“The Sophia” is a local organization that helps raise funds to help mothers in areas that are underserved with resources. Scott Brocato spoke with Staci Kuchler from The Sophia about two events coming up that the organization is sponsoring to help those mothers: “100 to 100” and “The Next Big Thing”.
Scott Brocato:
Talk about The Sophia. What is The Sophia?
Staci Kuchler:
The Sophia is a nonprofit group that was started by Kristen Rankin. It was started about four years ago. She was doing a blanket heater and toy drive for kids down in the underserved sister cities. And she just formed a nonprofit to make it a little bit more formal and do more things with it.
Scott Brocato:
And who does it help?
Staci Kuchler:
It helps children and families and sister cities between Las Cruces and El Paso. So it's cities like Anthony, Vado, Mesquite. Chaparral, Berino--pretty much any little city between here and El Paso are the people that we serve.
Scott Brocato:
The Sophia is raising funds to help moms for cause. It's called the “100 to 100”. Can you explain what that is?
Staci Kuchler:
Yeah. So the “100 to 100” is the current cause that we're trying to fund. Ideally, we would like to give 100 moms $100 to spend on themselves. So these are all moms in the underserved communities that don't have money to buy themselves even basic needs. Last year, Kristen took them to the store, and she noticed that they were using the $100 to buy themselves underwear and shirts. So it's just a way for us to give the moms something back from all these kids that they help.
Scott Brocato:
How can people help these mothers, aside from the “100 to 100” fundraiser?
Staci Kuchler:
So right now we have a Facebook campaign and a PayPal donate link that they can click on to donate money. If they donate a specific amount--so if people donate $100, then we're going to give them two tickets to our "Next Big Thing”, which is the event that we are putting on in conjunction with “100 to 100”.
Scott Brocato:
What is "The Next Big Thing” and when is it happening?
Staci Kuchler:
So “The Next Big Thing” is...we don't like to call it a talent show, because it's much more than that. But it's basically going to be 10 to 14 performers from Las Cruces and El Paso that Kristen has hand-selected. So it's going to be good. There's a range, like a wide variety of people that are going to be performing, and it's going to be audience-voted, and the winner will receive a $500.00 cash prize. So it's just a way to get people to come out, learn more about The Sofia, learn about what we do and help moms and support local talent.
Scott Brocato:
And you know who some of the names are and how she handpicks them?
Staci Kuchler:
I do. So I joke that we've turned into talent scouts lately because we just go random places to look for people. So some people that she got Dzaki (Sukarno); he was on American Idol, he's going to come. We're really excited and we have The PIE Sisters, who are from El Paso. They are three sisters and they harmonize with each other; it's very pretty. We have a young lady named Jocelyn (Martinez). She is a violinist, and she's a junior at Oregon Mountain High School; she's going to come play for us. We have the Ballet Folklorico de Corazon, which is a youth ballet folklorico group; they're going to come and do a performance for us. HD-2 Dance; they're going to do a hip-hop routine. Ella Vistine: she graduated from Oregon Mountain (High School) last year and she sings beautifully. We have Noel Torres coming; he sings mostly Spanish, but he sings a little bit of everything.
And then we have a few bands. We have the Vic Walker Band that's going to come, and also the House Blend Band. One thing that we worked on yesterday was we found Dallas David Ochoa, and he is going to come and be like our on-stage filler and performer for the program. So he's going to be just playing music throughout the intermission and breaks. And then we also have a magician that's going to come and kind of keep the kids occupied before and during intermission, and his name is Simon the Magician. So that's what we have right now. And then we also have about four other groups that we're trying to confirm.
Scott Brocato:
And that's all happening May 10th?
Staci Kuchler:
May 10th at the Rio Grande Theatre. It starts at 7:00, but we're going to have a meet and greet with the performers at 6:15. People can get tickets on our Facebook page. We have an event called The Next Big Thing, and there's also a link there to donate to moms.
