COLLEGE STATION, Texas — 2023 commemorates the fifth year Brazos Valley Gives has helped hundreds of area non-profits from generous donations in the community.
For the past 10 years, "BUILD" has impacted over 100,000 lives in Texas and across the globe by transforming shipping containers into medical clinics each fall.
Senior Marco Santambrogio is one of the many hands that has helped countless lives.
“It’s a very big gift to be able to be able to work really hard for something other than yourself and see it happen," Santambrogio said.
"That’s a very unique part about BUILD that I love — that’s why I joined.”
Being a big gift that costs thousands to construct, Eric Wang one of the External Relations Team Lead with the BUILD organization said they rely on initiatives like Brazos Valley Gives to provide more funding where it’s needed.
“We would love to raise upwards to $5,000 — closer to $10,000 if we can," Wang said.
"Each of these clinics are expected to cost around $25,000 — to make so the money that would go towards things like cabinets, those can cost upward from three to five thousand dollars and the clinics themselves and the metal shipping containers cost about three to five thousand as well.”
Jack Delk the External Relations Team Lead with the BUILD organization says students are already building more of these containers to ship around the world like to Nigeria, Turkey, Ukraine and Corpus Christi.
“We have five clinics that we are working on this year as opposed to last year," Delk said.
"It does require a little more work and also a little more money, so any penny we can raise counts.”
BUILD is one of 150 non-profits that partners with Brazos Valley Gives. Wang said they all have the same mission — to serve the Brazos Valley community.
“Each non-profit supports each other — it's not a competition," Wang said.
"We are all doing good work out there, so what better way than to share our mission with other people who are doing similarly good work?"
Donations can be made to non-profits like BUILD and over 100 others here.