
will say like, well, I think I want to have
mental health, but I don't have insurance, or they only
take insurance, or I don't I make too much money.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
So none of that really applies.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Our goal and our mission is to help people who
have a mental health condition regardless of that, and really
also reducing the barriers to access. And so for folks
that say, well, I can't afford mental health or you know,
even our locations kind of centrally located, as you mentioned,
if you live in a Horizon or Socorro or Tornello,
(02:54):
it's a long way with traffic and so you know,
or they don't have a vehicle. And so we also
make our sessions available by telehealth, and so you from
the privacy of your home, you can you can meet
with one of our therapists and have that session that's
going to be helpful and not have to worry about
having access to get here, you know, in person. So
(03:16):
we are nonprofit and so we also we do not
receive any federal, state, county, local tax money. So our
ability to provide services is really based on our programs.
And yes, so you know some that do have insurance,
we're able to build the insurance companies if they allow that.
But also for folks just making donations that know how
(03:37):
important mental health is. Just as if you're you know,
if you have a hard condition, you go see a cardiologist.
If you're you need a filling for your teeth, you know,
you want to see a dentist. And so this is
no different if something's just not quite right. And I
love the movie Inside Out my Daughter's five and so everything.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Anxiety, you know, having anxiety, yeah, and so but you
know those types of things that people are dealing with
every single day, stress, trauma, depression, medical other medical issues.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
So there's a lot of things that contribute to to that,
and our job and our mission is to be there
when people need us.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And you know, like a lot of medical conditions, if
not most, the best care is preventative care. So if
people think, oh, I don't want to go until I
have a nervous breakdown or this or that, like just
going and talking to someone can get that out. I mean,
I have personal experience myself and my daughter. So you know,
there's a misconception. I think of those that have heard
of family services, all past is a I'm not poor
(04:35):
enough to go, you know that, you know, to put
it plainly, or you know, I don't have insurance and
I can't go. But whether you have good insurance or
you feel like you know, I don't have those extra
five ten dollars to go and you know, take care
of my mental health, you are, you're not turned you know,
like you said, your goal is to not turn people
away for that service.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah, I mean a lot of folks that even haven't surance,
like even my you know, our insurance is there's a
high copay, and so there's a lot of folks that say, oh,
I have insurance, but I can't even afford the copay.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
And so what we do is we work with all.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
The folks that come in and we'll sit down and
our folks will meet with them, and we'll come out
with a plan that says, you know, there's a kind
of a sliding fee scale that we can work with
you and say like, okay, well, we know if we
can't afford this, and let's figure out what we might
what might be affordable. And we've been able to get
some grants and some other other monies to help us
provide costs at no care for clients. And so I
(05:32):
wish we could do that for everyone, but we can't.
But we certainly have that option available for those that
are most vulnerable, who have the least amount of resources.
And seventy five percent of our clients are are classified
as low income, and so it is a huge portion
of the clients that we serve, and we know how
hard it is. I mean, even people that you know
can make fifty or sixty or seventy thousand dollars a year,
(05:54):
that's still a lot to say. If a counseling session
is you know, eighty ninety one hundred dollars, and we
don't everyone knows what the price of eggs are in
the country, and so you're struggling with food, you're struggling
with gas and just living expenses.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
A lot of times we put that mental health.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Thing on the back burner and say, well, I can't
afford to do it right now, or I'm going to
wait until it gets worse, and we don't want that.
We really want to make sure if you really feel
like you could really benefit from speaking to a trained
therapist or counselor before it gets worse, we want to
make sure that we're there for that. Regardless again of
(06:33):
income or insurance, or where you live or what zip
code you're in. We're here to serve everyone.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And what ages are the clients? I mean, do you
because I know like some people only specialize in kids
and you know, geriatric, So what are the ages that
you all accept.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah, we serve clients from ages four on up, and
so interestingly, about thirty percent of all of our clients
last year we're under the age of eighteen, so it's
a large function of the clients that we serve. We
also have a number of our therapists are specifically trained
in child therapy, and so there are different types of
methods that you use in child therapy, or even certain
(07:12):
types of toys that we have. We have a specially
designated room which is just child therapy and they're seeing
like you know, kinetic sand and very specific toys that
we have that our therapists are trained to you so
help the child be able to kind of talk through
what it is that you're dealing with. And so that's
a very unique portion of who we serve, our youth,
(07:32):
particularly under the age of eighteen, but.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
We also serve of everyone.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
We have senior citizens, we have military, we have veterans.
It kind of rang us up the whole gamut of
folks that we serve, and so it really it really
is the you know here for the entire community, not
just one segment.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
You know, it's interesting how you see something in your
child and right away, oh, I'm not taking the doctor.
I'm gonna take them the therapists. When it comes to yourself,
you're like, I could wait, you know, I'm guilty of
that in a lot of things. But then you have
to remember that you are the example. Kids don't lead
by what you say, they lead by what you do.
So you could say this, You could say that you
can tell them your mental health is important, but if
(08:11):
they see you actually going and trying to take care
of your mental health too, even though ah, it's just
the way we grew up, it's just they are going
to be more likely to act, to be open and
receptive to that help as well. And I think something
that I've also gathered is that there's a stigma with Okay,
this location that offers therapy is geared toward, you know,
(08:32):
lower income clients, so people tend to think the quality
of the therapy is not going to be there. But
that I mean, I've met some of the therapists. I
know that the quality is there. Can you speak to
those people that may have that in their mind?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Our licensed professional counselors are folks that have gone through
two years of graduate school. They've gone through three thousand
hours of training before the licensed and so the folks
that have been with our organization that are working. We
have some therapists, licensed therapists here that have been here
for fifteen twenty years that have been working for us.
(09:11):
Most are probably between eight to ten years and the
amount of time that they've worked with us. The other
thing that's really interesting from our perspective is that we
have kind of a training institute where we work in
partnership with like, for example, the University of Texas at
Olpaso for those graduate level interns. So they're beginning to
work on their career and so they'll do their internships
(09:33):
with us, they'll complete the three thousand hours postgraduate with us,
and then all of our almost all of our staff
therapists are that work for us also did their internship,
so they've been with us for a long time. And
the other thing that's great about that is that clients,
the average number of sessions that folks will take with
(09:53):
us is between fifteen to twenty sessions of therapy sessions.
And so it's an important also that they they want
to stay with that counselor. You know, if you if
you've had to find a counselor and I've had a
couple of my life and once I'm like, no, it's
not a good fit. You find a therapist that's a
good fit for you, you want to stay with them.
And so that's one of the things that's important about,
(10:13):
you know, having that type of seniority and that experience
on our staff and our therapists that are involved, that
a client's going to take fifteen or twenty sessions, they
know that they're going to have in most cases, the
same therapist is going to be there with them because
they know them. And also there's that stigma cause I
don't want to, you know, tell somebody else everything.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I don't want to have to sort of you know,
re victimization.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
In some cases have to have to tell everybody to
start over from scratch and start over. So that's really
important for us from from our perspective and my perspective
is that if you find a therapist that you really
like and you connect with connect with them, that we're
able to continue that process throughout the length of the
sessions that you take.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And in my experience, you know from years ago, since
there are different therapists there, you can actually go to
one not a right fit, so you can go to
another one because they're all in the same building, which
is not easy to find if you're just joining us.
We have executive director for Family Service of l PASO,
David Share. Now, David, you've told us about what kind
(11:14):
of therapy that you give to the community, a little
bit about how it works. But you aren't nonprofit, you know,
and all nonprofits need two things. They need volunteers and
they need money. So I want to go over one
of the events coming up that again I'm also excited
to be a part of it is your mental health
Stars of our Passo. Can you tell us a little
(11:36):
bit more about that?
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Sure, thank you, We're excited to have our second annual event.
And when I started, we didn't really have a big
sort of signature fundraising event that we have. We've passed
some things in the past, and so I wanted to
do something unique and something different that was going to
help raise awareness about who we are and what we do,
but also raise those it does take money to do
(11:58):
what we do and so and so having a fundraising event,
not just a galalb, but also recognizing others in the
community that are from whether it's a community partner that
we work with or we did a new award called
the Richard Salcedo Lifetime Achievement Award and recognition of mister Salcedo,
who had had mentioned had been our longtime executive director
(12:19):
before we retired. And so we actually have our the
new award recipients that we'll be announcing this week. The
event's going to be Wednesday, May twenty eighth, from six
to nine pm and information is available on our website
at Family Service Willpasso dot org. We have sponsorships available.
Folks that want to volunteer maybe to help out at
(12:40):
the event would be a great way to get involved.
Companies that have silent auction items will gift certifics. There
are gift baskets. Anybody that's listening that wants to play
golf would want to donate, you know, around the golf somewhere,
or restaurant, movies and so all those things that people
love at silent auctions are things that we could use
to help us. Is money to make sure that we
(13:01):
can provide those mental health services regardless again of a
person's income.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And again a lot of those mental health services going
towards kids. I don't care. I'm pulling on heart strings.
That's what you know. It's my show, so I can
so Mental Health Stars of All pass the May twenty
So it's kind of it's like a gala. Correct.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, it's a little less formal, but we really want
people to come and have have fun and have a
good time.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Last year we had the passal don Aren't They a
Big band?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
So we kind of had that that sound going And
we're finalizing details for who are our entertainment is going
to be this year. But we're going to have a
kind of a Hispanic theme this year. So we're we
just got out of a planning meeting a little bit
ago to uh, we have some ideas and that hopefully,
hopefully some more to announce here in the next couple
of weeks. But again, there are people that are listening
(13:46):
that want to help out, whether it's a ticket to
come to the event, make an online donation, and companies
particularly that want to you know, you want to connect
with your mission of supporting your employees, supporting the community,
and we are we been doing this for one hundred
and thirty three years. We are the oldest nonprofit and
in terms of service, we actually provided over twenty thousand
(14:09):
therapy sessions last year and so that's really a testament
to one, I think, the respect and trust that people
have in our organization and our ability to meet the
need of the community. But we also know there are
more people on a waiting list, there are more people
that need help, and we want to make sure that
we're there and that we have the resources to be
(14:30):
able to meet that need.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Definitely, And if you want more information, you can follow
them on Instagram at Family Service el Paso or on
Facebook Family Service of Alpaso. You can keep updated on
all those changes that are going to happen at this
event Mental Health Stars of al Paso or go to
Family Service OFFLPASO dot org. Now, David, before I let
you go, you guys did your research on me. When
(14:55):
I joined the board, I did a little bit of
research on you, and your background is very impressive. Can
you tell the El Paso community a little bit about
the executive director of Family Service of Olpaso.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Sure, I'm a little humble, but I've been blessed to
be in the nonprofit sector now for about twenty six years.
I've spent about half of that time with the American
Red Cross, but I've also including two years here with
the Red Cross and OPASO. I've had the privilege to
be involved with organizations that are helping people affect it
from domestic violence and sexual assault, people that have families
(15:29):
impacted by lou Garrigg's disease. Had the privilege to serve
as a statewide executive director for the Als Association of Texas.
I've worked for national nonprofits, but really my focus, and
I made reference earlier, is really helping people who have
had a bad day. So whether it's the disaster victim,
or whether it's someone who's really going through a tough
challenge from anxiety and stress or issues with their lives,
(15:52):
and so my focus has really been trying to make
a difference for people, whether it's mental health or the
other things I've been involved with. Passo is such a
great community. I met my wife here, We're very connected
and we love this community. And I'm just glad and
blessed to be in a position to lend some of
my experience and what I've done and what the vision
(16:13):
I have for this organization to continue to be there
for our past ones.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, we're lucky to have you too, And David, before
I let you go, is there anything else that you
would like to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
We just really appreciate everyone's support. Amber, thank you and
iHeart for allowing us this opportunity. And you know, family
service will Passo is probably the best kept secret in
the community, and I think the more we want people
to learn more about that we exist and what we
do and how we can help and so for that
we are grateful for you and I heart for helping
us to get that message out.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Glad glad to help you do that. And if you
go to our power one on two Sunday ninety nine
point nine or ninety six point three k Country Instagram
or Facebook. There will be pictures. There will be more
information about this interview, more information about mental health Stars
of El Paso or you can find them on Instagram
Family Service of El Paso or on Facebook Family Service
(17:08):
of El Paso or go to Family Service of Alpaso
dot org. David, thank you so much for being here
with me today. Welcome back to the Al Paso Public Forum.
I am your host, Amberbanda, and today we have Brian Godfreed.
He is the director of Marketing and outreach for Relentless IQ.
(17:29):
This is a fairly brand new nonprofit. We were talking
about this earlier. Brian, thank you so much for being
here with me today.
Speaker 6 (17:34):
Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Of course, so Relentless IQ. Love the logo if you
if you want to go look at it relentlessiq dot org.
We don't have enough time to talk about it, but
I just want to say you have to go check
out that logo's really neat. So Brian, what is Relentless IQ.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
So Relentless IQ's, like you said, very new nonprofit. We're
actually just a couple months shy of being a year
in business. And what what we focus on is basically
stepping in and filling the gap for young adults with
all different types of special needs. So after high school,
(18:09):
there's not a whole lot of support activities for the community.
So basically we're stepping in to fill that need with
different types of services that we're looking at, community engagement,
family connections here, mentorship and skills coaching, family crisis support services,
and then big dreams in the future potentially a daily
activity center where we're looking at to provide and restrict care.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That would be awesome. So what you were saying this
is more geared towards, like you said, young adults, So
like you said, after school age. So that's very important
because I didn't even think about that. You know, when
the kids are in school, they have those structured activities,
but outside of school, they're kind of like, Okay, well
what do we do now? And something that I read
on your website is, of course it helps the people
that have the disability or that are differently able, but
(18:54):
it also you know, helps to support the caretakers. So
these are events, these services that you offer, how much
do they cost?
Speaker 6 (19:03):
So for anybody that registers with us, based on our
donor participation and fundraising events anybody who's registered with us
does not cost that members anything. Depending on the level
of what the events might entail, it could be the
caregiver paying just to cover themselves. But the actual covered members,
you know, so whoever they are, the ones that registered
(19:24):
with the different types of differently able situations, as we
like to say, they would be covered based on what
we have for invasion.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Oh wow, and you're a fairly new organization, but what
kind of events have you already had for the for
the group.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
So our first one, our kickoff one, was actually in November.
It was a Thanksgiving pot luck, so it was all
of the all of our iqrs is what we like
to call them iqres. I love that thank you as
well as their their family members whoever was able to
make it that day. And then in December we did
a posada with one of our main board members in
(20:00):
their community area. And then we've spent a couple of
different events and monkey Rock doing like bowling, community events
stuff like that. And then also inside some park mall
we get together and do like some physical activity type
of you know events where we walk around the different
levels in the mall and then you know, we engage
(20:21):
with the different like restaurants and stuff like that, and
you know, teaching them some life skills along the length.
So and then yeah, those are really the main ones
for right now. But you know, all kinds of plans
going forward and different and ideas coming up all the time,
and so I love that.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And even passing by the cat cafe, that's one of
my favorites over there in some of them park mall,
just looking at the kitties. So that's really neat. So
of course to have activities like this, and like you said,
for these services to be free to certain people, you
need two things. Every no nonprofit needs volunteers and money.
So with that being said, you have a golf event
coming up April twenty sixth. Can you tell us more
(21:00):
about that event when it is, How much registration is
all those details.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Yeah, So it's going to be April twenty six at
a scatter day golf course. Registration starts at eleven o'clock
in the morning. It's a four person team scramble, so
for registration we're looking at three sixty for a team
of four, okay, and then one hundred per person if
you do sign up as an individual. So if if
you can get a team together. Definitely take advantage of that.
(21:26):
I'll be good.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, that's awesome. I like that golf course. I remember
going there with my grandpa when I when I was younger.
So you also have something called Beat the Pro Contest
with Backswing Golf. What's out about?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (21:37):
So we actually so they reached out to us. They're
actually a they're not a nonprofit, but they're a small
business that was formed by an awesome lady your named
Mackenzie Lane. She was a LPGA Tour professional.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
What I learned is that these these young ladies have
to fund their own way to follow the tour and
get into different events. So backsworen Golf actually partners with
nonprofits to come in and provide different types of competition
things and you know, add a little excitement and twist
to it, and they end up sharing whatever profits are
(22:12):
made based on their own fundraising within the tournaments, and
they use that to fund their their ladies moving forward,
and then they give a portion of that to the nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Oh that's really neat. So April twenty sixth, your first
annual four person scrambled tournament fundraiser. Again, these funds go
towards helping, you know, with therapies, with events. You know,
when kids get together and they want ice cream and
they want this and they want you know, the crayons
to do the activity or it's not cheap. So if
you can go to Facebook, you can find more information
on Relentless IQ. Again, that's Facebook, or go to relentlessiq
(22:47):
dot org. Now, Brian, I'm going to end this with
a more personal question. Why did you and your wife
Daisy decide to start this organization?
Speaker 6 (22:55):
That's a great question. So my wife Flower kind of
like the foundation builders behind it, but what really started
at was a group of parents. We actually all are
in the Franklin High School community, and you know, just
over like coffee and conversation. One day we realized that
we all shared a similar I don't want to call
(23:16):
it a fear, but you know, basically just looking forward
of our kids moving forward after high school. There's there's
not a whole lot of services available to the community
and all these you know, differently abled young adults coming up,
whether it's not a waiting list where state services can
be years and months and months long. And what we
(23:38):
wanted to do is step in and fill that gap.
And you know, be that next step or not only
the iqer themselves, but they're family members. I mean a
couple of quick stats. According to Psychology Today, divorce rate
for marriages with a special needs child is eighty seven percent,
So easy number there. And then loneliness is actually a
(24:01):
big thing when it comes to these young adults because
they don't have that school community anymore or as frequently.
So according the World Health Organization, they said loneliness is
a pressing health threat, saying that it's mortality effects are
pulled into smoking almost a full pack of cigarettes DOUG.
So just those two things combined. And then again there's
(24:21):
a group of parents. You know, we started, you know,
really talking about it, so we're trying to step in
and take over and build that gap after high school.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I love that. So this golf tournament, you know, there's
opportunities for sponsorships or if you just want a team,
if you want to enter as a player. Again, the
funds go towards helping this very new nonprofit, but I
think it's going to fill a huge gap. Relentless IQ.
You can go to relentlessiq dot org if you want
to get more information in this event in April on
April twenty six. It's also a good place to network
(24:51):
to talk with other parents if you yourself have a
child that's differently able and you feel you need they
need that, or you need that. So, Brian, is there
anything else that you would like to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
No, I just thank you all for your support and
look forward to seeing where we can make it out there.
And please keep following us on Facebook and you see
all the cool things that we're going to be doing
and that we've done in the past, and we appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Awesome.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Thank you, Brian, Thank you very much.
Speaker 7 (25:22):
Welcome back to the.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
El Paso Public Forum.
Speaker 7 (25:25):
I am your host, Amber Vanda, and today we are
going to talk about the second annual Festival of Fords
to benefit Reynolds Home. Here I have with me Star Lucetto.
She is the community outreach coordinator. Star, thank you for
being here with me today. Thank you of Court and
Tanya Langoria, event coordinator and board member. Tanya, thank you
for being here with me today and talking with us.
Speaker 8 (25:46):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
Of course, So Star, you are with the Reynolds Home.
Can you tell us a little bit about what this
organization is Oh.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yes, mam, thank you.
Speaker 9 (25:55):
So the Reynolds Home for thirty five years has been
helping homeless women with their children overcome homelessness and get
them into their own home so they have a safe
place to lay their heads every night. We also teach
in financial literacy so that they don't fall back into homelessness.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Oh I love that.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
I mean, you've been on the show before, you're a veteran,
but you know, I love what you do. I love
the work that you do at the Reynolds Solomon Tania.
It's not hard to see why you chose this organization
to be the beneficiary of the second Annual Festival of Ford.
So can you tell the listening audience what is this
second Annual Festival of Fords.
Speaker 8 (26:28):
Yes, yes, exactly. Okay, So again it benefits the Reynolds
Home because they do such wonderful work. And what we
have done is we have partnered with our sponsor, Casa Ford,
who's been so generous. But Casa Ford and Longhorn Distributing,
O'Reilly Auto Parts, Tent World, Card Parts, Machine Drive Collision
(26:49):
and Village Medical are our sponsors this year. And what
they're doing is they're helping us to make this show
a success. Basically, what we're having is we're having all
four wards, Lincoln's and Mercury cars and trucks. We're inviting
everybody of all ages, all years, and what we're doing
is we have approximately nine I'm sorry, ten classes with first, second,
(27:13):
and third place, and then we have seven individual awards's
President's Choice, Race Car Choice, People's Choice, best Paint, best Wheel,
best Engine, and Best in Show, so everybody, there's something
for everybody. Plus we also have vendors like Western Tech
is going to be there. I'll pass the Hot Rods,
AKA Graphics, the Jewelry Box, Tinworld has a table, also
(27:37):
Lions Club and cast Off it also, you know, because
they are also working with Make a Wish, they've got
a table, and of course Longhorn Distributing they're going to
be there selling products. And so we're going to have
lots of things, face painting and the balloon animals for
the families. And then you know, like I said, there's
(27:57):
beautiful cars. They're exemplary cars and some are even working
process cars. So you get to see all kinds.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
That's so cool. So this event is a car show.
Speaker 7 (28:07):
It's going to be April twenty sixth at Sunland Park
Racetrack and Casino. If you want more information, you can
go to SVT mustangelite dot com. And if you want
more information on the Reynolds home, go to Reynoldshome dot org.
Star Atania was short but sweet, but thank you so
much for being here with me today.
Speaker 8 (28:27):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
You've been listening to El Paso Public Forum, a weekly
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio l Passo. If you, your
organization or event would like to be featured on an
upcoming program, please email to Epforum at iHeartMedia dot com
or call us at nine one five three five one
five four zero zero. Tune in again next week for
(28:49):
another additional of El Paso Public Forum. The preceding program
was recorded at the studios of iHeartRadio l Paso.
Welcome to El Paso Public Forum, a weekly half hour
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio el Paso for over twenty years,
featuring local news and interviews of interest to our listeners
in West Texas and southern New Mexico. All views and
opinions expressed on this program are those of the host
and guest, and not necessarily those of iHeartRadio Management and
now El Paso Public Forum.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome back to the al Paso Public Forum. I'm your host,
Amber Banda, and right now we are joined by the
executive director for Family Service of al Paso. This is
David Share. David, thank you for being here with me today.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hey, thank you so much. Amber. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Of course, so you and I have gotten to know
each other a little bit more. I just joined the
board of Family Service of El Paso. I'm very happy
to be on that board. I'm very impressed with the
little interaction that I've had with you and what I
know of what everyone said. I'm very impressed with how
you've handled because you've just been a point executive director
in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Correct, yeah, right, at the end of twenty twenty three,
our longtime executive director, Richard Salcido retired after an extremely
amazing career forty years with the organization and so had
some pretty big shoes to fill. But we have such
a great mession in our staff, our board of community
partners that we work with. It's just been a really
great experience and most importantly the mission of helping people
(01:21):
who are really having a hard day. So we have
over over two thousand clients that we served last year.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Folks that is some type.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Of mental health, whether it's anxiety, depression, trauma, there's a
number of things that folks just every day things that
we all struggle with that they can call Family Services
of a Passo and know that they're going to be
able to get that treatment that's going to be helpful
for them.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So Family Service of al Paso, for those that aren't familiar,
is the largest mental health agency in El Paso. It
is a nonprofit, which is how I initially got connected
to you, and yeah, I knew Richard. He was amazing.
So you know, you have this facility over there, kind
of your Basset center and it is a nonprofit. So
(02:06):
what does that mean for the l passive community.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Well, most importantly is that we are providing mental health
services regardless of a person's income, and so kind of
in some respects like a charitable hospital in some ways
where folks regardless of your income, if you have insurance,
if you don't have insurance, and a lot of folks
will say like, well, I think I want to have
mental health, but I don't have insurance, or they only
take insurance, or I don't I make too much money.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
So none of that really applies.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Our goal and our mission is to help people who
have a mental health condition regardless of that, and really
also reducing the barriers to access. And so for folks
that say, well, I can't afford mental health or you know,
even our locations kind of centrally located, as you mentioned,
if you live in a Horizon or Socorro or Tornello,
(02:54):
it's a long way with traffic and so you know,
or they don't have a vehicle. And so we also
make our sessions available by telehealth, and so you from
the privacy of your home, you can you can meet
with one of our therapists and have that session that's
going to be helpful and not have to worry about
having access to get here, you know, in person. So
(03:16):
we are nonprofit and so we also we do not
receive any federal, state, county, local tax money. So our
ability to provide services is really based on our programs.
And yes, so you know some that do have insurance,
we're able to build the insurance companies if they allow that.
But also for folks just making donations that know how
(03:37):
important mental health is. Just as if you're you know,
if you have a hard condition, you go see a cardiologist.
If you're you need a filling for your teeth, you know,
you want to see a dentist. And so this is
no different if something's just not quite right. And I
love the movie Inside Out my Daughter's five and so everything.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Anxiety, you know, having anxiety, yeah, and so but you
know those types of things that people are dealing with
every single day, stress, trauma, depression, medical other medical issues.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
So there's a lot of things that contribute to to that,
and our job and our mission is to be there
when people need us.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And you know, like a lot of medical conditions, if
not most, the best care is preventative care. So if
people think, oh, I don't want to go until I
have a nervous breakdown or this or that, like just
going and talking to someone can get that out. I mean,
I have personal experience myself and my daughter. So you know,
there's a misconception. I think of those that have heard
of family services, all past is a I'm not poor
(04:35):
enough to go, you know that, you know, to put
it plainly, or you know, I don't have insurance and
I can't go. But whether you have good insurance or
you feel like you know, I don't have those extra
five ten dollars to go and you know, take care
of my mental health, you are, you're not turned you know,
like you said, your goal is to not turn people
away for that service.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah, I mean a lot of folks that even haven't surance,
like even my you know, our insurance is there's a
high copay, and so there's a lot of folks that say, oh,
I have insurance, but I can't even afford the copay.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
And so what we do is we work with all.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
The folks that come in and we'll sit down and
our folks will meet with them, and we'll come out
with a plan that says, you know, there's a kind
of a sliding fee scale that we can work with
you and say like, okay, well, we know if we
can't afford this, and let's figure out what we might
what might be affordable. And we've been able to get
some grants and some other other monies to help us
provide costs at no care for clients. And so I
(05:32):
wish we could do that for everyone, but we can't.
But we certainly have that option available for those that
are most vulnerable, who have the least amount of resources.
And seventy five percent of our clients are are classified
as low income, and so it is a huge portion
of the clients that we serve, and we know how
hard it is. I mean, even people that you know
can make fifty or sixty or seventy thousand dollars a year,
(05:54):
that's still a lot to say. If a counseling session
is you know, eighty ninety one hundred dollars, and we
don't everyone knows what the price of eggs are in
the country, and so you're struggling with food, you're struggling
with gas and just living expenses.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
A lot of times we put that mental health.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Thing on the back burner and say, well, I can't
afford to do it right now, or I'm going to
wait until it gets worse, and we don't want that.
We really want to make sure if you really feel
like you could really benefit from speaking to a trained
therapist or counselor before it gets worse, we want to
make sure that we're there for that. Regardless again of
(06:33):
income or insurance, or where you live or what zip
code you're in. We're here to serve everyone.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And what ages are the clients? I mean, do you
because I know like some people only specialize in kids
and you know, geriatric, So what are the ages that
you all accept.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah, we serve clients from ages four on up, and
so interestingly, about thirty percent of all of our clients
last year we're under the age of eighteen, so it's
a large function of the clients that we serve. We
also have a number of our therapists are specifically trained
in child therapy, and so there are different types of
methods that you use in child therapy, or even certain
(07:12):
types of toys that we have. We have a specially
designated room which is just child therapy and they're seeing
like you know, kinetic sand and very specific toys that
we have that our therapists are trained to you so
help the child be able to kind of talk through
what it is that you're dealing with. And so that's
a very unique portion of who we serve, our youth,
(07:32):
particularly under the age of eighteen, but.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
We also serve of everyone.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
We have senior citizens, we have military, we have veterans.
It kind of rang us up the whole gamut of
folks that we serve, and so it really it really
is the you know here for the entire community, not
just one segment.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
You know, it's interesting how you see something in your
child and right away, oh, I'm not taking the doctor.
I'm gonna take them the therapists. When it comes to yourself,
you're like, I could wait, you know, I'm guilty of
that in a lot of things. But then you have
to remember that you are the example. Kids don't lead
by what you say, they lead by what you do.
So you could say this, You could say that you
can tell them your mental health is important, but if
(08:11):
they see you actually going and trying to take care
of your mental health too, even though ah, it's just
the way we grew up, it's just they are going
to be more likely to act, to be open and
receptive to that help as well. And I think something
that I've also gathered is that there's a stigma with Okay,
this location that offers therapy is geared toward, you know,
(08:32):
lower income clients, so people tend to think the quality
of the therapy is not going to be there. But
that I mean, I've met some of the therapists. I
know that the quality is there. Can you speak to
those people that may have that in their mind?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Our licensed professional counselors are folks that have gone through
two years of graduate school. They've gone through three thousand
hours of training before the licensed and so the folks
that have been with our organization that are working. We
have some therapists, licensed therapists here that have been here
for fifteen twenty years that have been working for us.
(09:11):
Most are probably between eight to ten years and the
amount of time that they've worked with us. The other
thing that's really interesting from our perspective is that we
have kind of a training institute where we work in
partnership with like, for example, the University of Texas at
Olpaso for those graduate level interns. So they're beginning to
work on their career and so they'll do their internships
(09:33):
with us, they'll complete the three thousand hours postgraduate with us,
and then all of our almost all of our staff
therapists are that work for us also did their internship,
so they've been with us for a long time. And
the other thing that's great about that is that clients,
the average number of sessions that folks will take with
(09:53):
us is between fifteen to twenty sessions of therapy sessions.
And so it's an important also that they they want
to stay with that counselor. You know, if you if
you've had to find a counselor and I've had a
couple of my life and once I'm like, no, it's
not a good fit. You find a therapist that's a
good fit for you, you want to stay with them.
And so that's one of the things that's important about,
(10:13):
you know, having that type of seniority and that experience
on our staff and our therapists that are involved, that
a client's going to take fifteen or twenty sessions, they
know that they're going to have in most cases, the
same therapist is going to be there with them because
they know them. And also there's that stigma cause I
don't want to, you know, tell somebody else everything.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I don't want to have to sort of you know,
re victimization.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
In some cases have to have to tell everybody to
start over from scratch and start over. So that's really
important for us from from our perspective and my perspective
is that if you find a therapist that you really
like and you connect with connect with them, that we're
able to continue that process throughout the length of the
sessions that you take.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And in my experience, you know from years ago, since
there are different therapists there, you can actually go to
one not a right fit, so you can go to
another one because they're all in the same building, which
is not easy to find if you're just joining us.
We have executive director for Family Service of l PASO,
David Share. Now, David, you've told us about what kind
(11:14):
of therapy that you give to the community, a little
bit about how it works. But you aren't nonprofit, you know,
and all nonprofits need two things. They need volunteers and
they need money. So I want to go over one
of the events coming up that again I'm also excited
to be a part of it is your mental health
Stars of our Passo. Can you tell us a little
(11:36):
bit more about that?
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Sure, thank you, We're excited to have our second annual event.
And when I started, we didn't really have a big
sort of signature fundraising event that we have. We've passed
some things in the past, and so I wanted to
do something unique and something different that was going to
help raise awareness about who we are and what we do,
but also raise those it does take money to do
(11:58):
what we do and so and so having a fundraising event,
not just a galalb, but also recognizing others in the
community that are from whether it's a community partner that
we work with or we did a new award called
the Richard Salcedo Lifetime Achievement Award and recognition of mister Salcedo,
who had had mentioned had been our longtime executive director
(12:19):
before we retired. And so we actually have our the
new award recipients that we'll be announcing this week. The
event's going to be Wednesday, May twenty eighth, from six
to nine pm and information is available on our website
at Family Service Willpasso dot org. We have sponsorships available.
Folks that want to volunteer maybe to help out at
(12:40):
the event would be a great way to get involved.
Companies that have silent auction items will gift certifics. There
are gift baskets. Anybody that's listening that wants to play
golf would want to donate, you know, around the golf somewhere,
or restaurant, movies and so all those things that people
love at silent auctions are things that we could use
to help us. Is money to make sure that we
(13:01):
can provide those mental health services regardless again of a
person's income.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And again a lot of those mental health services going
towards kids. I don't care. I'm pulling on heart strings.
That's what you know. It's my show, so I can
so Mental Health Stars of All pass the May twenty
So it's kind of it's like a gala. Correct.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, it's a little less formal, but we really want
people to come and have have fun and have a
good time.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Last year we had the passal don Aren't They a
Big band?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
So we kind of had that that sound going And
we're finalizing details for who are our entertainment is going
to be this year. But we're going to have a
kind of a Hispanic theme this year. So we're we
just got out of a planning meeting a little bit
ago to uh, we have some ideas and that hopefully,
hopefully some more to announce here in the next couple
of weeks. But again, there are people that are listening
(13:46):
that want to help out, whether it's a ticket to
come to the event, make an online donation, and companies
particularly that want to you know, you want to connect
with your mission of supporting your employees, supporting the community,
and we are we been doing this for one hundred
and thirty three years. We are the oldest nonprofit and
in terms of service, we actually provided over twenty thousand
(14:09):
therapy sessions last year and so that's really a testament
to one, I think, the respect and trust that people
have in our organization and our ability to meet the
need of the community. But we also know there are
more people on a waiting list, there are more people
that need help, and we want to make sure that
we're there and that we have the resources to be
(14:30):
able to meet that need.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Definitely, And if you want more information, you can follow
them on Instagram at Family Service el Paso or on
Facebook Family Service of Alpaso. You can keep updated on
all those changes that are going to happen at this
event Mental Health Stars of al Paso or go to
Family Service OFFLPASO dot org. Now, David, before I let
you go, you guys did your research on me. When
(14:55):
I joined the board, I did a little bit of
research on you, and your background is very impressive. Can
you tell the El Paso community a little bit about
the executive director of Family Service of Olpaso.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Sure, I'm a little humble, but I've been blessed to
be in the nonprofit sector now for about twenty six years.
I've spent about half of that time with the American
Red Cross, but I've also including two years here with
the Red Cross and OPASO. I've had the privilege to
be involved with organizations that are helping people affect it
from domestic violence and sexual assault, people that have families
(15:29):
impacted by lou Garrigg's disease. Had the privilege to serve
as a statewide executive director for the Als Association of Texas.
I've worked for national nonprofits, but really my focus, and
I made reference earlier, is really helping people who have
had a bad day. So whether it's the disaster victim,
or whether it's someone who's really going through a tough
challenge from anxiety and stress or issues with their lives,
(15:52):
and so my focus has really been trying to make
a difference for people, whether it's mental health or the
other things I've been involved with. Passo is such a
great community. I met my wife here, We're very connected
and we love this community. And I'm just glad and
blessed to be in a position to lend some of
my experience and what I've done and what the vision
(16:13):
I have for this organization to continue to be there
for our past ones.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, we're lucky to have you too, And David, before
I let you go, is there anything else that you
would like to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
We just really appreciate everyone's support. Amber, thank you and
iHeart for allowing us this opportunity. And you know, family
service will Passo is probably the best kept secret in
the community, and I think the more we want people
to learn more about that we exist and what we
do and how we can help and so for that
we are grateful for you and I heart for helping
us to get that message out.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Glad glad to help you do that. And if you
go to our power one on two Sunday ninety nine
point nine or ninety six point three k Country Instagram
or Facebook. There will be pictures. There will be more
information about this interview, more information about mental health Stars
of El Paso or you can find them on Instagram
Family Service of El Paso or on Facebook Family Service
(17:08):
of El Paso or go to Family Service of Alpaso
dot org. David, thank you so much for being here
with me today. Welcome back to the Al Paso Public Forum.
I am your host, Amberbanda, and today we have Brian Godfreed.
He is the director of Marketing and outreach for Relentless IQ.
(17:29):
This is a fairly brand new nonprofit. We were talking
about this earlier. Brian, thank you so much for being
here with me today.
Speaker 6 (17:34):
Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Of course, so Relentless IQ. Love the logo if you
if you want to go look at it relentlessiq dot org.
We don't have enough time to talk about it, but
I just want to say you have to go check
out that logo's really neat. So Brian, what is Relentless IQ.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
So Relentless IQ's, like you said, very new nonprofit. We're
actually just a couple months shy of being a year
in business. And what what we focus on is basically
stepping in and filling the gap for young adults with
all different types of special needs. So after high school,
(18:09):
there's not a whole lot of support activities for the community.
So basically we're stepping in to fill that need with
different types of services that we're looking at, community engagement,
family connections here, mentorship and skills coaching, family crisis support services,
and then big dreams in the future potentially a daily
activity center where we're looking at to provide and restrict care.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That would be awesome. So what you were saying this
is more geared towards, like you said, young adults, So
like you said, after school age. So that's very important
because I didn't even think about that. You know, when
the kids are in school, they have those structured activities,
but outside of school, they're kind of like, Okay, well
what do we do now? And something that I read
on your website is, of course it helps the people
that have the disability or that are differently able, but
(18:54):
it also you know, helps to support the caretakers. So
these are events, these services that you offer, how much
do they cost?
Speaker 6 (19:03):
So for anybody that registers with us, based on our
donor participation and fundraising events anybody who's registered with us
does not cost that members anything. Depending on the level
of what the events might entail, it could be the
caregiver paying just to cover themselves. But the actual covered members,
you know, so whoever they are, the ones that registered
(19:24):
with the different types of differently able situations, as we
like to say, they would be covered based on what
we have for invasion.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Oh wow, and you're a fairly new organization, but what
kind of events have you already had for the for
the group.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
So our first one, our kickoff one, was actually in November.
It was a Thanksgiving pot luck, so it was all
of the all of our iqrs is what we like
to call them iqres. I love that thank you as
well as their their family members whoever was able to
make it that day. And then in December we did
a posada with one of our main board members in
(20:00):
their community area. And then we've spent a couple of
different events and monkey Rock doing like bowling, community events
stuff like that. And then also inside some park mall
we get together and do like some physical activity type
of you know events where we walk around the different
levels in the mall and then you know, we engage
(20:21):
with the different like restaurants and stuff like that, and
you know, teaching them some life skills along the length.
So and then yeah, those are really the main ones
for right now. But you know, all kinds of plans
going forward and different and ideas coming up all the time,
and so I love that.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And even passing by the cat cafe, that's one of
my favorites over there in some of them park mall,
just looking at the kitties. So that's really neat. So
of course to have activities like this, and like you said,
for these services to be free to certain people, you
need two things. Every no nonprofit needs volunteers and money.
So with that being said, you have a golf event
coming up April twenty sixth. Can you tell us more
(21:00):
about that event when it is, How much registration is
all those details.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Yeah, So it's going to be April twenty six at
a scatter day golf course. Registration starts at eleven o'clock
in the morning. It's a four person team scramble, so
for registration we're looking at three sixty for a team
of four, okay, and then one hundred per person if
you do sign up as an individual. So if if
you can get a team together. Definitely take advantage of that.
(21:26):
I'll be good.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, that's awesome. I like that golf course. I remember
going there with my grandpa when I when I was younger.
So you also have something called Beat the Pro Contest
with Backswing Golf. What's out about?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (21:37):
So we actually so they reached out to us. They're
actually a they're not a nonprofit, but they're a small
business that was formed by an awesome lady your named
Mackenzie Lane. She was a LPGA Tour professional.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
What I learned is that these these young ladies have
to fund their own way to follow the tour and
get into different events. So backsworen Golf actually partners with
nonprofits to come in and provide different types of competition
things and you know, add a little excitement and twist
to it, and they end up sharing whatever profits are
(22:12):
made based on their own fundraising within the tournaments, and
they use that to fund their their ladies moving forward,
and then they give a portion of that to the nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Oh that's really neat. So April twenty sixth, your first
annual four person scrambled tournament fundraiser. Again, these funds go
towards helping, you know, with therapies, with events. You know,
when kids get together and they want ice cream and
they want this and they want you know, the crayons
to do the activity or it's not cheap. So if
you can go to Facebook, you can find more information
on Relentless IQ. Again, that's Facebook, or go to relentlessiq
(22:47):
dot org. Now, Brian, I'm going to end this with
a more personal question. Why did you and your wife
Daisy decide to start this organization?
Speaker 6 (22:55):
That's a great question. So my wife Flower kind of
like the foundation builders behind it, but what really started
at was a group of parents. We actually all are
in the Franklin High School community, and you know, just
over like coffee and conversation. One day we realized that
we all shared a similar I don't want to call
(23:16):
it a fear, but you know, basically just looking forward
of our kids moving forward after high school. There's there's
not a whole lot of services available to the community
and all these you know, differently abled young adults coming up,
whether it's not a waiting list where state services can
be years and months and months long. And what we
(23:38):
wanted to do is step in and fill that gap.
And you know, be that next step or not only
the iqer themselves, but they're family members. I mean a
couple of quick stats. According to Psychology Today, divorce rate
for marriages with a special needs child is eighty seven percent,
So easy number there. And then loneliness is actually a
(24:01):
big thing when it comes to these young adults because
they don't have that school community anymore or as frequently.
So according the World Health Organization, they said loneliness is
a pressing health threat, saying that it's mortality effects are
pulled into smoking almost a full pack of cigarettes DOUG.
So just those two things combined. And then again there's
(24:21):
a group of parents. You know, we started, you know,
really talking about it, so we're trying to step in
and take over and build that gap after high school.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I love that. So this golf tournament, you know, there's
opportunities for sponsorships or if you just want a team,
if you want to enter as a player. Again, the
funds go towards helping this very new nonprofit, but I
think it's going to fill a huge gap. Relentless IQ.
You can go to relentlessiq dot org if you want
to get more information in this event in April on
April twenty six. It's also a good place to network
(24:51):
to talk with other parents if you yourself have a
child that's differently able and you feel you need they
need that, or you need that. So, Brian, is there
anything else that you would like to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
No, I just thank you all for your support and
look forward to seeing where we can make it out there.
And please keep following us on Facebook and you see
all the cool things that we're going to be doing
and that we've done in the past, and we appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Awesome.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Thank you, Brian, Thank you very much.
Speaker 7 (25:22):
Welcome back to the.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
El Paso Public Forum.
Speaker 7 (25:25):
I am your host, Amber Vanda, and today we are
going to talk about the second annual Festival of Fords
to benefit Reynolds Home. Here I have with me Star Lucetto.
She is the community outreach coordinator. Star, thank you for
being here with me today. Thank you of Court and
Tanya Langoria, event coordinator and board member. Tanya, thank you
for being here with me today and talking with us.
Speaker 8 (25:46):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
Of course, So Star, you are with the Reynolds Home.
Can you tell us a little bit about what this
organization is Oh.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yes, mam, thank you.
Speaker 9 (25:55):
So the Reynolds Home for thirty five years has been
helping homeless women with their children overcome homelessness and get
them into their own home so they have a safe
place to lay their heads every night. We also teach
in financial literacy so that they don't fall back into homelessness.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Oh I love that.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
I mean, you've been on the show before, you're a veteran,
but you know, I love what you do. I love
the work that you do at the Reynolds Solomon Tania.
It's not hard to see why you chose this organization
to be the beneficiary of the second Annual Festival of Ford.
So can you tell the listening audience what is this
second Annual Festival of Fords.
Speaker 8 (26:28):
Yes, yes, exactly. Okay, So again it benefits the Reynolds
Home because they do such wonderful work. And what we
have done is we have partnered with our sponsor, Casa Ford,
who's been so generous. But Casa Ford and Longhorn Distributing,
O'Reilly Auto Parts, Tent World, Card Parts, Machine Drive Collision
(26:49):
and Village Medical are our sponsors this year. And what
they're doing is they're helping us to make this show
a success. Basically, what we're having is we're having all
four wards, Lincoln's and Mercury cars and trucks. We're inviting
everybody of all ages, all years, and what we're doing
is we have approximately nine I'm sorry, ten classes with first, second,
(27:13):
and third place, and then we have seven individual awards's
President's Choice, Race Car Choice, People's Choice, best Paint, best Wheel,
best Engine, and Best in Show, so everybody, there's something
for everybody. Plus we also have vendors like Western Tech
is going to be there. I'll pass the Hot Rods,
AKA Graphics, the Jewelry Box, Tinworld has a table, also
(27:37):
Lions Club and cast Off it also, you know, because
they are also working with Make a Wish, they've got
a table, and of course Longhorn Distributing they're going to
be there selling products. And so we're going to have
lots of things, face painting and the balloon animals for
the families. And then you know, like I said, there's
(27:57):
beautiful cars. They're exemplary cars and some are even working
process cars. So you get to see all kinds.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
That's so cool. So this event is a car show.
Speaker 7 (28:07):
It's going to be April twenty sixth at Sunland Park
Racetrack and Casino. If you want more information, you can
go to SVT mustangelite dot com. And if you want
more information on the Reynolds home, go to Reynoldshome dot org.
Star Atania was short but sweet, but thank you so
much for being here with me today.
Speaker 8 (28:27):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
You've been listening to El Paso Public Forum, a weekly
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio l Passo. If you, your
organization or event would like to be featured on an
upcoming program, please email to Epforum at iHeartMedia dot com
or call us at nine one five three five one
five four zero zero. Tune in again next week for
(28:49):
another additional of El Paso Public Forum. The preceding program
was recorded at the studios of iHeartRadio l Paso.
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