Aid Comes Straight From the Heart

When it comes to collecting donations for the needy in Mexico, 13-year-old Monica Morrissey knows what to say.

“I went to a classroom and asked how many kids had a big dinner last night and how many of them knew they were going to have a big dinner that night. They all raised their hands, and I said, ‘In Mexico, the poor never expect to get anything to eat.’ ”

Monica and the rest of the eighth-grade class at St. Hedwig School in Los Alamitos were excused Friday to help pack 1,200 grocery bags to be sent to the needy in Tijuana.

Caravan to Tijuana

Today, more than 150 members of the Catholic parish and a handful of members from Corazon, an Orange County nonprofit charity group, will pile into 60 vehicles for a three-hour trek to the poorest side of Tijuana for the group’s annual “pre-Christmas party.”

They will personally deliver the food, blankets and clothes to some of the area’s most impoverished residents.

“They are all excited,” said Corazon founder Jennie Castillon, referring to the Tijuana residents who will receive the donations.

Corazon, which Castillon founded in 1978, means heart in Spanish.

Monica’s father, Jim Morrissey, said, “People (in Tijuana) are being held hostage by poverty.”

“The people we’re helping live in shacks. They have dirt floors, no heat, electricity or toilets. Their roofs are made of tin and are being held up by old tires,” he said.

As the food-drive coordinator, Morrissey said he raised $8,500 in contributions last month.

But far more important, he says, is the number of volunteers who have been making the trip each of the last five years that the church has been involved with the food drive.

“You have people in Mercedes Benzes driving into these poor towns,” he said. “But what you really have is humans meeting humans. After a while, it doesn’t matter how much money you have.”

“It’s really an eye-opener,” said Corazon President David Dunn.

Corazon founder Castillon said that helping Tijuana’s poor is a year-round commitment for the group. In addition to weekly trips members make to Tijuana with food, blankets and clothing, Corazon members have built 50 houses in Tijuana and last year opened a medical clinic there.

Dunn said the work is tiring and dirty, but “I’m not satisfied just giving money.”

Said Morrissey, looking at his daughter: “It also plants a seed for the next generation.”