Servite Senior Edric Ruiz gave an incredibly special gift to a woman he had never met. Last December Edric had learned of a woman named Heather who was battling stage four cancer through Servite’s receptionist Ms. Helen Aguilar, and immediately took action on what was to become an incredibly special Christmas gift. In Edric’s own words, this is what happened.
“I first came across Heather’s story through Mrs. Helen Aguilar. She had read about Heather and her cancer in the OC Register and knowing that I have worked with breast cancer awareness fundraisers before, brought this particular article to my attention. I have never met Heather before, but something inside of me told me I knew I could do something to help. The story talked about Heather’s “Bucket List,” a list of things she wanted to do before she died, and at the top of the list was to see her father, whom she hadn’t seen in 12 years. Due to her medical condition, Heather had to stop working, causing financial instability for her family and no money to bring her father home to see her. I knew Servite could help her raise enough money to buy her father a plane ticket and fly him in. Knowing time was running out, I immediately got to work and contacted all the Priors, telling them what I had in mind and to spread the word. I asked the Priors to have their Assistant Priors collect at least $1 from every student in their Priory homerooms. In less than three days, we had managed to collect $966.56. Since Heather was deep in stage four cancer, she was unable to come receive the money from us herself, so her best friend, Tiffany St. John came. When she heard what Servite had done and how much was raised, she broke into tears. She was so grateful for what we did, she was speechless. It was a nice Christmas gift for Heather and her family. I could not have done this without the help of Mrs. Aguilar, the Priors, and the rest of the Servite community.
My grandma had been diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, so I knew what it was like to have a family member experience this; I wanted to do everything I could to help. There are so many opportunities out there to donate to research a cure. Every dollar helps.”
Edric Ruiz ’12
