Support Courtney's Michigan City Free Shop & Community!

To know Courtney Eck is to know deep love, empathy and endless generosity. If she is able to help those around her she will, no questions asked. To know Courtney is to also know how hard it is for her to ask for help so we are asking for her!

Just a few months ago Courtney needed more space to do her work and decided to rent a small shop/store front in Michigan City, Indiana. When she picked the location she knew it was in an area of town that needed more support and planned to make part of her shop into a free store where people could take what they need. After she opened her doors to the public it immediately turned into something much bigger than she could hope for! She found herself in the middle of an amazing community of people that she connected to and who need help desperately.

Courtney started by stocking her free store with warm clothes, toiletry items, crafts, games, and toys for the kids but it quickly became clear that the needs of the community were much more than that. As she got to know the people who came into her shop she also started to provide food and snacks. When her neighbor told her she and her husband didn't have a bed to sleep on she bought them everything they would need to sleep comfortably.

Soon the kids started coming over to hangout after school. She started to give them and their parents rides and helped them run errands. If they need anything she drops what she was doing and helps. She regularly takes her new friends grocery shopping at least once a week.

She helps them fill out paperwork, makes phone calls, and gathers social service resources for them as needed. Just last week she helped a single mom and her two children (14 and 6) move out of a run down and dangerous hotel into safe temporary housing where they have a bed to sleep in and food to eat.

Courtney has purchased a family membership to the Y for all the kids and takes them there after school regularly. She has also enrolled them in the community basketball program where they meet twice a week.

These kids are very much at a point in their lives where a loving, generous and empathetic community can make a massive difference in their lives and she is watching as they are able to worry a little less and focus on their futures a little more!

I could go on and on. This is just a small list of the endless ways she's found to help and has paid for all of it out of her own money even when she didn't have much left over for herself. Everyday is a new adventure with new challenges to over come and she needs help to continue this deeply important and meaningful work.

Please help if you can! There is no amount too small, sharing this post goes a long way. If we can all do just a little to pitch in and share the load just imagine the difference it will make!!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! You will never know how much it means. xoxoxo