Ingleside ISD teachers receive $23K in surprise classroom grants<\/a><\/p>\nSenior Officer Juan Perez said Sister Rency Moonjely and Sister Sibi Varghese were surprised with an award for their ongoing efforts to support people experiencing homelessness and for their collaboration with police in the area.<\/p>\n
Perez said the Sisters\u2019 work has helped improve foot traffic near the shelter, maintain cleanliness and strengthen communication between unhoused individuals and law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo two sisters? We\u2019ve never given an award like this before,\u201d Officer Perez said. \u201cThis is just a small token from CCPD recognizing the people in the community who help us and help bridge that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sisters serve at the Mother Teresa Shelter on Sam Rankin Street, where they provide food, resources and a roof to those who don’t have one. They said they typically serve between 25 and 150 meals a day.<\/p>\n
Moonjely said the recognition was a complete surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my goodness, I had tears running down my eyes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Both Sisters said they have recently noticed an increase in younger people seeking help at the shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe 20, 22, 30 \u2014 in between 18 to 35 \u2014 that makes us sad because we don\u2019t expect it like that,\u201d Varghese and Moonjely said.<\/p>\n
People who have been at the shelter say the Sisters\u2019 support has been life-changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my apartment. They made it possible. See!,\u201d Richard, a client at the shelter, said as he showed 3NEWS photos of his apartment on his phone.<\/p>\n
James Newton, who first arrived at the shelter 15 years ago, is now housed. He helps bridge communication between the shelter and people experiencing homelessness in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call Sister Rency my mom,\u201d Newton said. \u201cNot only did she mold me and guide me, but when she would see me, she\u2019d do things just like a mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lt. Kody Harrison said addressing homelessness requires strong partnerships beyond law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe homeless issue is often put onto the government or police,\u201d Lieutenant Harrison said. \u201cBut to really fix the issue, it has to be done within the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sister Moonjely and Sister Varghese said the recognition motivates them to continue their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see we are not alone,\u201d Moonjely said. \u201cWe have somebody with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOh my goodness, I had tears running down my eyes,\u201d Sister Rency Moonjely said. CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-92319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}