It’s always better to strive for more.”Īshleigh’s family will join her in serving the holiday meals. “How are we going to make this happen,” he said. Powers Park.Īshleigh’s father, Gilbert Garcia, was proud to see his daughter take on and accomplish such an ambitious project. The meals - a choice of chicken or pork served with beans, coleslaw and bread - will be served to people holding those tickets from 3 to 5 p.m. She and her father visited Tracy Interfaith Ministries, the Larch Clover Community Center, the McHenry House Tracy Family Shelter, Emerson House and Lolly Hanson Senior Center and gave meal tickets to the administrators, who promised to hand them out to people in need of a free meal. “I wanted to show people I care about their situation.” “I didn’t know I was going to do something as big as this,” Ashleigh said.

That turned out to be enough to buy 200 Christmas Eve meals. Of those four games, weather and her commitment to a regional team forced her to miss two, and she scored one goal between the two remaining games.Īshleigh added the $50 she won for her second-place essay in a contest sponsored by the Tracy Press in May, which pushed the total to $1,635. She started by asking for donations or pledges for every goal she scored in the four games she was scheduled to play between Nov. I wanted to give them something special on Christmas Eve.”Īshleigh’s goal was $750, enough to buy 100 meals. “There are some people that don’t have that Christmas Eve feel. “The project had to be done by the end of the year, so why not make it a Christmas meal?” she said. She picked Texas Roadhouse to provide the food because her team has had fundraisers with the restaurant before.

She decided to raise money to pay for meals for people who might be hungry. “I wanted to do a project that would have a big impact on the community, a big impact on the people it helped and a big impact on me,” Ashleigh said. Over the summer, she was selected to join the Rage Leadership Academy, a group of 20 girls from among the 2,000 club members.Īs part of the leadership program, Ashleigh has to plan and complete a community service project. Powers Park.Īshleigh, 11, is a striker for an under-12 team in the Pleasanton Rage Girls Soccer Club. While some Tracy families exchange presents on Christmas Eve, Ashleigh Garcia’s family will be handing out 200 free meals at Dr.

Anything for Christmas by T. Ashleigh