CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — More than 200 people volunteered for a special beach cleanup in memory of Maite Rodriguez on Padre Island Saturday morning.
Rodriguez was one of the victims in the Uvalde School shooting and her mother Ana Coronado is on a mission to keep her legacy alive.
Coronado said people from across Texas arrived early to walk the coastline to pick up trash. All in memory of her late daughter.
"From so many places and it just, I'm so proud of her because she is making waves. She's making waves, she's helping students, and she is bringing families and communities together," Coronado said.
Maira Carrier is the founder of Maya's Love, a non-profit that helps children dealing with trauma. Maya's Love partnered with Adopt-A-Beach to help Coronado bring this event to Corpus Christi. Something that means a lot to the family since Maite wanted to attend Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi and become a marine biologist one day.
"When we learned about Maite, we wanted to makes sure to incorporate that and give back into the community but in a way that only Maite would love and do also," Carrier said.
Luther Jones Elementary Student Council advisor Janina Perez is glad she brought her student council members to Maite's beach clean-up. She said it's important that they understand the value of community and environment.
"So we can give back to our community and just remember the beautiful souls that were lost that day," Perez said. "And kind of go back and talk about their memory and make sure we never forget and always remembered what she loved to do."
Carrier said the turnout this year was bigger than last year's event and she hopes this event will continue to grow in memory of Maite.
"Just one act of kindness, makes a difference in the world. Whether it be a smile or just showing your presence here. The family sees it, they see how many people are coming out and love Maite," Carrier said.
Coronado said Maite will continue to live on through a scholarship and beach cleanups, which are the perfect way to pay tribute to her.
"Mom let's go pickup seashells or let's pick up sand-dollars. She loved to pick up sand-dollars, she loved to collect sand-dollars. So if she would say something, she would grab my hand and say let's go grab sand-dollars," Coronado said.
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