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FEBRUARY 24, 2015 VOLUME 104 ISSUE 60 www.UniversityStar.com
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HEALTHCARE
Proposed legislation threatens cancer screening access By Alexa Tavarez SENIOR NEWS REPORTER @lexicanaa Nonprofits offering health services for uninsured and low-income women remain in the crossfire of political agendas during the 84th Legislature. Senate Bill 2 (SB 2), authored by Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, would funnel money away from nonprofits such as Community Action, Inc. of Central Texas and Planned Parenthood. Nelson wants to use a tiered system that prioritizes distribution and reallocation of federal funding of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program. The program provides breast and cervical cancer screenings in health clinics across the state that would cost approximately $200 if paid out of pocket, said Lydia Perez, program coordinator for the breast cancer navigation team at Community Action. Federal funds for the program are directed to clinics and nonprofits at the discretion of the State Health Department through a competitive grant process, said Sarah Wheat, vice president of community affairs for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. SB 2 has evoked concern among nonprofit officials about the future health of low-income and uninsured women relying on these services, Wheat said. “Texas has gone further than anyone else to dismantle women’s health care, and it’s especially important in Texas be-
“Texas has gone further than anyone else to dismantle women’s health care, and it’s especially important in Texas because we have some of the highest rates of uninsured women in the country.” —SARAH WHEAT, VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER TEXAS cause we have some of the highest rates of uninsured women in the country,” Wheat said. Health clinics offering comprehensive care are first in line for federal funding from the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program through the tiered system. Community Action and Planned Parenthood fall on the last rung of the tiered system because they don’t provide comprehensive and preventative care, said Carole Belver, executive director at Community Action. “(SB 2) will cut the legs off our services,” Belver said. Belver and Wheat believe SB 2 is an attempt to “dismantle” Planned Parenthood because of its abortion services. Belver said officials used “the same type of language” to funnel funds away from Planned Parenthood during the previous legislative session. As a result, Community Action Inc. had to lay off staff and close clinics, leaving some clients without a place for care, Belver said. Belver said she is not sure why the legislature is lumping Community Action together with Planned Parenthood as if it were a “one-stop-shop” for allocating federal funding. “We’ve seen the legislature (pursue) similar political agendas before,” Wheat said. “In the end, the negative impact is for the women that we serve.” Wheat said the health clinics providing women with services through the breast and cervical cancer program don’t provide abortions. “It’s important that elected officials
See TEXAS WOMEN, Page 2
DENISE CATHEY ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Brock Gillman and Brandon Gardner, social work senior, help distribute food Feb. 20 at the Redwood Community Center Food Drive.
Redwood Community Center improves neighborhood with hard work, food By Jon Wilcox NEWS REPORTER @thrilcox
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ife is hard for many in the Redwood neighborhood, but a one-room community center has made an impact in the lives of those who need it most. Redwood is located five miles south of downtown San Marcos, but the area feels like an island of poverty in a sea of prosperity. Sulema Arrecis, administrative director for the Redwood Community Center, said she improves the lives of residents by coordinating with volunteers. Redwood’s location in the northeastern corner of Guadalupe County makes it difficult to acquire social services and aid, according to the center’s information handbook. Some of Redwood’s poorest areas are located in the San Marcos extraterritorial jurisdiction,
making them ineligible for some of Guadalupe County’s services, according to the handbook. Redwood’s geographical difficulties have forced Arrecis to seek help in unlikely places, she said. Community center officials seek aid wherever they can find it, including San Marcos, Hays County and San Antonio. The Redwood Community Center’s partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank allows officials to provide for hundreds of local families the third Friday of each month. It was business as usual on the third Friday in February. A truck from the San Antonio Food Bank arrived shortly after 9:30 a.m., its side emblazoned with a picture of little girl eating a slice of watermelon. “Sure looks like a delicious watermelon,” said Phil Walker a volunteer from San Marcos, shifting his weight onto his cane. “She’s smiling too. God
“I am the queen of bananas!” —VICKI JANEK, A VOLUNTEER FROM SAN MARCOS’ FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH bless her.” Walker’s physical disability prevented him from helping unload donations from the truck. He offered words of encouragement and joked with the other volunteers as they worked. More than 20 volunteers were present. Some were from churches in San Marcos. Others were from Texas State’s Alpha Phi Omega service organization.
A few were from the Redwood community. Griselda Contreras, a resident of nearby Martindale, sat in her car about halfway down the line with her 4-year-old daughter Kamilla in the back seat. Contreras said her husband works, but she cannot take a job and instead stays at home with the five children. She has been coming to the food drive for
See REDWOOD, Page 2
CITY
San Marcos businesses give back to community By Exsar Arguello NEWS REPORTER @Exsar_Misael The Nike store at the Tanger Outlets in San Marcos ‘just does it’ when it comes to donations and recycling old products. Nike donates unsold or leftover items to the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District (SMCISD). The
sell.” The store will set these clothes aside and donate them to different organizations across the city, Riojas said. Nike has a program called “Old Soles Never Die,” an initiative allowing people to donate new or old shoes—regardless of brand name—to be recycled into new products. The outlet has an area designated for people to
“We donate a lot of clothes that aren’t the best quality or may have some type of flaw within them. Sometimes we’ll get different articles of clothing with a swoosh backwards or different dysfunctional parts that we can’t sell.” —KATRINA RIOJAS, NIKE OUTLET EMPLOYEE
store has different environmental initiatives to further help people in need with clothing, shoes and accessories. “We donate a lot of clothes that aren’t the best quality or may have some type of flaw within them,” said Katrina Riojas, Nike outlet employee. “Sometimes we’ll get different articles of clothing with a swoosh backwards or different dysfunctional parts that we can’t
drop off old pairs. The donated shoes are sent to Nike’s corporate office, where they are broken down into the raw materials needed to remake different products, Riojas said. Georganne Logue, secretary to the SMCISD superintendent, said Nike is the only store in the outlets that donates to the San
See NIKE, Page 2
PRESLIE COX STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER