“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” said a resident suffering from cancer after the Impact Cares team with local volunteers replaced a floor, patched a roof and improved the steps going into a residence. The sentiment is a common one expressed by those who have been on the receiving end of what Impact Cares is all about. Impact Cares exists to care for the community, help residents with home repairs and involve others from the local communities in helping out their own neighbors.
One community down in Texas had two local Christian high schools show up to help. The kids worked hard, had great attitudes and were a great encouragement to the community! These local heroes replaced broken skirting, put a porch swing together, cleaned yards and blessed numerous people.
Another community reports, ‘Saturday was awesome!’ 33 people showed up to help. There were even six people who came from the local Red Cross to install free Smoke Alarms. One of the best things was to see the local residents come out to support their local community and their neighbors. They would jump in with both feet and had fun doing it! A number of volunteers came from a local church that worked hard and in the end, wanted to continue helping out their neighbors. One resident, who has been very sick, was struggling financially and had simply been having a rough time for quite some time had their house painted. They don’t get out of the house much but that day; they were outside and met the team who were painting their house. The change in their demeanor was remarkable!
Another resident from a community in Texas was what I would call, a scarred person, both inside and out. This person has had a tough life but that day for them, was life-changing! The team put a flag on the house, invited them to lunch and gave them some small things they could do to help. It was remarkable to see the change. This resident worked up the courage to come out and meet some people and even did a few things to help out and was even smiling and laughing at the end. What a difference it can make for all of us who may have had or even now have struggles in life to come out and help someone else!
It ended up being a long day; we worked until 6:30, after dark in order to finish up the projects we had for the day. The Impact Cares team, the volunteers from a local youth group and several residents all stayed to help, not wanting to quit until the job was done. Seeing the residents, the local community volunteers and the Impact Cares team coming together to improve, rebuild, beatify and bring encouragement is what it’s all about!
Until next time, stay safe during this unprecedented time in our country. We ‘will’ make it through this and Impact Cares will be back in force once again seeking to continue to improve and bring our communities together!