Rainbow of Hope Farm is a nonprofit for developmentally disabled adults started by Eileen and Bill Wooer after they struggled to find a place for their son, Dean, because he preferred to live in a rural environment.
“We tried different avenues. I don’t think there was a place in Northern Michigan. And so we decided we were going to step out and try to see what we could do. On January 13th, we will have been open with residents for 25 years. We now have five other residents, also developmentally disabled, and some have been here for 24 years, 23 years, 15 years,” said Eileen Wooer.
Rainbow of Hope. Wouldn’t be able to make the impact that they do without support from the community.
“AFC home, doesn’t take in enough money to make ends meet so they just accept, Social Security disability payments that people get. And that is a very large. So they rely on donations, they rely on help,” said volunteer, Roger Mode.
Joe Faunce is the President of Northshore Exteriors, and he’s also a former student of Bill’s. Not only did he want to support the farm, but he also wanted to set an example of philanthropy in the community.
“It was brought to my attention about two years ago that, building out here was in really, dire need of a new roof. And, so I had inspected it a couple of years ago and told Bill and his wife Eileen that, do not do the roof. This is a perfect, perfect project that we want to work in the schedule as a donation. Our main objective is to, lead by example and, provides the roof labor materials for this facility in hopes that, by raising some awareness that we could, potentially get some help financially for the facility,” said Northshore Exterior President, Joe Faunce.
Joe and his team spent the day at Rainbow of Hope, donating their time and materials to restore a roof on the farm that otherwise would have put a huge dent in the nonprofit’s funds for the residents.
“There’s a lot of that goes on behind the scenes of running a facility like this. So to be able to take this off their plate, they were really close to having some leaks. there was lots of blowouts. The shingles were, well past their life expectancy. So, just feels good to have people here right now helping with some handyman projects and, helping with the cleanup and all that. I think that’s something that’s kind of missing in our culture these days, of the community getting together and working together for common goal,” Faunce said.
The Wooer’s were overwhelmed with gratitude by the heartfelt gesture from the Northshore Exteriors team.
“It is a truly a blessing. I mean, truly a blessing. You know, his philosophy is, you know, if we do this kind of pay it forward, our company is doing well. It’s a good thing to do. Maybe others will follow suit too,” said Eileen.