Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriela Gonzales. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Gabriela was a successful photographer in Houston, Texas, for over two decades until the pandemic hit. Like many business owners, Gabriela experienced canceled photoshoots, declined events, and lost clients as the pandemic bare its teeth. Suddenly, she had no work to do, and she began to feel sorry for herself. She quickly began to renew her mind, and instead of sitting idle and feeling frustrated, she started decluttering her house, which led her to think about those who also lost their jobs. Gabriela remembered her friend Yadira that was connected to low-income families through her job, and made a call, sharing her idea to help a family with groceries. Gabriela contacted the family to tell them she and her son Aaron would be bringing her groceries. Gabriela also asked if she could text her pictures of her living room, bedroom, and dining room to see what she might have to donate since she was decluttering. After viewing the family’s pictures of their home and how they lived, Gabriela’s heart began to break. She decided she would post in her subdivision Facebook “Southlake Subdivision” in Pearland, TX and asked her neighbors if they had pots, pans, dishes, sheets, curtains, rugs, picture frames, lamps anything they thought this family could use and set outside their porch on the following Saturday for porch pickup. Gabriela and her son Aaron had a game plan and went from house to house doing porch pickups and ended up with a truck full of beautiful, gently used household items for her family in need. They were over the moon with all the nice items they had collected. The two then went to HEB, and together they purchased groceries for the family. When they arrived at the family’s apartment complex, and the family all rushed to greet her and saw all the beautiful things, the mom was in tears, and she asked Gabriela in Spanish, “Why are you doing this? You don’t even know me?” Gabriela replied with a huge smile, pointing to the sky, “I don’t know you, but my God does.”
That was the beginning of how GABRIELA’S FAMILIES IN NEED got started. Then Gabriela started posting not only in her subdivision Facebook but on her personal Facebook, Gabriela Elizondo Gonzales, and that’s when it really blew up. They began to get more families needing help, storage units full of beautiful furniture, homes of furniture from families that had lost their parents and wanted all the furniture donated to their families. Gabriela says she didn’t think about her business anymore, she was so touched by her social media friends contacting her to donate EVERYTHING for her family’s need, she didn’t have time to think about photography. She made the decision to hire a lawyer to help her get her nonprofit status to give all her friends a tax exemption receipt.
Thanksgiving was coming up, and her husband Cary Gonzales, a Houston Fire Firefighter of 28 years, asked her, “So what are you going to do for all your families in need for Thanksgiving?” Gabriela exhausted, working from very early morning to late at night making connections, translating from Spanish to English because she says 99% of her families in need are immigrants that come to Houston with absolutely nothing, can’t speak English, and her friends donating the clothing, household items and furniture, can’t speak Spanish so it takes a lot of her time. She replies to her husband, “What Thanksgiving? I can barely handle what I’m doing; I haven’t even thought about Thanksgiving” Sooner than later, her client, Hilda Sibrian with The Law Offices of Hilda Sibrian, sends Gabriela a message and says, “Gabriela, I see what you’re doing for the community, I would like to donate Gift Cards from HEB for all your families in need, so they too can have a nice THANKSGIVING DINER” Gabriela says she almost fell off the her chair as she’s reading Hilda’s message. We set that up, and we gave all the families the gift cards, with a care package that included hand sanitizer, mask, and a soft teddy bear for the children. I will never forget what Hilda did.
Then her husband asks again, “Gabriela, what are you going to do for your families in need for Christmas?” she replied with “Oh Lord help me” So she thought about having a lady’s luncheon, where she could have a Christmas tree with all her families in need tag on the tree so that her girlfriends could pick a family and adopt one for Christmas Gifts. Then she thought, she has photographed 100s of conferences she knew exactly what to do. So, Gabriela decided to share her story of how she became Lakewood Church Photographer (Joel Osteen wrote her story in his book “It’s Your Time”) to inspire and encourage the ladies. Gabriela says that it’s good to pray, believe, confess, but it’s not till we do what we can do that God will make a move. Gabriela was thinking maybe she could get twenty of her friends to join in and support her cause, but to her amazement, she sold out and had over 200 ladies at her first of many luncheons, and ALL THE FAMILIES GOT ADOPTED and received gifts, it was a huge success.
Since then, Gabriela has become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and TOGETHER with all her friends, has helped 238 Families. She says she had been helping families for about ten years but not at this extent. She likes to say that God asked her to do this years ago, but she was too busy with life, career, and family till he took it all away and got her to see the heart of God…
Her photography business is back and running, and she still works countless hours for her families in need. Gabriela hopes to one day have volunteers with trucks to make a furniture delivery once every two months or whenever possible. She says the greatest challenge has been seeing her family in need struggle to get a truck to pick up the BEAUTIFUL GENTLY USED FURNITURE that is much needed. She says if you would like to be a part of what she’s doing to connect with her through Facebook Private Messenger “Gabriela Elizondo Gonzales,” email gaby@photosbygabriela.com
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Yes, yes the struggle has been for my families to find a truck to pick up the much-needed furniture…The dream is to have several volunteers with trucks all over the Houston area that can do a delivery whenever possible,
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
I’m Gabriela, with Photos By Gabriela, a photographer with two decades of experience. I specialize in photographing business owners, professionals, CEOs, people in leadership positions for all their headshots and personal branding needs to use for their marketing materials like billboards, brochures, websites, editorial, etc. I also photograph their staff headshots. Because my clients are in leadership, I realize their time is valuable, so I make it convenient by bringing the studio to them. They don’t have to worry about a background, proper lighting because I bring it all. As a result of my work, my clients are proud to show off their images on their brochures and website. I believe what separates me from the other great photographers is my personality, availability, flexibility, experience, and what others have said about me. I also strive to please my clients and give them 150% customer satisfaction.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
Oh yes, my favorite childhood memory was looking forward to playing softball at our neighborhood park. All the children went to the same elementary and middle school, so we all became family…In the summer, the girls played in the softball league, and the boys played baseball. In the winter, the girls were all cheerleaders, as the boys played football…I believe being busy year-round kept me on the right path.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.photosbygabriela.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photosbygabriela99/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabriela.elizondo.gonzales/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriela-elizondo-gonzales-a49b771a/
