SAN ANTONIO – Over 30 local nonprofit organizations and vendors participated in a Fiesta medal market on Sunday morning on the North Side.
The event took place outside Armadillo’s Antiques N More, where organizers aimed to provide collectors a place to find new medals while supporting various causes across San Antonio.
“Our nonprofit we started is in the promotion of learning, knowledge, and education,” said the founders of The Portnell Foundation, Linda and Michael Portnell. “My wife is a retired teacher, and I’m an engineer, so we think education is very important. So, we created medals that we can sell to raise money for scholarships for high school seniors next year.”
Collectors said they came to seek additions for their medal-filled vests, with some saying they need to take a different approach to measuring their collections.
“I remember getting my first medal when I was like 15 years old, so I’m 40ish, so that’s how long I’ve been collecting,” Fjsta medal collector Jessica Perez said. "I collect butterflies. Butterflies are near and dear to my heart. They remind me of my mom."
“One year, I collected 37 pounds of medals,” Fiesta medal collector Gloria Raney said. “That’s just over one year. I’m going to say I have around 6,000 of them.”
Gloria and her husband, Robert, have been collecting medals for years, supporting causes near and dear to their hearts. It’s that passion, they said, that led them to create their own.
“I lost my son to suicide. And in his memory, I wanted to make a medal because I want people to know that it happens and it’s out there,” Gloria and Robert said. “It has the ribbon for suicide awareness. It has the 988 number on the hat and all the mementos that you see there, like the Spurs logo and the little sash on the Snoopy.”
“All of these folks have become our family,” Robert said.
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