Employees of Catholic Charities and Frost Bank's A Team received an honorable mention award from Partners in Prevention for providing "birthday parties in a box" for children enrolled in the Parents as Teachers program. Receiving the award in the front row, from left, are Laura Cook (Vice President of Frost Bank), Irene Burg (Frost Bank employee), Lisa Cox (Frost Bank employee) and Angie Garcia (director of the Parents as Teachers Team.) In the back row from left, are Brandy Hibdon (parent educator), Michelle Gonzales (Frost Bank employee), Kristofer Morgan (parent educator) and Lizania Garcia (parent educator). Parent educator Valerie Montemayer is not pictured here. Catholic Charities' Community Wellness and Family Outreach program received an Honorable Mention award from the Department of Family and Protective Services' Partners in Prevention for their collaboration with employees of Frost Bank of Corpus Christi. The partnership between Catholic Charities and Frost Bank employees provides "birthday parties in a box" for children enrolled in the Parents as Teachers (PAT) program.
"Our parent educators make home visits every day that we work, so they know when a child is celebrating a birthday," said Angie Garcia, director of the PAT team at Catholic Charities. The PAT parent educators are Lizania Garcia, Brandy Hibdon, Valerie Montemayer and Kristofer Morgan.
"Most of the families are pretty underserved," Garcia said. "We want to minimize stress in the family and provide whatever we can along the way, so they don't get to that point where they may neglect or abuse their children."
The award recognizes creating partnerships in the community that have a more a meaningful impact in these families' lives, Garcia said. The volunteer organization within Frost Bank—with which the Community Wellness and Family Outreach program collaborates—is called the A Team.
"We do multiple events throughout the year. This is one of our ongoing projects," said Laura Cooke, Vice President of Frost Bank and member of the Frost Bank employees' A Team.
The Frost Bank employees on the "A Team" are Irene Burg, Laura Cook, Lisa Cox and Michelle Gonzales. They have been donating and delivering “birthday parties in a box” for the past five years for children at The Ark, Women's Shelter, Metro Ministries and similar non-profit agencies dedicated to serving families in need.
The contents of the boxes include gifts, a tablecloth, cake mix, frosting and party favors.
Client families of the Parents as Teachers program are referred to services offered at Catholic Charities. Parents as Teachers programs operate in various settings, including schools, hospitals, faith based organizations and housing communities. For more information, visit
www.ParentsAsTeachers.org.