I listened to State Comptroller Glenn Hegar this morning talking about what drives our economic prosperity. The one thing he kept circling back to is something we all know: Education
Getting an early start on education is what AVANCE is all about. We can all think back to all our families and how fortunate we all are to have been given a good education which has led to many successes in our lives.
I first learned about AVANCE in a very innocent way. Our company owns some land beside the AVANCE program facility in Rio Grande City. The facility director reached out to me to see if we could assist them in getting a path cut across our property so they could use it in case of an emergency. The emergency plan was to move all the children off site to an engineering firm a few hundred feet away. Without the path the distance travelled would have been doubled.
We quickly agreed to this but then I was asked to come by to see the work they were doing taking care of not just our young children but also teaching the parents how to better educate their children.
A few weeks later I was able to stop in and take a tour. After the visit I decided we needed to make a donation to help support their efforts.
About a year later the program director reached out to me to see if we could assist with some funds to use towards building a playground for children younger than two years old.
Our board of directors (a few of whom are here tonight) was supportive in allowing me to present a check from the company towards the playground. Seeing the great work being done I also made a personal donation towards the playground fund. When the playground was completed we were excited to be part of the ribbon cutting ceremony seeing the many smiling faces.
With tonight’s sponsorship VTX1 Internet has donated over $17,500 to AVANCE.
VTX1 Companies and Valley Telephone Coop have a very long history of supporting our local communities. Education, youth and our public service departments particularly our volunteer fire departments.
One of the influencers in my life is a book entitled Out of Poverty by Paul Polak.
He discusses in length how increased educational opportunities give our children a better chance to escape poverty. As education levels increase better job opportunities come Along with that comes better health care and so the circle continues to spiral up.
We encourage everyone and every company to do their small part and collectively we will all win.
That is how we ended up being the title sponsor for tonight. No one else was stepping up so we did.
We have decided we will be the company that will take the lead instead of waiting on others so the momentum starts.
Editor's Note: The above commentary was provided by Patrick McDonnell, CEO of VTX1 Companies at AVANCE's 50th Anniversary event held at The Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg on Jan. 30, 2024. VTX1 was title sponsor of the event.
