T’was the day before Christmas

Well, it actually started a week before when Lisa Graves with Moving Forward Church visited a local business networking group- BNI Abundance.  She shared the story of an impoverished community on Jeff Davis Highway that her church adopted, to support them in their time of need.  The story of this community touched the heart of Austin Bergman of Valentine Properties .  He immediately made a generous donation but felt he could do more and launched a social media campaign. Within hours, it had gone viral and Austin was asked to speak to CBS 6. The outpouring of love and support from the community was more than anyone could have imagined.  Their office quickly turned into a warehouse of clothes, toys, shoes, grills.

The fellow members of BNI Abundance & local law enforcement rallied around the cause.  Frank Young is a longtime member and also an employee of Stewart Moving & Storage facilitated a generous donation of cardboard boxes to contain the many, many donations- and a truck plus driver to get these items to the families in the community. It took two trips to get the 16 brand new propane grill since with propane tanks most the families have to cook their meals outside, 1500 lbs. of new and used clothes which included new and used shoes.  As well as over 300 toys for the 100 children living there. A large amount of food was donated including frozen foods, can goods and dry goods.