Category: Community

Community, Featured

Del Mar Dental Hygiene Clinic Serves Community While Training Future Professionals

Miranda Stewart

Free dental services at Del Mar College have supported Corpus Christi residents for more than 50 years while preparing students for careers in dental hygiene. The program provides free preventative dental care to about 2,500 people each year at the Windward campus, combining education with service. Supervised by licensed instructors, students perform services such as cleanings, X-rays, fluoride treatments, sealants, oral cancer screenings, and even blood pressure checks. Each appointment is part of the clinical training, with visits typically lasting three hours. New patients must first receive a qualifying exam before being assigned to a student hygienist. “These services are…

Campus, Community

Valdar’s Market partners with the Coastal Bend Food Bank for SNAP application event

Micaela Calderon-Stewart

Students at Heritage and Windward campuses received application assistance applying for SNAP food benefits and the Healthy Texas Women program during a two-day outreach event in partnership with Valdar’s Market and the Coastal Bend Food Bank’s Social Services team.  “Our goal is to inform and help as many students as possible with information on resources and application assistance,” said Viviana Flores, Social Services lead.  The outreach event was held on Sept. 23 -24. But for anyone who missed the event, there will be other opportunities. With the continued partnership between Valdar’s Markets and the Coastal Bend Food Bank, the Social…

Community

Help Fill Empty Racks at the Food Bank this Holiday Season

Micaela Calderon-Stewart

The Coastal Bend Food Bank is calling on the community to help fill their empty racks this upcoming holiday season. According to Bea Hanson, executive director of the Coastal Bend Food Bank, they have seen a 20% increase in new neighbors seeking food assistance and anticipate a continued need through the end of the year, making holiday food drives more vital than ever.  “Our racks are emptying as quickly as they are filled,” says Hanson. “Each donation received, whether it’s a can of vegetables, a jar of peanut butter, or a box of stuffing, it makes a world of difference…

Community

Corpus Christi Swings Again: Texas Jazz Festival Celebrates 64 years of Free Music and community

Miranda Stewart

The sounds of saxophones, drums, and a lot of laughter will once again fill Heritage Park this weekend as Corpus Christi hosts the 64th annual Texas Jazz Festival, the longest-running free jazz festival in the country.   Founded in 1959 by members of Del Mar College’s Jazz Club, the event began as a small campus concert, but then quickly grew into a citywide tradition celebrating the culture and creativity of jazz music. The festival’s success led to the establishment of the Texas Jazz Festival Society, which now organizes the three-day celebration each October.  This year’s festival runs Oct. 17–19 in…

Community, Entertainment

Review: TAMU-CC’s ‘Electricidad’ a devastating retelling of Greek tragedy

Paul Farias

TAMU-CC’s latest play, “Electricidad,” is not for the faint of heart. It is a vulnerable look into a family, a series of crumbling facades, and repeating the cycle of abuse under the veneer of Los Angeles gang life. The nine-person cast provides a series of spirited performances that draws the viewer’s eyes as often as they approach the viewer directly. The play, directed by Marco Munoz, is an adaptation of Sophocles’ “Electra” placed in 2000’s LA. The story revolves around the titular Electricidad looking to right the wrongs of her mother Clemencia’s murdering of her father, enlisting the help of…

Community

Former DMC graduate goes to International World Championship of Chess boxing

Chandler Carroll

Two competitors enter the boxing ring, lace up their gloves, and play chess? Three minutes later, the board comes up and it’s time to throw real shots at each other. This is a sporting event that confuses most, but is a dream competition for one student in Corpus Christi. Edward Green is a 32-year-old Del Mar graduate and current student at Texas A&M University-Kingsville who has found his way into competing in one of the most niche sports in the world, chess boxing. Green will make his first appearance for Team USA during an international chess boxing tournament held in…

Community, Featured

Bringing home the gold for Del Mar College

Chandler Carroll

“I was expecting a bum rush, I was just thinking that this is gonna be a dogfight in the beginning.” Boxing is a sport of toughness, determination and endurance. To become the best, you must be willing to continuously trade fierce blows and outlast the strongest of competitors. Through years of training and dedication, 28-year-old Kennedy Contreras did just that as she turned dreams into reality on March 29 in Macon, Georgia, becoming the first woman in Texas to win a championship title at the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association’s National Tournament. Originally from Midland, Texas, Contreras’ boxing journey began…

Community

14 years of commemorating Aztec rituals

Lola Ponce

Local indigenous group Kalpulli Ehekatl Papalotzin celebrated their 14th anniversary with a two-day event surrounded by other Kalpulli members from across Texas and Mexico. The groups’ gatherings incorporated traditions dating back to Aztec (Mexica) celebrations. The events began April 4 with a traditional sacred sweat lodge known as temazcal, which originated with the indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica. The term temazcal originates from the Nahuatl language from the words teme (to bathe) and calli (house), or from the word temazcalli (house of heat). As each member arrived, they placed a lava rock on a mount that heats the stones until they…

Community, Features

Activism on display at local Women’s March

Arianna Rios

More than 250 participants gathered in Corpus Christi’s Cole Park for the Woman’s March for Equality to express their solidarity and support local activism. The event took place on International Woman’s Day, March 8, and was organized by local advocate Ellison Powers Rhea.   Organizers counted 270 participants, including District 2 City Council Member Sylvia Campos. Campos emphasized the importance of standing in solidarity with younger generations in the fight against equality by showing up and speaking out. “You’re not alone, and you’re not crazy. There’s other’s that think just like we do,” said Campos on defending women’s right to…

Community

Community turns out for museums’s Japan Day

David Phillips

The Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures and Education hosted it’s Japan Day festival during spring break, featuring the art and culture of the country on March 15. This is the second year that the museum has celebrated the event, which was implemented by Hitomi Sakakibara, the museum’s former Outreach Coordinator. Attendees were able to watch martial arts demonstrations as well as a drum performance by the Corpus Christi Taiko Club and kamishibai, a form of Japanese street theater storytelling, by Zero Untitled Films/Productions. Other booths included an origami station hosted by museum staff, a snake-petting booth with the South…