Daniella Benitez (Build A Miracle)

Daniella Benitez (Build A Miracle)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On with Mario Lopez. All right, let's get the phones
right now. Waiting on hold from Build a Miracle Daniella Benitez.
How are you, Daniella? How are you Danielle? Well, so,
tell us what Build a Miracle does. Build a Miracle
is a nonprofit that builds houses for families down in Tijuana,

(00:22):
and it uses they use sixteen thousand dollars from other
people that other people raise, and they organize everything, They
find the families and do everything for us. So it's
so easy to raise this money and build houses. But
let's get this straight. Though. You're fourteen and your brother
Gabriel does this with you, and he's how old eleven?

(00:43):
He's he's twelve. So you actually you raise the money
and then you physically go down there. You meet these
families and you help build and facilitate you know how
these houses are built, right, Yeah, So you don't just
donate the money, you actually are are down there. Yeah,
it's really fun to go and build and go be

(01:04):
with the family. And when I was talking to one
of the families the other day, she told me, you know,
it's so sweet that you has raised all this money,
but it's even better that you've done here getting your
hands dirty with us. Oh that's so cool. What made
you want to do this, Danielle, or how did you
get into it? So last year I went with my
school at the time, it was noted on the academy

(01:25):
and we went. We had heard about it from our
pe coach and he told us about it and told
us how great it was, and he got to school
to raise a sixteen dollars in a few months. And
then after that we went and built it. And I
didn't want to go build it, but my mom she
told me, you know, let's go do this. I think
you'll like it. And so after going down there and

(01:48):
seeing everything, and going and seeing how they live in
a shack and they sleep on the floor and when
it rains there's water all over the house because it
just pours in from the top and from the bottom.
And so after seeing all that and hearing about how
hard it is to live there, it really made me
want to keep helping and keep building. Wow, that's awesome

(02:12):
and such a you're such a special person to do that.
Actually grew up right on the borders at the quant.
I've been in some of those houses, so I know
exactly what you've seen. What are some of your accomplishments
so far? How how much building have you done? So
we built that house and then I just I raised

(02:32):
the sixteen thousand dollars with all my family and friends
over the summer. Over that summer, so that was another house.
And then right now i'm raising money. Um, I finished
raising money and be started building another house. So that's three.
And then my brother Gabriel, he was inspired to do it,
so he raised that money. Thanks, thank you guys so

(02:55):
much for your donation. That was so sweet. That's another house.
And then we got an anonymous downer who's matched what
we raised. So that's one more house. That's five houses. Wow,
look at you. You You got a whole neighborhood. That's right.
And then then you're also on the Kid's board of
directors for Kids Box, and that's a whole other thing

(03:16):
that I mean, you're just this incredible philanthropist. Tell me,
tell me about that because people need to know. So
kid Box is a clothing band that basically they shipped
your house five tens a year with just a bunch
of different clothing. And for every Box that has kept
a piece of clothing is donated to a kid in
meat and kid Box admission is the club one million

(03:39):
Kids in Need. And so they have been so helpful
because in the summer we went to New York take
blouth all out the kids board of Directors, which are
eleven kids that all our little chilentirouiss and we all
met up and discussed all these ideas on how we
can help other people. And then Kids Box surprised this
with ten dollars clothing each to do whatever we want with.

(04:02):
So I brought all mines Mexico and during our last
build on last Saturday, we went and we passed out
all the clothing, so diste kids got like fresh new
clothing and they were so happy. So I had the
tags on it still wrapped and so that was really special.
And I really love kid Box because they make such

(04:24):
an effort to help people. You know, whatever we need,
they'll help us with. They even gave us, you know,
for our projects if we needed a one dollar budget.
They just we're so helpful with everything. And I'm actually
getting to go back there in November for another meeting
and for a special charity gala. Oh that's awesome, Janie Gosh.
In last question, how can people help if they want

(04:44):
to get involved. If people want to get involved, they
can help with maybe so sometimes wor can they let
people just come and come to the community center and
come play with the kids and hang out, or even
just don't eating small amount too, you know, you can
go straight to the website donate small amounts to that,
our big amounts to that. Anything helps, you know, those

(05:08):
the Mracles really special because you can just donate anywhere
and then another person will finish off your money. You know,
it's really great. Well, Danielle, you're very special and congratulations
on everything and that's awesome work that you're doing on
Mario dot com for all the info on build a Miracle,
and thank you so much for calling in. Say hi
to Gabriel, thank you for having me. Thank you Bye

(05:32):
with Mario. Little Petty