COMMUNITY — HEB celebrates future customers

By Louis Zylka
The 830 Times

H-E-B had its family spring event on Saturday, celebrating the children and families in the
community with games and treats at their two local stores.

The H-E-B on Veterans Boulevard and on Pecan Street held the Kid’s Day event to celebrate
the annual Dia Del Nino. H-E-B locations throughout the Texas-Mexico border region
participated in the celebrations over the weekend as a way to give back to their communities.

Luis Leija, top store leader at H-E-B on Veterans Boulevard, said the turnout was successful
with a lot of families attending. He said his location started the Kid’s Day event early because
families heard about it in advance and got excited.

“The turnout (for Kid’s Day) was amazing. We love putting out activities like this, and bringing
the community together,” Leija said.

Sergio Gonzalez, store leader at the H-E-B on Veterans Boulevard, talked about Kid’s Day and mentioned how the event is important for their “little buddies,” which is the name his teams
call the children in their community.

“What we want to do is to make sure children make great memories with their families, so that
we can have these little buddies be our future customers,” Gonzalez said. “As they get older,
they will remember the fun times they had at H-E-B.”

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the H-E-B teams had games and booths set up inside their buildings.

The deli, bakery and produce departments handed out food for people to enjoy, including fruit, cookies and hotdogs.

Several games were set up as well, including loteria card games for children to win prizes and balero cup games. Children also lined up for temporary tattoos, coloring books and to sit down
for a fun children’s book read by the H-E-B staff. Music was also provided by Juan Eduardo, who is known as La Historia de un Juan, who played songs near the main entrance.

The Del Rio High School robotics team was also present and showed the robots they created
for competitions. Hugo Faz, lead design member of the robotics team, said his team takes part
in community events so they can inspire kids and teach them about what classes are available
in high school.

The H-E-B on Pecan Street also took part in the Kid’s Day activities by having Mexican pastries
for customers at their location and giveaways for a check stand (small playable cash register for
kids).

H-E-B has had other Kid’s Day events in the past during the end of the summer. Walker Sagebiel, operations manager at H-E-B on Veterans Boulevard, spoke prior to the event and said their spring Kid’s Day event is a way for the H-E-B locations in Del Rio to have more events for children to enjoy, while also celebrating the local heritages in the community that support the stores.