The Juicy Fruit Party Dragon – perhaps the coolest name ever for a nonprofit!
Small miracles, safer homes. That’s the motto for WARM (Wilmington Area Rebuilding Ministry), a local nonprofit that organizes volunteers, building materials and funds to complete urgent home repairs for low-income homeowners. In the wake of Hurricane Florence, they’ve been busy– and in need of some miracles.
Here’s one story of how small miracle after small miracle – from New Jersey down to the Carolinas – brought Matchmaker Logistics an opportunity to serve.
It all started with Juicy Fruit Party Dragon, a uniquely-named charity located in Ocean County, NJ, with a fun mascot (right). The nonprofit, started by three friends, is small – but it has managed to shed light on dozens of causes, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of necessities for those most in need.
The founders were shopping for items for hurricane victims at Lowe’s Home Improvement in Little River, NJ when the store manager overheard them. It just so happened the store had 18 pallets full of clearance merchandise about to be thrown out. He donated them on the spot.
Where there is a will; there’s a way. Juicy Fruit Party Dragon accepted the merchandise, confident they could manifest another miracle – they didn’t know who to send the goods to or how to get them down to the Carolinas, but they had faith that somehow they’d work it out.
The founders of Juicy Fruit Party Dragon cold-called the Mayor’s Office here in Wilmington, NC, and the person taking the call referred them to WARM. Executive Director JC Lyle was delighted to get a call offering much-needed building supplies. She knew how to get the materials into the hands of volunteers who could use them to rebuild homes of hurricane victims, she just didn’t know how to solve the logistics
problem of getting them from NJ to NC.
JC, the Party Dragon, and Me
This leads us to the next small miracle: it just so happens that JC, Executive Director of this wonderful local organization, is my ex-sister-in-law. She has remained a close friend of our family. JC called me with her logistics quandary and the Matchmaker team was beyond excited to arrange for a truck to transport the goods – at no cost to WARM.
The materials, which were delivered about a week ago, are being stored in a warehouse rented by another wonderful organization, Habitat for Humanity. Anything WARM doesn’t use will be sold in our local Habitat ReStore, benefiting our area’s Habitat for Humanity chapter. Ultimately, those 18 pallets of supplies will help two charities, not just one.
Small miracles can come from snippets of conversation in a hardware store or a connection you happened to hold onto. Be on the lookout. You never know who’ll stumble upon you, or how you could lend a hand. In the meantime, I’m soliciting your stories (please, share your own miracles with me – I’d love to hear them) and WARM is still accepting donations, large and small.
Fuel for Thought,
~Bob
