Student Models: Agency Discourse Memo
Date: September 10, 2011
To: Thomas Underdahl
From: Lorenzo Luevano
RE: Candlelighters of El Paso
As the number of children suffering from cancer in El Paso and surrounding areas grows the need of organizations against cancer is in demand. To help in the demand, Candlelighters decided to open its door in 1985.The social impact Candlelighters has brought to El Paso has enhanced the lives of cancer patients by providing hope, support, encouragement and education to the families and to themselves. Candlelighters decided to address the issue of helping children with cancer because there was a great needed for help. The issues addressed by Candlelighters are important because they bring awareness to the people about donating and volunteering for a needy cause. It is important because more help and organizations like Candlelighters are needed in this area.
Thirty years ago Candlelighters was created in El Paso, by a group of parents concerned about the cancer of their children. Candlelighters, a nonprofit and independent organization is in collaboration with the National Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation. The organization is one of the few agencies helping the children with cancer. Candlelighter is a charity for the treatment and support of cancer patients. Candlelighters help families not only in El Paso but also in Juarez/Chihuahua and southern New Mexico.Candlelighters serve those who live below the poverty line, and have low education levels. The main purpose of Candlelighters is to ease the pain,suffering,confusion of the family while treating their children with cancer. Families receive the love,care, encouragement, and understanding needed to overcome the illness. The children with cancer interact with other children in camps, and workshops to ease the pain and the suffering brought by the cancer. The agency not only offers the emotional, financial and counseling support to the children, but also to the family members being affected. Candlelighters also offer services to the families such as care-a-van, food closet, therapy and camps. Candlelighters serve 200 children with treatment and 1000 families with supportive services. Volunteers from the community help out the parents of the children. Year round Candlelighters has a volunteering staff of 75 people.
To help out the children and their families, Candlelighters offers a wide range of discourse genres not only to the families but also to the donors. They provide the families with emails, letters, and calls concerning treatment, appointments, events, and information. Camps are formed to inform the families about the services offered and the help they will receive during the process. The organization also creates commercials, flyers, and posters that are distributed around El Paso to inform the public about their organization, fundraiser, and donations. Donors receive calls and emails to schedule a pickup of the donations. The website for Candlelighters is the main means of communication, because it offers, events, links, and information, not only to the families but also to the donors. Articles, blogs, and updates are uploaded to inform people about monthly events and news. Social Medias offer the public with surveys and pictures about current events and information. The radio is meant for the public to communicate with the organization. Donation bins and trucks are use to collect donations all around El Paso. The organization discourse practices are mainly fundraising, like Guns and Hoses Baseball classic, softball tournament. They also have events for the families and the cancer patients to release some of the burden, like Wet N’ Wild family picnic, Western Playland and Fiesta Lanes. They use the discourses practices and donations to gather money to treat the children in need. By communicating with the public through the different discourse genres, they received the help needed to stay operating.
