Bessemer Christmas Extravaganza continues: Honors life of late city councilman Ray Aguilera krdo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from krdo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ray Aguilera was sitting next to an elementary school student from Pueblo s Bessemer neighborhood at a Colorado Rockies baseball game when he gave him a few dollars to grab a hot dog from the concession stand.
It was his annual trip to Denver, when he chartered buses and brought dozens of students to a game as a reward for learning vocabulary, oftentimes exposing them to the delight of Coors Field and the state’s capital city for the first time: the smell of freshly cut grass, the aroma of stadium food and the tradition of the seventh inning stretch.
Friends say he relished the smiles on those children’s faces more than the game itself.
Ray Aguilera, a longtime Pueblo City Council member and fixture of the Bessemer community, died Sunday morning at age 78, surrounded by his family.
Aguilera was living with his family in Denver under hospice care since early last week. The cause of Aguilera s death is not yet known.
Aguilera served on
Pueblo City Council for more than a decade, first with two consecutive four-year terms starting in 2003 and then again from 2016 until this year. He represented District 4, which encompasses the Bessemer area.
He was devoted to those constituents, and a heroic advocate for Pueblo’s Bessemer neighborhoods, according to a statement from the city announcing his hospice care.
The foundation hosted a modified version of its annual Bessemer Christmas Extravaganza.
The annual event, started by city councilman and Pueblo Poverty Foundation founder Ray Aguilera, took place as a drive-thru celebration.
For more than two decades, Aguilera has hosted the event to reward the hardworking young scholars of Carlile, Columbian and Minnequa elementary schools.
“It may seem like we just do this,” Aguilera said. “But there is an alternative motive.”
Aguilera has partnered with the three elementary schools to encourage the children to find joy in learning.
The Vocabulary Challenge tasks students with enhancing their lexicon with as many new words as possible over the course of a school year.