Arizona Mother And Son Raise Money To Help Texas

Many Texans are need of help after last week's snowpamegedon. Many were without power, water, and groceries, so 19 year old Collin Camp and his mother Marnel Martinez from Arizona felt the need to help out. This goes right along with our 8:50 Feel Good segment we do every morning, where we highlight people who do good deeds or stories that just make you feel good. 

According to OAOA:

Marnel  Martinez said: “We’ve always had this funny fascination with Texas,” Martinez said. “We always joke that we can mesh well with Texans. I said, ‘well, we could raise as much money as we can and buy as much as we can and then drive down there on Sunday.’”

The duo contacted the bigger cities like Austin and Dallas to help and were advised to help smaller areas that might not get as much attention. So they decided on Odessa. They contacted the Odessa Chamber of Commerce who put them in touch with Christmas In Action.

How did they choose Odessa:

“We didn’t want to go too far in case there was another freeze,” Camp said. “We looked around. We asked the Chamber of Commerce who they would suggest and know who will put all the money and supplies and give it to the people who would need it. The rest was just packing and driving.”

Collin and his mother raised $5,000, stocked up and headed to Texas. Along the way they kept raising money and would stop and pick up more supplies.

According to the Odessa American:

The Odessa Chamber of Commerce was able to connect Martinez and Camp with executive director of the Odessa Christmas in Action Barbara Nunez so that they could help with home repairs and supply distribution.

Christmas in Action is a nonprofit agency that, in partnership with the community, repairs homes of low-income elderly and/or disabled homeowners.

Over the weekend, Camp and Martinez began collecting cash, donations and supplies. They have raised approximately $5,000.

By Sunday, they had loaded up a U-Haul full of items and began the trip to West Texas.

“It was amazing,” Martinez said. “It all came together by the end of the day on Friday. I got up at 3 a.m. Saturday morning and worked until 10 p.m. to shop all day long. We loaded everything. Sunday morning, we realized that we had raised even more money. We had spent a lot at Home Depot so we started spending more at the ACE hardware in Wilcox, Ariz. and they just loaded us up.”

Camp said there weren’t many goals that he and his mother had set before coming out to Odessa, other than to do as much as they could.

“When we were driving here, we saw that we had gained more money and we stopped at other places to load up the truck and kept going,” Camp said.

Martinez and Camp have been helping Christmas in Action clients to rebuild and repair.

“What’s really needed here is plumbers,” Martinez said. “Basically, any maintenance or handy men or anyone who knows anything about plumbing. We brought the supplies but what they really need are the plumbers who can do the work for the elderly and low-income people.”

 

The two were more than happy to help.

Camp says the past few days have been awesome and that it’s been a good feeling to help out as many people as possible before they leave back for Arizona on Wednesday.

“It feels great,” Camp said. “It’s great how nice everyone here has been to us. I’m very happy to able to help out.”

Martinez echoed those thoughts.

“I just think it’s been an awesome experience to help out my son,” Martinez said. “I’m so impressed with him and so proud. It’s been really heartwarming to see the community. Also, there’s so much anger and negativity in the world. For him to see how many people will step up in our community is great.”

We are so grateful for people like this out there that are always look out for others.