El Centro woman fundraises to buy lunch for hospital staff
EL CENTRO — An El Centro woman recently fundraised through her online clothing store to provide a free lunch to local hospital staff.
Nicole Rodiles held her fundraiser between April 24 and 26. All proceeds from the clothing that was sold during this time went directly towards her cause.
She raised $400 in total, which she used to buy lunch for frontline staff at El Centro Regional Medical Center here and Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley.
Rodiles gave the meals to ECRMC staff (37 in total from the hospital’s ER and ICU) on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, she gave meals to 20 ER staff members at PMH.
The El Centro resident wanted to make her effort even more helpful to the community, so she purchased the meals from locally owned small restaurants.
Rodiles bought the meals for ECRMC at Celia’s Restaurant, and bought the meals for PMH at Brownie’s Diner in Brawley.
The El Centro resident has been running her online store for about a year and a half.
She sells Zyia Active, which is active wear for men, women and children, as a side job alongside her full-time job as a teacher at Imperial Valley College.
While she’s held fundraisers in the past, none have been this successful, Rodiles said.
She said she wanted to host her fundraising event as a way to help the frontline workers in Imperial Valley.
“These frontline workers don’t even get to be around their families, don’t get to see their loved ones, because they don’t want to put them at risk,” she said. “I felt like this was a little bit we can do to support our local economy and our frontline workers.”