French Club hosts clothing drive for children’s home, resources scarce

“Our life blood is donations, both in-kind and money.” – Paul Whittler, coordinator at the Lee and Beulah Moor Children’s Home

Kristopher Rivera

Kristopher Rivera, Copy Editor • November 26, 2013

Kristopher Rivera / The Prospector

Jesus Gonzalez, senior psychology major and member of the French Club, takes pies to the face outside the Liberal Arts building in exchange for a $1 donation from students.

A donation drive by the UTEP French Club will be spread thin this year as students try to contribute to different causes.

Last year, the French Club donated about $200 to the Lee and Beulah Moor Children’s Home.

“I’m not too sure if we’ll be able to do that this year, but at least we have a decent collection of winter clothes—jackets and coats,” said David Caraveo, senior pre-nursing major and member of the French Club.

Their current focus will be to collect coats and jackets—sizes fit for babies to teenagers—until Nov. 27, when they will take the last batch collected to the children’s home.

The home is not an orphanage, but more of a family-service agency that has expanded its services since the home opened in 1959. It runs on a trust fund started by the founders.

“You hear stories, where the parents try their best or you hear parents say, ‘I wish I would have done this,’” Caraveo said. “You do what you can, there’s nothing else to it. If you can learn something new to help, you give it a shot.”

Right now the home is at capacity with 60 children in its care—12 are in foster care and 47 are in general residence on the 13-acre campus, located on Cliff Drive.

The trust fund takes care of the day-to-day operations including utility bills. However, it does not take care of the food, the clothing or any other essentials for the kids.

The children’s home is a private non-profit and they don’t receive funds from the state or federal government. They also write grants to receive additional funding.

The French Club has placed two boxes in the Liberal Arts Building for donations. One is by the main entrance and the other is in the language and linguistics department, located on the first floor.

“Our life blood is donations, both in-kind and money. Everything that we have—the books in the library, the tables, the chairs—everything is donated,” said Paul Whittler, community relations development coordinator at the Lee and Beulah Moor Children’s Home. “If that dried up we would close in an instant because we wouldn’t be able to adequately take care of the kids like we do.”

Whittler said they accept anything from clothing and electronics to furniture and more.

“You name it, we take it and we can use it,” he said.

Families voluntarily place children ages 5-15, in the home for a variety of reasons.

“The economic disadvantage is just one case,” Whittler said. “We have grandparents, who are sole guardians of their grandkids, and they get to the point where they can no longer properly take care of them on a day-to-day basis.”

More information on the children’s home may be found at leemoor.org.

Kristopher Rivera may be reached at [email protected].

About the Contributor

Kristopher Rivera, Copy Editor

At the beginning of Kristopher Rivera’s sophomore year, he was sitting in a psychology course, pondering his future in regards to a career. He questioned if he really wanted to pursue a career in psychology, which was his major at the time. Feeling uncertain, he began to think of how one decision at that moment would shift everything about his future. He seemed to do well when it came to writing, and he enjoyed reading about bands in magazines such as Alternative Press, Rolling Stone and SPIN. So then he did some research and found that journalism was the way to go. Now, Rivera, senior multimedia journalism major, is scheduled to graduate this fall. It’s also marks his third year with the Prospector. He’s covered stories in sports, entertainment and news. In between some time at the Prospector, Rivera landed two internships. He spent his fall 2012 semester in Washington D.C. as an intern reporter for the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire. Many UTEP students like him have had the privilege to go experience living at the nation’s capital. He covered stories in the area, and saw political figures such as President Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Rivera also had a nice opportunity to see the Who at the National Press Club, where they talked about their organization to help children with cancer. This summer Rivera was in Sacramento, Calif. working as an intern reporter for the Sacramento Bee newspaper. He had the opportunity to cover all kinds of stories such as a homicide, community events, major league baseball games—specifically the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants, and he had some opportunities to work on some music features. He interviewed Ellie Goulding, Cedric Bixler-Zavala (the Mars Volta/At the Drive-In), Randy Ebright of Molotov and a few other artists. Rivera said he’s been blessed to have these opportunities, and it all started at the Prospector. Rivera is also a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.