one small measure
It began with noticing.
After the flood, I saw a homeowner carrying that unmistakable weight that comes when the needs are so great you can no longer see where to begin. I thought perhaps what she and her family needed most in that moment was simply a place to rest.
So I called my friend Paul Rushofsky at Tapatio Springs Hill Country Resort and asked if they might offer the family a little respite. He graciously said yes.
Because I live roughly a 90-mile round trip from the area, I asked a local woman, Courtney, if she could deliver a $500 gift card from FOUND.
It was meant to be a simple handoff.
Instead, it became the beginning of something much larger.
Courtney saw what was needed, assembled her own crew, and began doing significant work for these homeowners. FOUND’s involvement grew alongside it—far beyond anything we anticipated when this began with one family and one gift card.
By the time our portion of the work was complete, FOUND had contributed $7,125.06 in direct project costs, more than $1,650 in in-kind contributions, and approximately 110 coordinated service hours—a combined contribution of more than $8,775.
But numbers are a poor way to tell this story.
Those numbers became a functioning kitchen. Flooring in three rooms. Electrical work. Beds and mattresses. Food and clothing assistance. Bins and household essentials. Landscaping and debris removal. The assurance of a couple days of respite at a resort waiting when it’s time. Coordination with additional recovery resources. And even a little joy, through prizes this family received at the neighborhood block party we hosted.
They became people carrying things out and carrying things in. Cleaning floors. Laying flooring. Moving debris. Making calls. Buying supplies. Solving the next problem, and then the one after that.
And outside the home, we planted Esperanza—hope—at Marianne’s lovely suggestion. It feels fitting now.
Special thanks to Tapatio Springs Hill Country Resort for providing respite; Barbara Oates, Danielle Kruciak, and Mission Haus Foundation for helping make the kitchen a reality; Elizabeth Olsen for much-needed beds and home essentials; Martin Marietta for its support; Dan Persyn, Art Jump, Jasen Talley, Amanda Talley, Jessica Bateman, and Jeremy Smith for landscaping and hauling debris; Teri and Wayne Hauger, Aaron Tapley, and Dawson Persyn for cleaning and installing flooring; and Brittany Lehmann for her guidance with Airbnb support.
And to every FOUND donor whose generosity allowed us to say yes when something was needed: thank you. With special gratitude to Susan Simpson, Ginny Cadwallader, Kathryn Mau, and Angie Cox- all donors to Courtney’s Rebuild Fund.
We understand the weight of being entrusted with someone else’s generosity. Every dollar represents someone choosing to place something of theirs into our hands and asking us to make it matter. We take that responsibility seriously.
These numbers reflect FOUND’s contribution alone. I cannot speak to the full number of hours, resources, or labor contributed by Courtney and the crew she assembled. I am simply not privy to the full scope of their contribution. What I do know is that their work has been significant, and it deserves to be acknowledged -particularly that of Stephen Bryant and Marianne Key.
As we move forward, FOUND’s financial and hands-on involvement with this particular project has come to a close. Courtney and her helpers will continue their work, and there remains much to be done.
Perhaps that is the part of this story that stays with me most.
Because after more than $8,775 in resources, approximately 110 hours of service, donated labor, generous people, new flooring, a functioning kitchen, beds, electrical work, landscaping, debris removal and so many hands working toward the same home—
this house still isn’t whole.
And it is one house.
One family.
One address among more than a thousand affected.
That is the staggering scale of disaster recovery. What can feel enormous when you are standing inside one home can become almost impossibly small when you look across an entire county.
Our contribution here was a drop in a very deep well.
But a drop is still water.
For FOUND, this work was significant. The money mattered. The hours mattered. The people who showed up mattered. The family mattered.
It was an honor to serve them, an honor to work beside the people who stepped forward, and an honor to steward the resources entrusted to us.
Sometimes you cannot make the whole house whole.
Sometimes you simply do the piece placed in front of you—with care, with integrity, and with hope—and trust that other hands will come to carry the work forward.
