THERE’S GREAT NEWS for several school districts across the Rio Grande Valley!

Ernesto Villarreal, College 1st CEO, Ford NGL liaison, and RGV LEAD partner, announced that the Ford Next Generation Learning (Ford NGL) Academies of the Rio Grande Valley, an initiative that started almost 7 years ago, continues to thrive across various Valley school districts. Naturally, there are pre-employment labs that are not in full gear because of COVID, but the goal is to get students back in and continue practicing social distancing. The Ford Motor Company decided it would step up to the plate and do its part to help school districts.

Ford Motor Company produced millions of masks to protect its manufacturing employees as they came back to work. In addition, Ford decided to donate some of these masks to Ford Motor Company Fund’s partners, which includes our school districts that are actively involved with Ford NGL.

Ford NGL Executive Director, Cheryl Carrier, approached Ford NGL partnering superintendents and offered protective masks for their students and teachers. In total, Ford NGL donated 330,000 protective masks to the Rio Grande Valley with an estimated value of $0.41 per mask for a total In-Kind Value of $135,300 plus shipping expenses.

These masks will help prevent COVID-19 in our school and help protect lives across RGV communities. This donation has been made possible through the strong partnership established with RGV LEAD and Ford NGL! Congratulations to the following Ford NGL Academies of the Rio Grande Valley on receiving masks for your students.

1. La Joya ISD 84,000 masks
2. Harlingen CISD 56,000 masks
3. Mission CISD 50,000 masks
4. Weslaco ISD 50,000 masks
5. Los Fresnos 33,000 masks
6. Sharyland ISD 31,000 masks
7. Vanguard Academy 12,500 masks
8. Point Isabel ISD 7,000 masks
9. Brownsville Lopez Early College High School 6,500 masks