How We Got Started
Why Do We Respond? Because they Responded!
About 4 years ago I attended the funeral of my friends husband who died much too early. The memorial service was in a gymnasium and was filled to capacity. This man has been very generous and had given much back to the community of Paris, TX. On my way back I started to think about what legacy I would leave behind. Sure I have rescued a lot of dogs and helped find them homes and I was active in my church but neither of those left the kind of mark that I felt I should leave based upon the blessings that I have been given.
That started me thinking. I recalled an instance where another friend of mine was able to rally the local Home Builders Association and local news stations to help get a home rebuild for a disadvantaged couple after she discovered that they were living in a burned out shell of a house after they had a fire without insurance. With all of my contacts in the remodeling industry and having both time and some resources I felt that I could leverage this in some way to benefit my community.
Last year just after thanksgiving I noticed a fund raiser on Facebook that a friend of mine started for a veteran who had been living in a house without hot water for going on three months so that he could care for his mother who was suffering from Alzhimers. Evidently all of the plumbers that came over to fix the hot water heater “determined” that there were other repairs needed to bring the property “up to code” before they could replace the hot water heater, $3000.00 worth of repairs that this veteran did not have.
So I called a builder friend of mine and she called her favorite plumber. The plumber went out there on his birthday, evaluated the situation and determined that there were not any “code” issues. DHLC paid for the new hot water heater and he installed it at no cost. That was all of the validation I needed to have. The need was real and I had the ability to meet that need. It was from that event that DHLCNow was launched.
-Rob Barney, Founder