ABC-7 Do-Gooder: El Paso uplifts youth while battling health struggles of her own

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- An El Pasoan with the goal of uplifting children spends her time encourages the youth through journey's of faith all the while facing a health battle of her own.

"My daughter was with me, and she started to cry," That was the moment Corrine Alvarez found out she had tongue cancer.

"There was days when, you know, I would say, why me," said Alvarez. "It was a hard time for me because i, you know, I'm.. I was down for a while. I couldn't...I had to recover, of course, from the surgery and, and everything."

But she didn't let it defeat her.

"If I even falter and I just sit down and accept this sickness and not try to keep moving forward, it's going to consume me," said Alvarez.

During her health journey, Corrine volunteered with the children's ministry and kept her faith.

"I missed the children very, very much at that time, and I realized at that time that I needed this. I needed the church."

Corrine has worked with children and teens for the past 20 years. In 2011, she was selected as Big Sister of the year with Big brother’s, Big sisters. During COVID she led bible study over zoom for the youth.

Corrine is now 71 years old and today she leads the nursery at Calvary temple. She teaches bible study Wednesday nights and oversees meal preparation for youth in attendance.

"The youth are going to be our future generational leaders, future leaders, like they say of America. So it's important to me to reach out to them and let them know that there's always a place they can come."

Despite the cancer, Corrine continued to put the children ministry first.

"I knew my strength was here with God, with the church, with the children," said Alvarez.

Corrine's commitment to encouraging the youth in the community and her resilience has earned her the title of this month's ABC-7's Do-Gooder, rewarding her charity of choice with $1,000 from the El Paso Community Foundation.

"It's wonderful because you volunteer, but you get more out of what you do. you get more back. more back," said Alvarez "Even just one hug and one kiss from one of these kids, it was like a spoonful of medicine. And I knew, I knew that's what I needed."

Through her outreach with the youth Corrine found relief and in time, healing. Both mental and physical. 

"It was a miracle because I had tested positive on the pet scan, tested positive on the biopsy, and then when they actually took out the tumor, there was no cancer," said Alvarez.

You can nominate someone who makes a difference in the community like Dino for ABC-7 Do-Gooder. Just follow this link to the submission form on here.

ABC-7's Do-Gooder is sponsored by the El Paso Community Foundation and Gozo's Ice cream.