Introducing the Monica’s Angels’ Cristina bracelet Saturday, August 22, in McAllen
Texas Border Business
At the start of her senior year at Memorial High School in McAllen in 1998, doctors diagnosed Monica Montanaro with osteosarcoma for the second time. Her first diagnosis came during her sophomore year. At that time, the Rio Grande Valley did not have a cancer-treatment center for children, so Montanaro and her parents traveled to San Antonio for her treatments, often staying for weeks at a time. A group of classmates in Montanaro’s American Sign Language class formed Monica’s Angels and worked with angel-pin designer Rosemary Trevino to create a “Monica” pin. They decided to sell the pins to help Montanaro’s parents pay for gas and living expenses throughout her treatment. The first Monica’s Angels Day was held at Broadway Hardware in north McAllen December 18, 1998, Montanaro’s eighteenth birthday. The community came out in full force, making the day a huge success. Broadway Hardware carried the “Monica” angel throughout the year.
Montanaro planned to continue the group when her treatments ended in order to help other families who had to travel outside the Valley for cancer treatment; however, she succumbed to osteosarcoma May 30, 2000, at the age of 19. Monica’s Angels continued for over 10 years in her honor, with Trevino designing a new “Monica” angel each year. Her Angels used all profits to fulfill Montanaro’s plan. Eventually, as the Angels grew up and moved away, Monica’s Angels became a wonderful memory of a community’s love for inspirational, fun-loving Monica Montanaro.
But this Saturday, August 22, 2020, on National Be An Angel Day, Monica’s Angels will reemerge to help one of the original Monica’s Angels, Cristina Guerra Seal, as she undergoes treatment for breast cancer. Doctors at MD Anderson diagnosed Seal, 38, with stage 2A breast cancer June 3, and she started chemotherapy June 24. Seal recently completed her third of six rounds of chemotherapy at MDA in Houston, where she now lives with her husband and two young daughters, and will undergo surgery at a later date.
A small group of the original Monica’s Angels are involved in this reemergence. They contacted jewelry designer Andrea Escobar of Bead Craftworks in Brownsville to create a Monica’s Angels Cristina bracelet. The original group of bracelets are made in 10 different colors. Some bracelets have an angel charm, some have a single angel-wing charm, and some have two angel-wing charms.
“My inspiration for the bracelets was to include an angel charm of some form in each one,” Escobar said. “One of the styles includes two small angel wings to represent Monica and now Christina,” one an Angel in heaven and the other an Angel among us here on earth.
The bracelets will be sold at Leona style, a boutique in north McAllen, as well as on their website, www.Leona.style, beginning Saturday, August 22.
“Our spa focuses on wellness, and Leona is all about fashion, so working with Monica’s Angels to sell the Cristina bracelet personifies the two perfectly,” said Edna Posada, owner of Leona and Spa La Posada in McAllen, Harlingen, and Brownsville.
The bracelets will sell for $20 each, with all profits going to Seal. She plans to use a portion of the funds to help others going through treatment for breast cancer.
“I’m going through this now so I can help other women who will go through it in the future,” Seal said. “I am an open book about my diagnosis and treatment for this reason.”
To learn more about Monica’s Angels and the Cristina bracelet, contact Chris Ardis at cardis1022@aol.com.
