Beas Kids

Twenty plus years ago Bea Salazar was blessed with a vision and a mission after observing the needs of many low income apartment children. These many years later, hundreds of these youngsters have attained a high school diploma and succeeded in stepping out into life with strength and confidence in their future...some even with advanced education in mind. I bake a monthly cupcake treat for the Carrollton Center and am welcomed by the smiling faces of three rooms of extremely polite and well behaved youngsters eagerly finishing their homework with the help of caring volunteers knowing their dedicated help is giving these young minds a definite chance to grow and succeed in the years ahead. Thank you Bea Salazar for the long time success of "BEA'S KIDS" ... through your faithfulness to a much needed cause, your determined efforts have seen this wonderful program continue to grow.

Mi name is Jairo Casados and I am 22 years old, 16 years ago I traveled to the USA for the first time with my mother and sister, yes we were immigrants, we didn't have much family in Dallas, Texas, we were on our own and my parents didn't speak english, how would they help us with our education and personal development? It was difficult to adapt since we came from a different country and culture, by that time we needed to learn english to get through school and life, we never lost hope and my mother was a very friendly person, she found out with one of our latin neighbors, that there was this club named Bea's Kids where they helped children with low incomes, she saw a great opportunity, long story short...I remember Bea's Kids as a great place where they helped me with my homework, where I had the opportunity to learn and socialize with other kids, they made me feel like in home (great snacks =9), I was a confident kid and was not afraid to confront the world, thanks to that I got a lot of great notes in school...I will never stop thanking Bea's Kids for helping me and my family when we most needed it...now I live in Mexico and I am studying computer engineering, I am happy to know that Bea's Kids keeps helping children, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! ñ_ñ

Bea’s Kids has been helping children from low-income families stay in school and break the cycle of poverty for more than 20 years. I have worked for Bea’s Kids for 11 years and have had the pleasure of working with many amazing children. Many who are now responsible adults making a positive contribution to our communities. Bea’s Kids has helped hundreds of kids graduate from High School, who may not have done so if not for this program. The positive impact that this program has made throughout the years is invaluable. I’m proud to work with Bea’s Kids and even more proud of my mother Bea Salazar. I’m honored to be Bea’s kid!

Bea's Kids is a great organization!! Not only do they help the kids, they help the community which is great. I have been working with Bea's Kids for almost 3 months now and I love the kids and enjoy the people I work with.

I have been with Bea's Kids since I was in the 2nd grade and can honestly say that it is a wonderful organization. I have now graduated high school and am part of the program serving as the Farmers Branch Center Director. Everyday is both satisfying and rewarding, the fact that Bea's Kids helps all of these children do something better with their lives and keep them occupied on good things is a very good thing. Everyday I get to help kids with their school work as well as have fun with them, and let me tell you, there is no better feeling at the end of the day than knowing you helped make a positive difference in someones life. I can personally say that Bea's Kids can and has changed lives, it helped me become the person I am today. Instead of being out doing other things, everday I would go to the center and work on my homework as well as on other activities and thatnks to the daily encouragment and help I received from the volunteers and everyone else there I suceeded at school. There was not one day that I would not look forward to going to the tutoring center, everyday was fantastic. This truly is a great organization that I will be thankful to for the rest of my life.

I volunteered for four years at Bea's Kids as the Tutoring Manager. My most satisfyng outcome was the high school graduation of six students those four years. There is nothing like the feeling you are making a difference every time you tutor a student.

Bea's kids provided both my daughters with exposure to the non-profit world as well as to helping children. It inspired them to create an initative "Sitting for snacks" where monies they earned was used to procure heallthy snacks which were then donated to the center for Bea's Kids to have while studing after school. Many of hours were volunteered during the school years and during the summers. Bea's Kids allowed them to volunteer in accordance to their own schedule and was a win-win-win opportunity for all. After meeting Bea and understanding the origin of the organization, one daughter vowed to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost every day at school to remind her of how fortunate she is and how others may not be so much.

I have been volunteering at Bea's Kids for a few years. Each time I volunteer feels great because I know that I can make a difference in someone's life and that feeling is priceless.

Bea's Kids has been helping low income children after school for years and years. Their after-school program is often the help and encouragement and love these children receive on an on-going basis. I'm thrilled to help in every way possible!

I've been volunteering for Bea's Kids for five years. They do a great job of providing a safe place for kids to go after school to get help with their homework. Bea Salazar started it more than 20 years ago because she saw a need in her community. She's still very involved in the organization and the good it does for the Dallas, Farmers Branch, and Carrolton communities. They encourage kids to stay in school and give them the tools to help them succeed.

I have been working at Bea's Kids and is a wonderful program where we help to the kids with their homework and I hope that every single kid has a wonderful future.

Bea's Kids has changed hundreds of lives in the Dallas area community, as well as my own. The work they have done since 1990 in providing after school tutoring centers to children of low-income families is phenomenal. I have no doubt that without Bea's Kids there would be hundreds more children who would have dropped out of school, gotten caught up in dangerous after school activities like gangs or drugs, or continued through the school system but not actually learning their grade-level math or reading. That the primary client of Bea's Kids are children of immigrant families makes their work even more important. Education and English language development are the key for allowing second-generation Americans to assimilate into society and allow them to become anything they wish to be. Bea's Kids does this by giving them free tutoring in a safe environment for two hours every day after school. Working for Bea's Kids has changed my life as well. They gave me a full-time job after spending nearly a year as an out-of-work Veteran struggling hard to make ends meet. They gave me an opportunity to work with the children to help teach them, while learning from them too. I'm being exposed to an entire new culture and am making new friends. This is all possible because Bea's Kids has never given up on its mission, even during difficult financial times. They are fantastic stewards with donated funds, using every dollar its maximum potential.