Georgia Northwestern Technical College students are raising money for children affected by Hurricane Harvey (with VIDEO)

Published 6:39 pm Thursday, October 26, 2017

Norma Martinez said she and her fellow Georgia Northwestern Technical College classmates thought “outside the box and state” for their Team Project assignment.

Martinez, Alejandro Cruz, Jocelyn Diana Garcia, Kimberly Glover and Adrian Gutierrez are business management students at the college’s Whitfield-Murray campus. The students started Christmas for Houston, a nonprofit that will provide gift cards for children affected by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston, Texas, area.

“Our goal is to raise money to provide Christmas presents,” Martinez said.

Through donations, selling T-shirts and a GoFundMe page they have raised $2,600 of their $5,000 goal.

“We wanted to do something to help other people,” Glover said. “We are all sharing people who want to give back.”

Glover said as a group they agreed to help children in Houston.

“We saw on the news that children were throwing away their (damaged) toys,” Glover said. “That really touched my heart and helped us decide that’s what we wanted to do.”

Team Project is part of a semester-long class for business management students, Professor Leyner Argueta said.

“Students are required to do a project that demonstrates what they’ve learned in the class,” he said. “The goal is to not only demonstrate but understand how to market, advertise, promote and structure something legally.”

Argueta said students also need to know how to manage finances and run a business from the ground up.

Students are required to provide Argueta with an update every week leading to December. Presentations will be done on Dec. 7 and 14.

“I will be grading on organization, techniques and, of course, did the project succeed,” he said. “Success in their case will be determined by providing families gift cards for their children.”

Glover said they are teaming with Grace Presbyterian Church in Houston.

“The church is a hub for the community and has been collecting supplies,” Glover said. “They have about 140 families that lost everything.”

Beth Craig, coordinator of special projects at Grace Presbyterian, said Glover emailed her two weeks after the hurricane inquiring about helping families.

“I offered to be the point person to help put them in touch with families,” Craig said.

Craig was impressed the students offered to help strangers.

“It’s quite American of folks to help Houstonians in a bad situation,” she said. “We’re grateful for their willingness to do this and love on people they don’t even know.”

Cruz and Gutierrez plan to drive to Texas in December to help distribute the gift cards.

“We want to meet the kids and make sure the gifts are going to them,” Cruz said. “There will probably be $50 per kid. We want to make sure all the money we raised is going to the right people.”

Gutierrez is the group’s treasurer.

“We’ve already raised over $2,000 from selling items at flea markets, raffles, T-shirts and asking local businesses for help,” he said. “We have a lot of progress and are asking more businesses to donate.”

Gutierrez said once the group reaches it goal they plan to split any extra money between Mexico and Puerto Rico where residents were affected by Hurricane Maria.

“We’re very blessed the community has stepped up to give,” he said. “In the wake of all the tragedy going on it’s such a blessing communities and businesses are contributing.”

Garcia created sites for people to donate on Facebook under “Christmas for Houston” and at GoFundMe (www.gofundme.com/christmasforhouston). T-shirts are available for $15 by emailing the students at normateamotanto@gmail.com, kimmybucks@gmail.com or adrian.velasquez@shawinc.com. There is also an account set up at Atlantic Capital Bank under Christmas for Houston.

“We really want to change someone’s life,” Garcia said. “We think this is a great opportunity to brand ourselves and get our name out there for donations.”

Glover said Hurricane Harvey will affect families, especially children, for years.

“I’m happy we’re helping them with Christmas,” she said. “It’s a blessing to put smiles on their faces because they’ve been through so much devastation already.”