VISTO hosting fish fry, concert at Cooke Co. Fairgrounds tonight

Jun. 3—VISTO (Volunteers in Service to Others) is hosting a concert, fish fry and book sale this weekend.

The Concert and Fish Fry start Friday at 6 p.m. at the Cooke County Fairgrounds. Admission is free and each fish plate is $10.

"We have four bands, five performers; we have the fish fry in partnership with the Gainesville Knights of Columbus and Chicken Express; both of those provide the food for us; we have gotten donations from Krootz so we're getting give to $100 gift cards," said Executive Director Bekki Jones.

"It is part of our fundraising season and typically we have it in March but it was rained out. It typically brings in about eight to $10,000 and that goes a long way because of our partnership with Tarrant area. It really helps us to fill the shelves."

Performers include The Virge, Rachel Stacy, blackout betty, and Bad Habit.

"We're just hoping that people will come and support us and support the bands and musicians who have taken the time out to do this for us and rearrange their own schedule," said Jones.

BOOK FAIR

Then, on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., VISTO is hosting a book fair at its location at 1305 N. Culberson St.

"Gainesville ISD librarians were cleaning out their shelves and donated a pallet-full of books to us, so we thought, 'Let's promote summer reading'," said Jones.

Kids and families are invited to come and take as many books as they would like. The event will also have hot dogs, games, and more.

MORE ROOM, MORE OPPORTUNITIES

VISTO is one of the primary resources in the Gainesville community to help people in need. "We are Cooke County's emergency food pantry; that's our primary mission," said Jones. "But we also support people in need when they need gas for medical appointments or job interviews, life sustaining prescriptions or help with rent or utilities. We have a vast collection of resources that we share with people when we can meet their needs, and we point them in the right direction."

One of the main missions of VISTO is to get people the support they need so they no longer need services like VISTO.

"We have a program that's called Pathways, and it is our answer to giving people a hand up rather than just a handout," said Jones. "In partnership with the community at large, we're able to offer classes in health, cooking, nutrition; we have Bible study; we have extreme couponing classes; we have handyman classes; we have done self defense classes: anything that a client might be interested in, we've able been able to find somebody in the community who's willing to come in and teach at no charge to us as a benefit to the community."

The Pathways program has greatly benefitted in the past two years since VISTO changed locations.

"Before we moved here, we had to ask different churches, 'Can we borrow a room on this night? Can we borrow a classroom? Can we borrow just the kitchen? Can we do any of that?' and now we don't have to: it's all here."

Before moving to the current location on Culberson Street, VISTO was located on the Southbound service road by I-35. It has benefitted greatly from being closer to downtown Gainesville and having larger facilities.

"We feel like it has been a blessing for us," said Jones. "We've been welcomed by the neighbors in this area we're at, we're able to serve people who don't have automobiles because it's much easier access for them. The space being able to store more food, keep more food on hand; It really has been a tremendous blessing for us all the way around."

Growth and support

VISTO began in 1988 as a collaboration of the Ministerial Alliance allowing local churches to pool their resources together to better help the community.

"We've grown; our numbers for Backpack Buddies has grown well over 250 percent rom inception; the amount of people we serve in the relationships and partnerships in the community have grown... Last year in 2021, we saw 17,741 individuals came through our doors, we did over $48,000 in 2021 in financial assistance, and we distributed over 289,000 pounds of food," said Jones. "I think that we have built a sense of transparency and trust within the community."

Backpack Buddies is a program from VISTO to help kids have food on the weekends whose main source of food is free and reduced lunch at school.

This sense of trust has helped get VISTO the support needed to continue its ministry.

Along with the Concert and Fish Fry, one of the primary fundraisers for VISTO is the Murder 76240 murder mystery held annually downtown. This year, the event was held on April 28 and brought in the highest money raised to date.

"It makes me so happy to talk about murder because it's so much fun for everybody involved and for the actors for the volunteers for my board members and then for the people who play ... and through our sponsorships, we raised over $250,000," said Jones. "That takes care that takes care of Backpack Buddies plus a lot of the food for the pantry. That's phenomenal and gives me a huge sense of relief knowing that we're able to continue our mission because of that support."

VISTO is open 8 a.m. to noon, Monday-Friday.

"I'm grateful every day for my blessings," said Jones. "And I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to share the gifts that God has used to bless me with other people, showing His kindness and his love."