Food drive set April 4, 5 for family with 16 children
Edwin Rivera and a friend, Nancy Marquez, who are helping a single mom who is raising a total of 16 children, including her own and those of a relative and friends in the Dominican Republican, will hold a food drive on April 4 and 5 at the Dollar General Store in the Lehigh Town Centre on the corner of Alabama and Homestead roads. Rivera just returned from the Dominican Republic where he went to see progress on the addition of a second floor to the family’s small concrete block house.
“They’re doing good on the construction upstairs. We help her by sending money as does her friend there. The house needed a second floor for a bathroom and a couple of bedrooms” Rivera said.
“But even with her working and the poor condition in the Dominican Republican, it is difficult for her to purchase food. That’s why we are holding this weekend project to provide non-perishable foods to fly down to the woman and the children she is raising.
Many of the children’s parents were caught up in violence in this poor nation and the woman who is caring for them does not want to seem to separated from their siblings.
“She’s doing a really great job in caring for them,” but she needs some help with food. A lot of women in the community help her out with care, too,” Rivera said.
The children range in ages between three and 15, he said.
He and Marquez were the subject of a story a year ago in The Lehigh Acres Citizen. There were photos of Rivera, who is a supervisor at the Dollar General store, of him with the 16 children.
“They are very well disciplined and appreciate for the help the family gets,” he said. “I think even the youngest understand how hard it is for the woman, but she provides plenty of love to those kids,” he said.
The public is being asked to bring food or to buy food items at the Dollar General this coming weekend to put into a drum to be taken to the Dominican Republic.
“We’ll make sure she gets every item that is brought for her,” Rivera said.
Both send money for the building of the second story of the modest home and Rivera says he thinks it will be completed in about three or four months.
“It will be so good for them because now they are all sleeping all together in the same room, some on the floor,” he said.
Rivera said his store manager supports the cause and if anyone would like to see the photos of the family they are helping, just ask for him and he will show them to you.
“They are really good kids and we want to see them do well in school and have a future,” he said.
The Dollar General is located at 21 Homestead Rd. in the same shopping center that Jack’s Market is in and a few doors south of that store.
“We want to also thank those who have helped before. It has been very good for the family to know there are people here in Lehigh who care about them,” Rivera said.