On Saturday, April 30^th ARISE staff and community members celebrated “Dia del Niño”. The theme of this year’s event was “Children Promoting Education”. Children and adults marched from the Mexico Chiquito neighborhood through the South Tower community, waving ARISE flags and signs with messages promoting education. The march culminated at the Hidalgo County Pct. 2 Park in South Alamo. Representatives from Donna and PSJA ISD shared a few words with the crowd, and were followed by four dance performances from ARISE youth and two girls from Edinburg High School. Luptia Lopez, with her sweet voice, sang and played the guitar. The very talented Hoyos family, known as “Mari and Her Spanish Angels”, performed a number of songs and proved to be very inspiring as her four children range in age from 9-24 and play the accordion, bass, and percussion instruments. Maria de Hoyos worked with ARISE many years ago. She wanted to perform for this event as a token of gratitude for the support given to her by the women of ARISE. Fresh out of high school, married with a baby, she met the founder of ARISE, Gerrie Naughton. Gerrie told Maria that if she spoke English she could teach it, and so she began giving English lessons to women in the community, out of her house. This allowed her to take care of her children and gave her husband an opportunity to finish college. “Being so young, I didn’t know what potential I had and Gerrie believed in me. ARISE was a rock for my family and allowed us to start off well.” ARISE organizes these events to show children and their families that the community believes in their potential to do great things. Many thanks to the staff of ARISE South Tower for all the effort and creativity they put into this event!