Jim Wells County rallies around Perez family after toddler's death

Meal trains, prayer circles and church-led help spread across Jim Wells County after 15-month-old Coby Lee Perez died, with neighbors, friends and local groups stepping in to support the Perez family.

The response reflected how quickly hardship can turn into organized care in a place like Alice and the wider county, where churches, informal fundraisers and social-media posts often become the first tools people use to help a grieving family. In this case, the child’s age made the loss especially hard to absorb: Coby Lee Perez was only 15 months old.

By June 5, 2026, the support had become a visible part of the family’s darkest moment. Residents were sharing the Perez family’s need, arranging food and drawing others into the effort through the same close-knit networks that usually connect people through schools, churches and neighborhoods. In Jim Wells County, those ties are not abstract. They are the reason word moves fast when a family is hurting, and the reason practical help can reach a home before isolation takes hold.

That kind of solidarity has become a recurring part of life in the county, where many families know one another across the same classrooms, church pews and street corners. When tragedy strikes, the response is often immediate and deeply local: a meal dropped off, a small fundraiser organized, a prayer request passed along, a message shared online so the family does not have to carry the burden alone.

For the Perez family, that network became part of the story around Coby Lee Perez’s death. The emphasis in the community was not on ceremony or formality, but on action, with residents finding concrete ways to stand beside the family as they faced an unimaginable loss. In a county built on overlapping relationships and familiar names, the outpouring around the Perez family showed how Jim Wells County mourns one of its own: by showing up, helping where it can and keeping the family held inside the community’s care.