POSTED: Thursday, November 17, 2011 - 8:16pm
UPDATED: Friday, November 18, 2011 - 6:57am
EL PASO - This morning one hundred Montana Vista families gathered to get free turkeys and all the fixings to make a Thanksgiving dinner.
Tina Silva is the woman behind it all.
"I don't have any money. I only knock on doors and tell them to help me, to help my community," she said.
Silva has been giving out meals to people in her community for 21-years now. She's able to do it simply by asking other people for donations.
"I wish we could do this every day, need is everywhere you go. There are one-thousand families in Montana Vista. I wish I could have something for everybody, but that's impossible."
Silva asked local politicians and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office to donate the food, and they did. You might ask, why would she put so much effort into this year after year? Well, Silva has lived in Montana Vista for 30-years now, and the people there have become her family.
"It's my community. I'm not going nowhere," Silva said.
It's her community, but the community is by far lucky to have her.
"A lot of people don't have money to buy a turkey and stuff, so it brings families together because at least they have something to eat for Thanksgiving," Samuel Chacon said.
"This is really good. The way this crisis is, it's really good help. I hope God keeps helping us, and God hoping, they keep helping us too," Dorroteo Fuentes said.
In the end, all one hundred families walked away with everything to make a Thanksgiving dinner. A dinner they may not have been able to have if not for the time and effort of one woman who says she'll continue to help her community as long as she can.
"The longest Jesus allows me to. The longest Jesus allows me to," Silva said.
Tina Silva never asked that this story be about her, but we felt it was important to highlight how one person can make a difference, even if it's by asking other people to help.