This is one of a series of stories about the nonprofit agencies that receive money from The Gazette/El Pomar Foundation Empty Stocking Fund campaign that runs through the holidays.

Determined to go to college, Maria Zaragoza had been working since she was 16 – mopping, cleaning, sales clerking.

But as she neared high school graduation this past spring, her dream of becoming an ultrasound technician and nurse was in jeopardy. Because of paperwork issues, a government student loan that would have enabled her to go to college did not come through in time.

“I was anxious,” Maria said.

But that all changed thanks to REACH Pikes Peak, an agency that provides a variety of social service programs, including personal development, job coaching and match money for housing, education and small-business investment.

The family has had struggles. Maria’s mother, Adriana Martinez-Zaragoza, had spent much of her youth as a migrant field worker in Texas and Colorado. She has held reception jobs in the medical field but now stays home to care for her 3-year-old, the youngest of her four children. She has been determined to keep her kids off the streets and college minded.

“I didn’t always make good decisions and wanted to make sure my kids did make the right ones.”

Maria’s high school counselor at Pikes Peak Academy (which she attended on a scholarship) pointed her to REACH Pikes Peak.

Maria is now studying at Pikes Peak Community College. REACH helped her with matching funds for tuition, books and a computer. Her brother Miguel Zaragosa, 22, also has received REACH matching funds to help with educational expenses and eyeglasses. He is studying criminal justice at PPCC.

They now have been able to secure government student loans for educational expenses.

Maria is working in a fast-food restaurant and Miguel as a dishwasher to contribute their share of the REACH matches.

“The help gives us faith that we can become something,” Miguel said.