DENVER – This November, Servicios de La Raza distributed 500 meals to people in the community who needed them just before Thanksgiving. They hope to distribute another 500 before Christmas. But before they can do that, they need to gather more food.
Helping with the food distribution, and the donation collecting, is volunteer Aiden Hernandez. Just a senior in high school, he has been a familiar face at nearly every event Servicios de La Raza has recruited volunteers for this year.
“I volunteer for Servicios because it is one of the largest Denver-founded nonprofits and it was founded by Latinos,” Aiden said before adding that it’s important to him to volunteer around the holidays.
“I'm fortunate enough to have the time on Thanksgiving to be with my family. But the other time I can designate to help others,” he said.
Working around a school schedule isn’t easy. He worked with Lisa Saenz at Servicios de La Raza to come up with a plan allowing him to volunteer as much as he wants – when he’s not in school.
“He wanted to do everything all at once,” Saenz said. “He's always calling to make sure that he can participate even if he's not physically here. He's doing fundraisers, and working on things behind the scenes from school.”
- To donate to Servicios de La Raza for Colorado Gives Day, click here
- To learn more about Servicios de La Raza programs & volunteer opportunities, click here
That includes bringing friends with him to volunteer when he can.
“Volunteering at a young age helps gain the perspective of what it's really like in the world, otherwise you're just kind of like, sheltered, or you don't really understand what the real world is like,” Aiden said. “And you're not able to shape your views on where you want to be in the future based off of that.”
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