PEC employee supports Blanco’s Relay for Life

There’s no shortage of fundraisers or opportunities to volunteer in the Texas Hill Country, and behind several each year is PEC Human Resources Specialist Franciela Marin-Smith.

“I love to volunteer. I love to help,” Marin-Smith said. “Give me a cause, and I’ll go for it.”

While Marin-Smith makes donations of her time and money throughout the year for a variety of causes, her main effort centers on the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, an organized community fundraising walk. When Marin-Smith was just 12, her paternal grandmother succumbed to the disease, and the cause has been close to her heart ever since.

She said she supports Relay for Life because it helps people with all forms of cancer and because the money raised in an area stays there to benefit local residents.

For the past 13 years, Marin-Smith has volunteered at Blanco’s Relay for Life events, and she has been an organizer for the past six. Although the relay takes place each April, her fundraising efforts go on throughout the year as she sends fundraising letters to local businesses and makes follow-up visits. Giving has become a deeply rooted part of her life.

“I feel like I have so much,” she said. “There are people who don’t eat every day. There are people who don’t have shoes to wear. So, if I can give a little bit of my time for somebody else to have something, why not?

“It’s nice to make a difference in your community.”