[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14560]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO GUADALUPE SANCHEZ DE OTERO

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. STEVAN PEARCE

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 11, 2003

  Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the work of 
Guadalupe Sanchez de Otero, the director of the Andrew Sanchez Memorial 
Youth Center. Ms. Otero was recently selected as a 2003 Robert Wood 
Johnson Community Health Leader. She was one of ten people nationally 
to be selected for this prestigious award, which includes a grant of 
over $100,000 to enhance her work.
  Ms. Otero is the founder and director, without pay, of the Andrew 
Sanchez Memorial Youth Center in Columbus, New Mexico. The center 
provides a safe play space for local children, many of whose parents 
are farm laborers who work long hours and cannot afford childcare. The 
center's programs also include health fairs, community meetings, sewing 
classes, and craft activities. Ms. Otero expanded the center's services 
when she saw growing numbers of senior residents suffering from 
isolation and poor nutrition. To combat this problem, she and her 
mother cashed in hundreds of aluminum cans to be able to serve seniors 
hot meals at the center. They also organized young people to deliver 
food to homebound seniors.
  Ms. Otero founded the center in 1996 in an old fire station after 
launching the Health Promotores program in 1995. Through her work with 
the Health Promotores program, Ms. Otero quickly saw the many needs of 
the rural area on the U.S.-Mexican border, an area where more than half 
of the families live below the poverty line.
  In addition to founding the Andrew Sanchez Memorial Youth Center, Ms. 
Otero helped launch a mobile health clinic, created a bilingual support 
group for diabetics, provided farm worker health and pesticide safety 
education, and assisted with the effort to turn around an abandoned 
tavern into the Columbus Public Library.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to congratulate Ms. Guadalupe Sanchez de 
Otero on this well-earned distinction, and express my gratitude for her 
determination and leadership. I commend Ms. Otero and her staff for the 
hard work they continue to perform, and I am proud to recognize her 
today before my colleagues a model of commitment to human service.
  Ms. Otero's nominator for the award put it best by saying, ``Lupe 
doesn't just talk about what's needed, but rather recognizes it and 
takes action in her own special way.''

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