For a long time public-spirited citizens have spent a great deal of their individual time and effort trying to further projects that were of inestimable value to the entire citizenship of the Valley. The inattention of the average citizen to those efforts must have been heartbreaking to those who were making this tremendous unselfish sacrifice and we must all realize that had the Valley been united in one large organization to support these workers and work for the general good and advancement of the Valley, the task would have been much easier and the results tremendous by comparison. Up until the creation of the Valley Planning Board [now DBA the Partnership], the Valley has had no such organization to support the efforts of these citizens. We also realize that without such an organization, the general progress of the Valley would be much slower than would be the case if we had such an organization actually functioning and properly financed . . . The Valley Planning Board is non-political and non-sectional, but has unselfishly the interest of the entire Valley at heart and working for every single section of the Valley.
Lloyd Bentsen, Sr., Chairman, 1944

During a recent Legislators' Luncheon hosted by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership, United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) reached out to United States Representative Rubén Hinojosa (D-Mercedes), placed her hand on his shoulder and addressed the audience. "We are a team, she said. "Any time he says ‘my district needs this,' we go to work."

As usual, Senator Hutchison has perfect timing. Just one day after she reached symbolically across Congressional chambers and party lines, acknowledging the importance of working together to bring recognition and resources to the Rio Grande Valley, the U.S. Census Bureau released a study that reinforces the real necessity for teamwork across the four south-most counties of Texas. According to the American Community Survey, an examination of 233 counties nationwide with populations of at least 250,000, Cameron and Hidalgo counties have the lowest median household incomes, the highest poverty rates, and the highest child poverty rates across the United States.

There is great need in the Rio Grande Valley. But when we galvanize our resources, there is simultaneously great opportunity.

Infrastructure development is the classic example. In 1991, community leaders from four counties and twenty-four cities came together and commit to one mobility plan for the area. Since then, the Rio Grande Valley has received over $1.15 billion in funding towards regional transportation projects. Now, from Roma to Brownsville, communities reap the progress and prosperity driven by a more accessible and less dangerous infrastructure system.

Another powerful example of collaborative effort, unveiled the same day Senator Hutchison made her luncheon presentation, will improve the health of the whole region. The Lower Rio Grande Valley Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (LRGVNIRI), a coalition of more than 350 local social service organizations, state universities, and federal agencies, is the first national program to focus on nutrition and chronic diseases among any Mexican-American population. The LRGVNIRI will work to identify those factors worsening the health status in Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy counties, then implement a strategy to confront them. Lessons learned here and now through this program will later affect the entire nation, as Hispanics emerge as the fastest growing segment of the total United States population.

There are so many other examples, just as significant, that demonstrate how when we come together, we improve our four-county community, even our whole country. We are louder as one million voices, calling attention to our great need; we are stronger as one Valley-wide community, advancing our great opportunities.

It is an honor to bring people together through the Rio Grande Valley Partnership, a chamber of commerce for the entire region; it is a privilege to bring here legislators, like Senator Hutchison, so that they can better understand our unique problems and awesome potential in the Rio Grande Valley. And it is with great pride that we, too, ‘go to work,' building teamwork in order to bolster possibility for the Rio Grande Valley.
  -Bill Summers, President & Chief Executive Officer, 2004