Celebrations, we love celebrations and any excuse for a party! Riverside West is our ‘excuse’ for a party! Impact Cares has been impacting communities across the US and Riverside was our 100th project! !
For over 6 years now, Impact Cares has been involved in helping mobile home communities and bringing a measure of hope, joy, and encouragement to those who live in them. Riverside proved to be no different in that regard. We had single moms who work hard to put food on the table, have eyes to see when their neighbors need help and then pitch in to do so. From the resident who has a ‘following’ if you can call it that, of chickens, ducks and geese who follow them around to the neighbor who can ‘see’ but is not able to recognize the negative impact they are having on their own community by their lack of care and by the choices they make.
Impact Cares has crossed the threshold of having 100 projects under their belt. This means that in the course of the last number of years, we have accomplished literally hundreds of improvements of all kinds. We have been privileged to repair leaky roofs, replace flooring that was rotted out, install new skirting on a host of homes from Michigan to Nebraska. We have built new decks, replaced steps, and carted off dumpster loads of trash from the Carolina’s to Texas. Over the course of the last years, we have applied hundreds of gallons of paint, power-washed countless homes, repaired leaky plumbing and even had several complete ‘make-overs,’ from New Mexico to Ohio and a host of states in between.
Apart from the hundreds, or even thousands of improvements made, it is the people that are the real story of what Impact Cares is all about. When you have the opportunity to travel and work in a variety of places across this great county, you will run into equally amazing, talented, and beautiful people as well. It never ceases to amaze us how many great and generous folks live in these communities. From the elderly struggling with health issues, to the veterans dealing with the stress of life, to the single mom’s who do what they can to take care of their kids, you will see a wide variety of hard-working people who are seeking to make the best of some hard situations. Many times, we have seen those struggling with medical challenges to grandparents stepping in to care for their grandchildren because of a broken marriage and over and over, we have witnessed the best in people rising to the top.
Speaking of those rising to the top, Impact Cares is often blessed with great volunteers from local school clubs to local churches seeking to have an impact on their own communities. For our 100th project, in Albuquerque, we had volunteers come from Nebraska, to Mission, Texas, to Gunnison, Colorado! Impact Cares would not be what it is without the support and helping hands of hundreds of volunteers over the years. They have given of their time and talents, of their smiles and energy, all to help those who they do not even know, often as a way of putting some ‘flesh’ on their faith in God.
‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35). These are the words of Jesus, and they echo down through the corridors of time to us today. In a small way, Impact Cares has been seeking to live out that truth in every community they have walked alongside. We look forward to the coming years and the day we can stop and celebrate our 200th project!