Stripes employee Lupe Lopez assists a customer with filling out the paper icon for Driscoll Children’s Hospital after donating to help sick and injured children in South Texas. Photo by Jane Kathleen Gregorio
Just a $1 donation at Stripes convenience stores in South Texas in November helps sick or injured children at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi and clinics in South Texas. From Nov. 4-17, Stripes customers can purchase a $1 paper icon for display in the store. As a thank you from Stripes, donors will receive $1 off any two bottles of one liter LIFEWTR.
Proceeds from the November Month of Giving program benefit the specialty clinics in Victoria, the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Eagle Pass, and Del Rio.
Normally held every April, the event was pushed to November because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year marks the 11th anniversary of Stripes' involvement in the Driscoll child life specialists program, which has been renamed the Stripes Child Life Program at Driscoll Children’s Hospital.
The program supports the child life specialists who aid patients and their families suffering from stress and anxiety around the child’s hospital experience. For example, play is often used by child life specialists as a coping strategy to help patients. At both the Corpus Christi campus and some specialty areas in South Texas, 11 child life specialists serve numerous hospital departments.
“We feel a special connection with the team at Stripes and are pleased they want to continue their support to Driscoll Children’s Hospital Child Life Department,” said Lisa Cervantez, lead child life specialist at Driscoll Children’s Hospital.
Stripes has partnered and donated to Driscoll Children’s Hospital since 1999, raising more than $5 million to help local children.
“We are committed to supporting local children and youth in the communities where we live and work,” said Brad Williams, senior vice president of corporate operations and restaurant platforms for 7-Eleven Inc. “For nearly 20 years, Stripes has been supporting Driscoll Children’s Hospital, and we are proud to have the Child Life program named after Stripes, which represents our passionate team members and generous customers,”
According to Alexa Barnett and Keke Barrett, who work at the Stripes on the corner of South Padre Island Drive and Kostoryz Road, donations have been pouring in at the location.
“Customers are very supportive knowing that their donations are going toward a local hospital helping local children in our own community,” Barnett said.
Customers can also donate loose change to the cause.
“After this campaign is finished, whatever change we’ve collected will also go towards the Stripes Child Life donations,” Barrett said. “We feel happy to participate in such a good cause.”
Driscoll Children’s Hospital opened in 1953 through the generosity and vision of founder Clara Driscoll and is the first, and only, free-standing children’s hospital in South Texas. Last year, Driscoll accommodated almost 142,000 patient visits, including over 46,000 patients seen at South Texas’ first exclusively children’s emergency room.
For more information about the Stripes Child Life Program at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, please call 361-694-5048. If you are interested in learning more about the Child Life profession, please visit childlife.org.
Driscoll Children’s Hospital is located at 533 S. Alameda St. in Corpus Christi. For more information about the Stripes Child Life Program at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, call 361-694-5048. If you are interested in learning more about the child life profession, visit www.childlife.org
