El Rio Vecinos
A New Organizational Benefactor for El Rio Community Health Center
The inaugural El Rio Viscinos.
photo: Jon D’Auria
For 43 years, El Rio Community Health Center has been serving Tucsonans by providing remarkable health care for one in 12 residents while also assisting the homeless and citizens lacking insurance with vaccinations, treatments, dental care, education and general check ups. It has grown to become the 14th largest community health center in the United States. Now, thanks to the vision of El Rio Health Center Foundation Board of Directors member Dan Chambers, the center is welcoming a new extension to their already impressive array of services with the newly formed young professionals group called the El Rio Vecinos.
Chambers founded the group in late 2012, putting together his lifelong passions of mentoring and community service to create a legacy that benefits young business people who are driven, community-minded and looking to enhance their city with generosity through strong leadership and virtue. As a long-standing member of the Conquistadors and organizations all over the country, Chambers is the perfect overseer to mobilize such a diverse assemblage.
“It’s been a long-standing tradition for my family to help mentor and enhance the lives of young professionals in Tucson,” says Chambers. “I had always been interested in doing some form of mentoring and helping young people get connected, find jobs, teach them to write resumes and give them a push to help them along, so I knew that I would start a young professionals group once I retired. But the one thing I didn’t know was which organization to pair it with. Once I learned more about El Rio, I just knew that it would be the best organization for us to join forces with.”
In no time, Chambers had already accumulated a strong base of members who were striving in their own professional fields and were hungry to dedicate their time outside of work to the service of others. The main goal of the Vecinos, under the tutelage of El Rio Health Center Foundation, is to raise money for the center that will help contribute to the center’s long list of community health programs; the money raised from the group’s multiple yearly events will be donated entirely to the health center.
“The uniqueness of this group is that it is directly linked to El Rio Community Health Center and our our sole mission is to be a fundraising entity that supports their various programs. It’s not so different from how the Centurions operate with St. Mary’s Hospital,” says Vecinos President Jon Davison. “There’s a lot of camaraderie amongst the group and that comes from rallying around the mission and working together. It also provides an opportunity to interact and meet with other motivated and successful professionals and it creates a culture of collaborative effort.”
The name is Spanish for neighbors, and was chosen by the group with the goal of having a name that went with community and unity. The Vecinos meet twice monthly with one session serving as a business meeting for the board and the members and the other taking place in a social setting of a local restaurant or bar. The members get a chance to experience the benefits of networking and connecting with like-minded young professionals. But for many, the best part of the experience is bonding together in the name of charity for their community by putting their organizational skills and fundraising efforts to good use.
“We’re developing a fellowship here, and we’re a very diverse group and we have people from all walks of life and all of them are successful and have a lot of success ahead of them in their futures,” says Chambers. “The way people get successful in this town is by getting to know a lot of different people. When people first get started in this town or move here after college it can be hard time for them to meet others and make connections. That’s where we come in to help.”
The next big steps for the Vecinos are organizing their launch party for 2014 and their “Black Tie Block Party” fundraiser for El Rio that will be taking place in September 2014. The next recruiting event for the Vecinos is at Hotel Congress’ Copper Hall on Friday, Sept. 20 at 5:30 p.m. It is open to anyone who is interested in joining the group.
“This is our first social meeting of this operating year and it’ll be a chance for our current members to get together to relax and an opportunity for our recruited prospects to get a feel for our group,” says Davison. “We’re always excited about doing recruitment events that coincide with our social meetings that really let people check us out to see what we’re all about.”
For information on joining the Vecinos, contact Dan Chambers at danchambers6314@comcast.net or ring him at 909-6821.
Category: Community
