Hollister girl has a history of giving
When Aviana
”
Avi
”
Guaracha received the 2006 Philanthropist Award from the
Community Foundation for San Benito County, it was no surprise to
people who know her. The 11-year-old Hollister girl has been
involved with fund-raising since she was just 3.
Hollister girl has a history of giving
When Aviana “Avi” Guaracha received the 2006 Philanthropist Award from the Community Foundation for San Benito County, it was no surprise to people who know her. The 11-year-old Hollister girl has been involved with fund-raising since she was just 3.
The 5th grader doesn’t look like your typical philanthropist. Dressed in sneakers, jeans and a hoodie, Guaracha looks like any other ‘tween. She has a bright, toothy smile and a head full of dark curls. She was soft-spoken the day she met with the newspaper and let her mother do some of the boasting for her, but above all she was confident.
Guaracha doesn’t know anybody in Iraq, but a friend of Guaracha’s mother asked if Guaracha could help collect items U. S. troops don’t usually get while serving on the frontlines.
Guaracha knows a thing or two about fund-raising. One of her first volunteer efforts was with El Teatro Campesino when she was 3. In addition to other fund-raisers, she collected $45,000 for Mission San Juan Bautista.
When she heard soldiers in Iraq don’t typically get things such as coffee or sweets, she decided to help collect some of these items and send them to the troops.
One of the first things Guaracha did was to brainstorm companies that produce items the soldiers were interested in. Snack-type foods such as Oreos, chips, beef jerky and coffee-drinks – since tea is the drink of choice in Iraq – are hard to come by. Guaracha wrote letters to the companies indicating what she was trying to do.
“A lot of the companies didn’t really take her seriously,” Guaracha’s mother, Nissa said. “They thought ‘What can an 11-year-old do?’ Some of the other companies were already doing something.”
Then Guaracha went to Safeway to ask for ideas for companies that might be willing to help and found an ally.
Safeway Manager Jimmy Costillas told Guaracha he would talk to vendors that deliver food to Safeway and see if some of them would be willing to donate products Guaracha has only been collecting food for two weeks, but she is making progress. She doesn’t have a definitive date for the end of her collection, but knows that she wants to collect enough to fill a large truck.
Fund-raising has become somewhat of a hobby for Guaracha and her sister, Natasha, 13. The girls were raised in a family that strives to make life better by getting involved. The family regularly looks for ways to be involved with the community and support causes that need assistance, Nissa said.
“I think that my friend approached Avi because she knew that Avi doesn’t see the ‘No’ possibility,” Nissa said. “She doesn’t give up easily.”
It’s like a game to Guaracha – seeing how much money she can collect – and then the next time raising more, her mother said.
The fifth grader attends Willow Grove School where she gets straight A’s and enjoys being involved in acting and dancing.
“I’ve seen my girls, on more than one occasion, hurry to do their homework so they could go work on a volunteer project,” Nissa said.
Guaracha plans to inform school officials about what she is doing in hopes that they, too, will get involved.
“We didn’t set out looking for troops in Iraq,” Guaracha said. “These things just kind of fall into our lives and we support them.”
Patrick O’Donnell can be reached at
po*******@pi**********.com
