Three students from Tioga ISD are giving back to the organization that introduced them to sports as kids.
Tioga Family Career and Community Leaders of America members Lacie Gray, Emily Ballinger and Citlaly Zuniga organized a program to highlight local businesses or families while giving back to their community at the same time.
“All of us were in sports growing up, and I know our families were not all that well off and struggled with paying the admission fees, so we wanted to help those kids and parents,” Gray said.
The girls explained the idea came from Zuniga.
“Our idea occurred to us whenever she went to Colorado,” Gray said. “She found a park with her family where she got the idea and wanted to tie that into our community.” The program, which hinged on Christmas trees donated by locals, saw participants receive a tree to decorate and showcase during Tioga’s Christmas on Gene Autry for a small fee.
The proceeds from those contributions the girls chose to donate to TYSA for kids to have their participation fees paid.
“It’s enough for two registration fees, enough to cover all the registration,” Zuniga said. “They’ll know all the families’ financial needs and figure out who needs the most financial aid. We’re hoping we can do more next year.”
Ballinger explained that the 16 trees they gathered during the first run are a good start, but they’d like to see the program grow next year.
“We have a couple ideas on different businesses and organization we can contact,” Gray said. “For instance, the Grayson Children’s Advocacy Center. They come to the elementary every year and talk to them. They help out with their school, and we thought it would be cool to show the meaning they have to us. We’ll also definitely get the word out sooner so we can get more people on deck.”
