EL CENTRO — The lively faces of families lit up as children excitedly took their best swings at a piñata or waited in line for a photo with Santa. Grandmothers excitedly grabbed large boxes of Tonka trucks or walked away escorting their newly won bicycle to fill their grandchild’s Christmas wish. This was the scene at Our Lady of the Valley’s annual “Embrace” event.
The Embrace brings together the Catholic community of El Centro and neighboring supporting organizations and donors to put together a Christmas-themed event for needy families. The Embrace, now in its ninth year, incorporates food, giveaways such as wrapped gifts, raffle prizes, and children’s activities in order to bring families together “to bring joy and spread the love of Christ,” said Amber Enriquez, the event coordinator, who is in her second year coordinating the event.
“The idea started in my parents’ kitchen nine years ago,” she said. “We would make sack lunches for the homeless on Saturday nights as family, then it evolved to other parishioners wanting to get involved and bring more food items, and that’s how our Homeless Ministry started.”
Per Enriquez, the El Centro Catholic Homeless Ministry was founded by her father, Richard Enriquez, who also coordinated The Embrace for six years.
“Father Ruben Valenzuela would bless the food before my dad would take it to Adams Park. My dad would pray, read the Gospel and take them food, but there was always this idea that he wanted to do more, a big event,” she said, “and it just kind of evolved from there.”
In the years prior to the creation of the Catholic Charities Day Center, The Embrace also used to provide showers, haircuts, new clothes and toiletries for local homeless, but with the Day Center now filling those needs, Enriquez said, The Embrace has re-focused on helping the Imperial Valley’s many needy families, “especially the kids,” be they Catholic or not.
Enriquez said The Embrace utilizes over 120 volunteers and numerous donors, coming together to provide toys, raffle gifts, food and take-home food pantry items for the families, all free of charge. The volunteers man the event’s different stations: the Kitchen, Toy Room, Wrapping Center, Children’s Activities, Raffles and Photos with Santa, and the Food Pantry take-home area.
Enriquez said The Embrace is “rooted in faith,” noting that even before her father’s idea, the charism of charity was instilled in her family by her grandfather, Domingo Enriquez, and was then passed down to her family via her father, Richard, and uncle, Deacon Domingo Enriquez. Amber recounted a tale of the many times a homeless man named “Clarence” would wait at the gate of her grandparents’ home; her grandmother, Elizabeth, would let Grandpa Domingo know the man was waiting. Her “tata” would put together a plate food and take it to the homeless man outside, who would be patiently waiting at the gate.
That example instilled in her father that giving back is something done to show God’s love, Amber said. The Enriquez family honors her deceased tata Domingo by using his personal chair as the seat for The Embrace’s Santa Claus, which Santa sits on to take photos with children at the event.
As Richard Enriquez has passed down the coordination of the event to his daughter Amber, other key helpers of The Embrace are also making it even more of a family affair.
In the Children’s Activities Room, volunteers run arts and crafts, games, a cake walk and more to keep the event attendees’ children entertained, while their parents “shop” for free gifts and get them wrapped at the St. Mary Parish Center.
Volunteer Lupita Moreno-Perez has been running that station for some time, but says she is now having her daughter, Marisa, take over coordinating the Children’s Activities.
“Every year, we see the attendance grow, and that is because of word of mouth — one family shows up and sees we provide everything for free, and they tell others who later show up,” Moreno-Perez said. “They get gifts, a meal, get to do different activities and take things home with them — a cake or cookies, we have a piñata outside with toys or candy — so they get to do lots of different things that they might not necessarily have the opportunity to do outside of this. It’s kind of like our own little carnival for them, and all for free.
“We’ve been able to … recruit volunteers from the local high schools, and we’re grateful to them because they have the energy for the children at this station,” Moreno-Perez said. “It’s good to see the youth … doing it out of their own hearts and not getting paid for it.”
“So, it’s rooted in faith,” Amber Enriquez said. “But more than anything, it’s joy the that I see (in the families who are receiving). There was a little boy whose grandma won a bike for him. He saw the bike, and he just burst into tears. It was the best thing ever; it made my day.”
The parents were also very appreciative of all they received in The Embrace.
“It has been a very beautiful experience. They treat us very well,” said Guadalupe Hernandez, a Brawley resident and mother of four, while her two small children hung at her side or near their newly wrapped gifts.
When asked why she returned to the event for a second consecutive year, Hernandez said, “It’s primarily for the kids.”
“Right now, I’m not working, so I come here to get little gifts for the kids,” Hernandez said in Spanish. “Right now, they are very excited because they wanted to see Santa and all that.”
Hernandez, who heard about the event through family, came to enjoy the event, even though she is not a parishioner. She said she appreciates the Our Lady of the Valley Parish community’s charitable nature.
“I think it’s very nice because many people like me, or who are low-income, don’t have a way to give their kids gifts, so coming here and being given the opportunity to give them a little something like that, I think, is very nice.”
Hernandez said the gifts for her younger children will be “From Santa.”
“I just want to thank the church for giving us the opportunity to come together here with them,” she said.
“And that’s what we’re here for: to spread the love of Christ,” Amber Enriquez said. “(The Embrace) is to show them that, even during these hard times, there is somebody looking out for them.”
