On Friday, July 24th the men from the Guiding Light Recovery program went to Exalta Health on 2060 Division Avenue to help landscape the property. Exalta is a Grand Rapids-based non-profit healthcare service that provides medical, vision, dental, behavioral and spiritual care services for vulnerable and low-income populations in our community. They specialize in helping to bridge the gap for persons and families that struggle with limited access or barriers to affordable healthcare via charitable donations and volunteering.
When Guiding Light clients Sam, Ryan, Doug, Hank, Mark and Maintenance Manager Charlie Burl arrived at the building, it was immediately clear that there was a lot of work to do. The men spent some hours raking, aerating, edging the lawns, up-rooting weeds, picking up garbage, and sweeping the sidewalks.
It doesn’t look perfect, but now the pockets of grass and dirt landscape surrounding the parking lot will be able to breathe again.
Over the next few weeks, Charlie will be able to spray and kill the rest of the weeds, new grass will be planted, and soon this once overgrown and barren looking lot will have freshly trimmed and green lawns again.
We at Guiding Light share and support Exalta’s mission of providing “compassionate, accessible healthcare reflecting the spirit of Christ.” The value of community collaboration is a very important part of the organizational culture at Guiding Light. We believe that we are all in this together, and local non-profits and organizations like us need to cooperate and collectively work to promote our shared values and goals of helping those in need throughout Grand Rapids. We recognize that, ultimately, we all just want to make our community a better place for everyone, and we are always more than happy to do our part in the mission to reach that objective together.
