AdvoCats Help and Hope Luncheon

Motivational speaker, aerospace engineer, and former Rocket Scientist with NASA Shayla Rivera headlined the annual Aledo Children’s AdvoCats Help and Hope Luncheon on Friday, Sept. 15, at Ridglea Country Club.

Emceed by Gloria Barron, the fundraising luncheon celebrated 21 years since the formation of the AdvoCats.

Emcee Gloria Barron welcomed the group.

Event co-chairs were Christi James (left) and Jessica Williams.

Event chair Christi James, on behalf of herself and co-chair Jessica Williams, welcomed the group to the event.

Following lunch, AdvoCats board chair Lisa Robertson and founding member Lynn McKinney talked about the 20-plus year history of the organization.

McKinney recalled that when she and her husband came to Aledo in 1986 they saw Aledo as an affluent, tight-knit community.

Motivational speaker Shayla Rivera provided the keynote speech.

Lynn McKinney, left, and AdvoCats president Lisa RObertson talked about the history of the AdvoCats.

“But as I had the opportunity to get to know more students and their families, as a campus and district administrator, my perspective changed significantly in a very short period of time,” McKinney said. “In working with individual students, there were many situations when there would be a need and a group of teachers or a group of staff members would pull together in order to financially assist.”

McKinney said the list ranged everywhere from needing a prom dress to needing a car repaired.

“From these situations, we began to create a list of resources and also individuals that we could count on for help when these situations occurred,” McKinney said. “Everything from local ministers and churches and area businesses; we sought out counselors and dentists and doctors that would serve kids for reduced rates. And we worked with individuals in the community who, quite frankly, would give us money when we needed it. But as you can imagine, we lacked a coherent system to serve the needs of our kids 21 years ago, and we obviously knew we needed a better way.”

McKinney said that over the years the needs have increased along with the increase in population and increase in cost of living.

“I'm willing to bet that many of us in this room, we don't think twice about it,” McKinney said. “We take our kids to the dentist, we take our kids to the doctor, we sign them up for camps — we do all sorts of extracurricular activities. We take them shopping. We don't think’'are we going to be able to pay our utility bills this month,’ when it's 110 outside or when it’s January and it’s minus 6 —  those things are not in our daily reality.”

She pointed out, however, that there are many families who struggle just to get their basic needs met.

“I could have never envisioned the remarkable organization that AdvoCats has become and developed over the years,” McKinney added. “The reason why that has happened was many, many hours of discussion, brain power, hard work, all of which was volunteered. It's busy people who say, ‘I'll do that. I can fit that in the schedule,’ and to make things happen in our community.”