texas-mexico border

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Be Involved!

Buckner offers plenty of border aid opportunities for churches, organizations, businesses …and you.

The Texas-Mexico border stretches for nearly 1,300 miles, encompassing 43 of the poorest counties in the United States. The needs of the border region offer churches and individuals many opportunities to work in partnership with Buckner Children and Family Services, including:

As a volunteer, you can:

• Organizing and leading spiritual, recreational and educational activities for children, including Vacation Bible Schools, sports camps, cultural enrichment and tutoring.


• Organizing and supplying family resource rooms to provide diapers, clothing, school supplies, blankets, electric heaters and fans to help families.


• Assisting low-income families with home repairs and improvements.


• Organizing and contributing to special drives to assist low-income families at special times of the year, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas or back-to-school.


• Organizing medical and dental screening and clinics for colonias residents.


• Painting, landscaping and carpentry work at the Rio Grande Children’s Home and for poor families living in the colonias along the border.


• Teaching sewing classes, computer classes and English as a second language (ESL) to children and adults.


• Financially supporting children who live at the Rio Grande Children’s Home in Mission.



To find out how you can have an impact on the border, contact Buckner Border Ministries at 956-585-4847, ext. 225 or at [email protected]


As a financial supporter:

• You can support a variety of community services, humanitarian aid for the poor, programs to help young fathers and teenagers in crisis, and a residential program that helps care for children whose parents cannot care for them.



To find out how you can have a financial impact on the border, contact Buckner Children and Family Services at 956-585-4847, ext. 222or at [email protected]

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Customer Assistance Fund

In 2001, Entergy recorded one of its best years of fundraising for the fuel fund campaigns held throughout its utility territory. Not only did employees work harder to raise funds for the program, but shareholders doubled the company match to the program. But the company's employees were not satisfied with just breaking the $1 million mark.

In a nearly unanimous decision by all of the employees and executives that lead the effort to raise money for fuel funds, it was decided to seek a 50 percent increase in the fundraising efforts and a significant increase of employee, customer and vendor participation in the program.

Leonard wrote to each utility CEO nationwide and challenged them to donate to the National Fuel Fund Network. His action earned him the Sister Pat Kelley Award from the NFFN, and Entergy national recognition for its fuel fund fundraising efforts.

And while at press time the campaign organizers were short of our goals, we are preparing to launch a Thanksgiving Season effort and all indications show that with more hard work and focus the 2002 campaign may reach our fundraising expectations.

As of October 15, 2002, Entergy's Customer Assistance Fund programs (known as Energy Concern, Project Deserve, Project Care and Helping Hands) have topped a million and a half dollars in donations and matching funds for an all-time high of $1,659,491. This represents a 20 percent increase in donations compared to last year and reflects the generosity of Entergy's customers, employees and shareholders.

Customers donated $988,857 to assist their low-income elderly and disabled neighbors, up from $829,411 in 2001. Entergy employees gave $212,000, which the company matched with $458,634 (more than a $2 match for every $1 contributed by an employee).

While the company is pleased with this year's positive fundraising growth, we realize that we can do a better job of promoting the program to our employees and customers and we have plans to do that in 2003. The company has recently completed the first phase of a communications research project that will give our promotional



messages greater impact. Initial results indicate that while customers see a role for charities to play in providing utility assistance to low-income families, and over 60 percent of them would give more if they understood that the need was not being met by existing programs and funds.

The Customer Assistance Fund assists more than 11,000 low-income elderly and disabled people annually within Entergy's service areas in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Entergy works with local nonprofit service organizations such as the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Council on Aging, and Total Community Action in each jurisdiction to screen and select the recipients of this financial assistance and to manage the monetary contributions. All of the money donated goes to help those elderly and disabled customers in need.

Entergy's Customer Assistance Fund Coordinators are:

Helping Hands New Orleans: Alex Selico Dunn - Entergy New Orleans
Helping Hands Louisiana: Janice Brown and Eunice Harris - Entergy Louisiana
Energy Concern: Beverly Andrews - Entergy Mississippi
Project Care Louisiana: Beverly Trahan and Stan Guillory - Entergy Louisiana
Project Care Texas: Brenda Broussard and Paula Odom - Entergy Texas
Project Deserve: Sherry Wilson - Entergy Arkansas
Customer Assistance Fund Employee Communications

Throughout the fundraising campaign, the Entergy CAF team used frequent communications in the employee newsletter Inside Entergy to relay the importance of the fuel fund campaign. Communications launched the program with an unprecedented tactic of explaining the business need for assisting low-income customers. Following that story, which jolted many employees with its bluntness and honesty and earned recognition from the National Fuel Fund Network, CAF communications took on a more traditional strategy of illustrating through words how individuals are assisted by the fuel funds and by challenging different parts of the company to respond to the call for help. Following is sampling of stories as they were published this year in Inside Entergy.