Today we’d like to introduce you to Cara Adams.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have always had a passion to help others. Throughout my adult years, I have stepped in where I have seen needs and help various families in the Houston area. It wasn’t until 2017, when Hurricane Harvey hit that I started helping people specifically in disaster relief. When Hurricane Harvey was hitting our area, I made a post in a mom group that it would be a good time to start going through items in our homes to see if we would have items to donate to help those that were flooding.
I ended up making my own Facebook group called Hurricane Moms Memorial. That group grew to about 2,000 people and we have hosted several events over the years to help families that needed support after Harvey. All in all, we helped about 700 families after Harvey and still host Christmas events for families that are not home yet. During Hurricane Harvey relief, I was introduced to Grace Presbyterian Church and so while I was not helping with Hurricane relief the past few years, I was helping Friends of Westchase, a non-profit based out of my church with the mentor program at Paul Revere Middle School. Due to COVID the schools were closed and that program was put on pause. While sitting at home watching TV, I saw that the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo was also being closed due to COVID. I wanted to start a page to help the vendors that were impacted by this closure and so I reached out to a high school friend Nicole Lopez and told her that if she would help me with a group for the vendors I would start one.
Nicole agreed and we started what is no Texas Festival Vendors, formerly known as Houston Rodeo Vendors 2020. When we announced that we were starting the group thousands of people started requesting to join. We didn’t do anything other than telling our friends and they spread the word. Within hours we have 20,000 people waiting to be approved into the Facebook group and within a week, we had about 175,000 members shopping the page and Houston Rodeo Vendors that had thought they would be stuck with inventory selling out completely!! We now have over 90 vendors on our page from Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, Nutcracker Market, and various other shows and markets around the United States that have been shut down. Since there was so much traffic on the page, we added another admin, America Gussett. This page has been a lifeline for vendors that usually travel and do shows year-round and do not have a brick and mortar store.
At the end of August 2020, Hurricane Laura was hitting Louisiana, I remember waking up at 1:00 AM to text messages from some of the people I helped during Harvey… they were along the lines of… “What are you planning to do for Hurricane Laura victims? or How can we help?” I really hadn’t thought about it yet, but when I finally woke up at 5:00 AM I made an amazon wishlist that included items I knew the families impacted by Hurricane Laura would need. Over the course of the next few days, hundreds of Amazon packages started showing up and we started getting in contact with churches, community centers, and government agencies setting up deliveries to Louisiana. To date, we have sent 16 loads with over $30,000 in supplies from our Amazon wishlist, 20 pallets of water, four pallets of food, and over an additional $30,000 in supplies that we either raised money for and bought or that people dropped off. Due to the overwhelming response we had, I decided it was finally time to start my own non-profit, Texas Relief Warriors. Today we are still sending loads to Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. I have also partnered with 50 STAR SAR, Lily’s Toy Box, Crowdsource Rescue, and Hope City Missions to send over 200 new Halloween costumes and treats to the kids in Louisiana and we are also starting to plan a huge Christmas event there too.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The hardest part is seeing the devastation and of course, sometimes wondering how we will pull off these large events for families, but it always seems to work out.
Please tell us about Texas Relief Warriors.
Texas Relief Warriors is dedicated to helping families throughout Texas and neighboring states that are in need. We specialize in disaster relief, but also help families and people that have experienced any hardships.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Nothing! This entire journey of helping people has been nothing short of a miracle.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 8322948383
- Email: texasreliefwarriors@gmail.com
- Instagram: Texas Relief Warriors
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texasreliefwarriors
Image Credit:
My volunteers took all of the photos except for the picture of myself that was taken by Sara Stanley Photography
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