SAN ANTONIO — Award-winning Tejano musician Jay Perez and his family are giving back to the community this holiday season.
Perez and his wife, Roxy, are teaming up with University Hospital in a toy-collecting effort to brighten up Christmas for local children at the end of what has been an unusually difficult year. It's the first year the family has collaborate with the hospital on the initiative.
Roxy Perez said her occupation gives her a firsthand look at just how hard the pandemic has been on families.
"I work in the ER. It's pretty fast-paced, I don't get to spend a whole lot of time over in pediatrics," she said. "But when I do get over there it's exceptionally hard because these are little ones and it's not something that you ever want to see them hurting in any way."
The Perezes are no stranger to holiday-season goodwill. Every year they team up with organizations to give back to the community, and this time they say they wanted to step it up.
They named their 2020 event the "Jay Perez and Roxy P. Toy Drive," and say they hope to undertake the effort every year.
"We're pretty excited about that. We get a lot of families, especially the kids that won't be able to spend the holidays with their families, and we want to bring the holiday cheer to them," Jay Perez said.
The family added they want to be able to bring a smile to the faces of the children staying in the hospital and distract them from their illnesses, even if only for a little while.
"A lot of these kids, unfortunately, this might be the only gift that they get," Roxy Perez said.
If you would like to donate to their drive, you can drop toys off at any of the four Cano Health locations around town. They're specifically looking for gifts for recipients as young as infants and as old as 17.