EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – El Pasoan Chris Quinones voluntarily takes the trash out for 380 households in his neighborhood and surrounding blocks. He has been doing it for 32 years to help him cope with his epilepsy.
Quinones lives on Janway Drive in East El Paso, where he begins his weekly routine at 4:30 p.m. every Wednesday, to take out his neighbors’ trash and recycling bins for them to get picked up on time by El Paso Disposal.
He began doing this in the previous neighborhood he lived in to help him stay busy and focused, as he suffered from severe seizures.
Quinones continued doing it when his family moved to Janway Drive, but stopped briefly after moving out to San Antonio with his brother so he could have brain surgery.
Quinones explained that the surgery was very risky and a difficult choice to make, but he felt certain that his life needed a change and was worth taking the risk.
The surgery was successful and Quinones has not had a seizure in the 13 years since. He described the surgery as a turning point in his life, and explains that it marked a clear divide in the person he was before then and who he has become now.
Quinones has been able to continue serving his neighbors by taking out their trashes, but said the experience has been even better since the surgery as he has been more sociable, and the task has become his favorite hobby.
“I socialize with so many people, that’s what makes me happy because I was not like that at all. Everybody sees a big difference everywhere I go and that’s what makes them happy because they know what I’ve gone through in the past,” said Quinones.
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