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The Texas Department of Transportation El Paso District is launching a new partnership this week with Walmart and the El Paso Department. Under the collaboration the group will provide child car seat inspections at local Walmart superstore locations.

“This is the first time we have joined forces with Walmart,” said TxDOT Traffic Safety Specialist Monica O’Kane. “The partnership enhances our outreach and allows us to leverage our resources and help more people.”

Walmart Market Asset Production Manager Elsa Garcia says the agency cooperation aligns with Walmart’s mission to work as a team and give back to the communities they serve.

“Our children are our future and keeping them safe is one of our community priorities,” said Garcia. “We invite our customers to join us at a car seat event to ensure they’re doing all they can to keep their children safe in their vehicles.”

Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians from various agencies and the El Paso Police Department will assist with the onsite inspections.

“A true team effort, we are proud to partner with TxDOT and Walmart who are providing child safety seats and hosting city wide events for this very important drive to help ensure child safety in vehicles through the proper use of child safety seats,” said Sgt. Enrique Carrillo with the El Paso Police Department Public Relations Office.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, car seats and boosters provide protection for infants and children in a crash, yet car crashes are a leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 13.

“Having a child safety seat isn’t enough,” added O’Kane. “There are age specific seats and each must be installed correctly to be effective. Sometimes parents are not aware, our safety events assist with this.”

Safety checks at Walmart superstore locations across the city have been scheduled over the summer. Each two-hour session is first come, first served and children must be present. The first event is this Friday.

• June 8              9441 Alameda                         8 a.m. – 10 a.m.
• June 13           13900 Horizon Blvd.                8 a.m.  –  10 a.m.
• June 15           10727 Gateway West              8 a.m. – 10 a.m.
• July 13             7555 Mesa                              8 a.m. – 10 a.m.
• August 3          4530 Woodrow Bean               8 a.m. – 10 a.m.
• August 17        1850 N Zaragoza                     8 a.m. – 10 a.m.

Detour for residents will last nine months, informative meeting scheduled

SIERRA BLANCA – The Texas Department of Transportation plans to start work on a project to reconstruct both eastbound and westbound bridges on I-10 at RM 1111 in Sierra Blanca by the end of the year. The improvement project will result in a three-mile detour for residents wanting to travel from one side of the town to the other, but is not expected to impact drivers on I-10.

In preparation, residents are invited to an informative meeting on Tuesday, May 29, from 5-7 p.m. inside the Sierra Blanca School Gym at 500 Sierra Blanca Avenue.

“The reconstruction of the bridges poses significant safety hazards for travel on RM 1111, and it is recommended that RM 1111 be temporarily closed during the reconstruction period,” said TxDOT El Paso District Engineer Bob Bielek. “We want to minimize disruption to the public and have worked with town key stakeholders on a temporary detour route for vehicles and accommodations for pedestrians and bicycles.”

Details on the construction, proposed detours and other displays will be available for residents to review during the meeting. Project staff will also be on site and available to answer questions. All handouts will be presented in English and Spanish. No formal presentation will be given, so residents are invited to stop by at their convenience.

Construction on the project is expected to start in November and last nine months. The residential detour is expected to last the duration of the project.

The Museums and Cultural Affairs Department, in collaboration with El Paso Live, is excited to announce the line-up for the annual GECU presents Music Under the Starts (MUTS).

The free summer concert series features eight performances, four at the Chamizal National Memorial and four at Cohen Stadium.

“We are excited to roll out this year’s line-up for the 35th Season of GECU presents Music Under the Stars,” said Assistant Director of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department Ben Fyffe. “This concert series has become a summertime staple which we are proud to continue as part of the City’s commitment to enhancing El Paso’s quality of life.”

The 35^th season will open the month of June at the Chamizal National Memorial for four performances, and close out the season in July at Cohen Stadium in collaboration with El Paso Live.

GECU presents Music Under the Stars – Free Admission

For information on GECU presents Music Under the Stars, including schedule changes due to weather, follow Music Under the Stars on Facebook.

East Campus opened its doors on May 21, 2008 and since, has had a significant impact in El Paso. East Campus is a 182 licensed-bed acute care hospital. Since its inception, East Campus has had vast growth to provide the East community with the healthcare access needed in their neighborhood. The hospital seeing the need for added services in this area, underwent a $68 million expansion project in 2015 to add an additional tower, in order to increase bed count by 80 and expanding the emergency department.

“We saw a dire need for healthcare access in the east community,” said Monica Vargas-Mahar, CEO for The Hospitals of Providence East Campus and Market COO for The Hospitals of Providence. “When we broke ground there was nothing but dirt for miles and now businesses and neighborhood communities have quickly surrounded.”

East Campus sitting in zip code 79938, closely buds up against zip code 79936, one of the nation’s most densely populated ZIP codes. Over the ten years, East Campus has touched thousands of lives boasting 85,837 admissions, 18,076 deliveries, 35,050 surgeries 452,112 emergency department visits, 754,622 total outpatient visits.

Vargas-Mahar, most recently named CEO for East Campus, was COO in 2008 and oversaw construction for the facility.

“I’m privileged to return back to the campus where I began this exciting project,” she said. “We continue to grow and expand our services to give patients the high quality care they need close to home. Most recently, we announced we are in active pursuit of Trauma Level-III designation to provide a higher level of care to patients with trauma injuries.”

East Campus was recently awarded a patient safety grade “A” by Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit healthcare ratings organization.

“Our people are what make us great,” said Vargas-Mahar. “It is their dedication to patient excellence that makes the difference and provides better patient outcomes. I am proud of our team and today on our anniversary we celebrate over a 100 employees for their 10 years of service. That’s a huge victory to have that many employees who have been committed to our team since the beginning.”

East Campus is a strong community supporter and is active in the surrounding schools. They support El Dorado High School through the International Baccalaurete Art Exhibit program. East Campus established the Student Board of Directors in 2015, comprised of students from the Ysleta and Socorro school district, giving them hands-on experience and knowledge to the healthcare industry. The hospital is heavily involved with Clint Independent School district to provide robotic demonstrations to their STEM program.

The economic impact hospitals have in a community is tremendous. According to the American Hospital Association, “The goods and services hospitals purchase from other businesses create additional economic value for the community. With these “ripple effects” included, each hospital job supports about two additional jobs, and every dollar spent by a hospital supports roughly $2.30 of additional business activity.”

“We look forward to growing with the community and continuing to provide safe, quality healthcare to our patients,” said Vargas-Mahar.

Athletes from the Greater El Paso area will compete in an area-wide basketball competition Wednesday – Saturday.

More than 300 local Special Olympics Texas athletes ranging in age from 8 to 65 will take over the gyms at Del Valle High School for the annual Area 19 Basketball Competition from April 18-21. The four-day event opens with an Individual Skills Competition and Team Skills Competition on Wednesday night, starting at 6 p.m. Games will also be played Thursday and Friday from 6-9 p.m. and then from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Saturday. A complete schedule is below.  The event is open to the public and free to attend.

Athletes as young as eight years old will show off their skills on the hardwood, while teams with players 12 years and up will be playing as a means to qualify for the upcoming statewide tournament, Summer Games, which will take place in Arlington from May 25-28.

This weekend’s basketball competition will also include Unified play, featuring athletes with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities on the same team.

Awards will be presented to competitors at the conclusion of the tournament, based on results.

Approximately 20 volunteers are still needed.

To volunteer or for more information on the competition, contact Monica Vargas (mvargas@sotx.org) at 915.533.8229

2018 Area 19 Basketball Competition

Wednesday, April 18, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.: Individual Skills and Team Skills Competition

Thursday & Friday, April 19-20, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.: Basketball Competition

Saturday, April 21, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Continue Basketball Competition

The El Paso Community College (EPCC) – Northwest (NW) campus faculty received the 2018 Library Project of the Year Award during the 2018 Texas Library Association Annual Conference held in Dallas, Texas, April 3-6, 2018.  The Library Instruction Project of the Year Award is presented annually by the Texas Library Association’s Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT). This award recognized an innovative or creative library instruction project or initiative in Texas.

“The project, led by Lorely Ambriz and Michael Duncan, was impressive because of the evidence they provided showing how their collaboration has positively impacted their students,” Joshua Wallace, LIRT Chair said.

The project, Improving College Students’ Literacy Skills Through Embedded Librarianship and Faculty Collaboration for Lifelong Learning was led by Lorely Ambriz, Head Librarian, and Michael Duncan, English Discipline Coordinator at the NW campus. The project involves embedding library skill into course curriculum. Developed as a hypothesis by Ambriz, the project became an actual action research project as part of her participation in the EPCC Teachership Academy under the leadership of Dr. Lydia Tena, EPCC Northwest Campus Dean and Teachership Academy Coordinator. The Teachership Academy is an EPCC faculty development program focusing on teaching and learning.

Since the implementation of the project to embed literacy and library skills into course curriculum, out of the average student population of 2,800 students at the NW Library, the project has been able to outreach to 82% of the student population. The students, having attended at least one library session becoming aware of library services, learned how to perform basic library research, how to evaluate information sources and how to properly cite them. Overall, faculty have seen the average score on -and quality of -the students’ annotated bibliographies and papers go up significantly over the past few semesters thanks to the literacy skills they have built, which leads to overall student success.

EPCC provides a focus on quality education by maintaining a focus on involvement and assessment that is supported by creating a culture of excellence.

City Spray Parks to Open with New Amenities

The Parks and Recreation Department has made improvements to the City’s eight spray parks that will open for the season on Saturday, April 14.

All spray parks have additional areas for shade, such as canopies, more benches and trash containers and landscaping improvements that include trees and shrubs and additional ADA sidewalk connectors. Also, there are sunscreen dispensers for public use donated by the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation in partnership with the Parks and Recreation Department.

The improvements at the spray parks cost approximately $1.3 million and were funded by 2017 Certificates of Obligation.

The Parks and Recreation Department invites everyone to enjoy the free spray parks that open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Sunday. All spray parks will remain open through October 30. In addition, dog owners can take their pets to the City’s only spray park designed for dogs located at Pavo Real Park, 9301 Alameda. The spray parks are located throughout the city at the following parks:

Spray Park Locations:

• Sue Young Park, 9730 Diana Dr.
• Hidden Valley Park, 200 Coconut Tree
• Grandview Park, 3100 Jefferson Ave.
• Westside Community Park, 7400 High Ridge Dr.
• Marty Robbins Park, 11600 Vista Del Sol Dr.
• Braden Aboud Memorial Park, 4325 River Bend Dr.
• Salvador Rivas Jr. Park, 12480 Pebble Hills Dr.
• Pavo Real Park, 9301 Alameda Ave. (two separate spray parks –  of one for humans and one for dogs)
• San Jacinto Plaza – Splash Pad, 114 W. Mills Ave.

For more information on the spray parks, call the Parks and Recreation Department at (915) 212-0396 or click on the El Paso Summer Splash banner at www.elpasotexas.gov.

An endowment to benefit students was instated at a ceremony on March 26, 2018 at El Paso Community College (EPCC). The Dr. Ernst Roberts II Endowment is honors this 40-year EPCC veteran. Roberts career spanned tenures as a professor, dean, administrator and Interim President.

With the generosity of the Gifford Foundation, the Roberts Family and donations made from EPCC students, faculty and staff, this endowment will assist students to obtain their educational goals through scholarships.

Known to his colleagues and friends as Ernie, Dr. Roberts was remembered as a man who was always om a mood and who helped anyone that asked. “Dr. Ernie Roberts has done so much for our community, Aliana Apodaca of the Gifford Foundation said. “He was just a good man with a good heart.”

Over the past 10 years, EPCC has awared over two million dollars in scholarships.

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Pictured left to right are Thomas Ahmann and Dr. Dolores Gross of the Foundation for EPCC; Laurel Roberts; Aliana Apodaca and Stafford Thurmond of the Gifford Foundation.

The theater company Jazz Vilá Projects will be presented on Wednesday, April 11 at 7:00 pm at the Chamizal National Memorial (USA) as part of the international program organized for the New Century Golden Festival.(Festival Nuevo Siglo de Oro)

This 43rd edition will be the first to have a group from the island, which will offer a contemporary version of the classic “La vida es sueño” by Calderón de la Barca with a cast made up of Cuban and Mexican actors, which highlights the participation of the multi-awarded Afro-Cuban actress Yordanka Ariosa, winner of the Silver Shell.

To offer all the details of this historic presentation, the Consulate of Mexico in El Paso will host a press conference on Tuesday, April 3 at 11:00 a.m., which will be attended by the director Jazz Vilá and the cast of the play.

About JAZZ VILÁ PROJECTS

It is a theater company based in Havana, founded in 2015 under the artistic and general direction of Jazz Vilá. Its main objective is to recover the attention of the young audience through themes such as love, diversity, sexuality, fear and isolation, from a contemporary perspective.

After winning the public and critics with its debut play “Rascacielos”, the company became a reference for staging where commercial projection and artistic sense coexist, achieving a result that enhances the play-spectator interaction.

JAZZ VILÁ PROJECTS stands out for the economy and simplicity of scenographic elements, the inclusion of pioneering mechanisms of co-production within the Cuban theater, the development of strong promotional campaigns and the collaboration with important national and international artists of various manifestations.

With a bilingual repertoire and in just three years, this group has been consolidated with presentations at festivals and tours in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the United States.

About Jazz Vilá

Actor, director, producer and dramatist of Cuban origin. Winner of the Incubator Artist Program in the city of El Paso (USA) in 2017. VISTAR magazine included him in the list of the six most recurrent young actors of Cuban cinema in 2015, highlighting in films such as El Acompañante (Pavel Giroud), Fátima or the park of the Fraternity (Jorge PerugorrÍa), or Juan de los Muertos (Alejandro Brugués).

Due to his increasing artistic level, he has been invited to prestigious events such as the Festival de Avignon and the Festival de Cannes (France), the Talent Campus Guadalajara (Mexico) and the Berlinale Talent (Germany). He has reconciled his commitments as an actor with the management and training of new talents; teaching workshops and as an interpretation teacher at prestigious institutions such as the Complutense University of Madrid, the Shakespeare Foundation of Spain and the National School of Arts of Cuba, the center of which he graduated in 2004.
In 2015 he founded the company Jazz Vilá Projects and premiered Skyscrapers and later Eclipse. Both productions marked audience milestones and garnered excellent reviews, making Vilá a reference point for success in Cuban contemporary theater.

The El Paso Community College (EPCC) Diversity Programs celebrated Women’s History Month with its annual Diamond Awards. The theme for this year’s event was Nevertheless, She Persisted: Women Who Fight Against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The ceremony consisted of a panel discussion, luncheon and honoring Diamond Award inductees.

“Women’s History is important to remember the milestones women have achieved,” Olga Chavez, Director of EPCC Diversity Programs, said. “The goal of the Diamond Awards is to honor the commitment and hard work of women employees at EPCC.”

Shoshana Johnson was the Keynote Speaker. The former POW and EPCC graduate spoke on how her journey through life has transformed her today.

The EPCC Diamond Awards are in its 10th year of honoring EPCC staff for their hard work mentoring students. The Diamond Awardees are the positive face of EPCC diversity.
As part of this event, a powerful panel discussion to take action on discrimination that occurs against women everyday was held. The event was moderated by Dr. Mozella Garcia and Arlene Alarcon with panelists Rebekah Bell, EPCC Faculty Association President; Dr. Xiomara C. Chianelli, EPCC faculty; Ouisa Davis, Attorney and Zahara Taki, former EPCC student.
EPCC promotes equality, diversity and inclusion by encouraging personal responsibility to further student success.

The City of El Paso is offering various fun and educational activities for kids and teens during spring break.

Spring break programs will take place at the El Paso Zoo, museums and libraries across the city. In addition, all of the City’s parks and recreation centers will be open during spring break.

A complete list of programs and activities may be found on the Spring Break 2018 banner on the City’s website at www.elpasotexas.gov.

Vince Neil, tattoos, fun highlight Showdown Fest at Coliseum
Tattoos, music and fun come together at this year’s Showdown Festival on Friday through
Sunday, March 16-18, at the El Paso County Coliseum, 4100 E. Paisano.

More than 300 tattoo artists from around the world, including stars from the popular reality
TV show, “Inkmaster,” will highlight this year’s event, which gets underway at noon each
day. The fest also will feature a variety of music and entertainment, including Vince Neil,
the voice of Mötley Crüe, performing on Friday, March 16, the Long Beach Dub All Stars on
Saturday, March 17, and Jack Russell’s Great White on Sunday, March 18. Other acts will
include Cold Kingdom, Sleep Signals, Not My Master, Dicodec, Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh,
Andromeda Theory, Trip Wire, Sancho Villa, King Octopus and Metallica tribute band One.

There also will be food and beverage booths, sideshows, art exhibits, hundreds of vendors
and more, as well as the Border Bike Run and Rally, featuring custom motorcycles.
Tickets are $25 each day or $60 for a three-day pass, plus fees, and free for ages 11 and
under. They are available at the El Paso County Coliseum Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets,
by phone at 800-745-3000 and online at ticketmaster.com.

The Showdown Festival, created by George Galindo, an El Pasoan who owns House of Pain
Tattoo, has been internationally recognized, including, at one time, being named one of the
five best tattoo conventions in the world by Tattoosday, a tattoo blog.

Information: 533-9899; showdownfest.com; @TxShowdownFest on Twitter;
instagram.com/showdown_fest; facebook.com/texasshowdownfestival; @ElPasoColiseum on
Twitter; instagram.com/elpasocountycoliseum; facebook.com/EPColiseum.