I’m excited to tell you about some new neighbors, they have a wonderful story and have brought a very special practice with them. Tim and Kathy Moore recently moved to White Eagle. Having elderly parents in need of care as well as a sibling with mental health issues, they needed a space that could accommodate everyone, and this house was perfect, although they really hadn’t planned on moving. Tim, on a whim, did a search on Zillow and found this ranch style home, inquired about it, reached out to a real estate agent who’d been recommended, and found themselves buying and moving to this house in rapid order.

            Tim and Kathy grew up in the area and met when they were attending the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, were college sweethearts and married shortly after they graduated. Tim got his Masters Degree in Engineering and accepted a job in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while Kathy was teaching mathematics after getting her Bachelors Degree. She decided to take a sabbatical from Fenton High School and move to Michigan to be with Tim to pursue her Masters at the University of Michigan. After accomplishing that, they decided to move back to Downers Grove to be closer to family and friends.

            Kathy returned to Fenton and Tim took a job with Rockwell International as a software developer. They purchased Kathy’s childhood home and had their daughter Cara in 1992. Looking to get a larger home when Kathy was pregnant with their son Matt in 1994, they found a home in the Farmstead neighborhood. Kathy left her job as a math teacher to be a stay at home mom. When her kids were older, she was in the right place at the right time, when she was hired at All Saints Catholic Academy. It was a brand new school at that point and her background was exactly what they were looking for when a position unexpectedly opened just weeks before the school year started. She loved working there and stayed until 2020. Kathy now helps take care of her two grandchildren several days a week.

            A few years ago, Tim was interested in becoming a mentor for transitional housing families. He attended a meeting at Bridge Communities and learned of an organization called Sharing Connections in Downers Grove. This is an operation that helps people transition into homes due to a wide variety of reasons. From women leaving an abusive relationship to veterans needing housing, Sharing Connections assists people with setting up their new accommodations with items as large as couches and chairs, to things like silverware and pots and pans. Tim got involved right away, not only with the collection of necessary items but also mentored a single mom with two children.

            He and Kathy started by getting silverware from Goodwill to donate. However, this ballooned into a much larger operation. Tim now has a flatbed trailer his dad gave him that he loads up with donations. He has connections with a few estate sales agents, and due to word of mouth he is well known to many people who call him on a regular basis with items they want to donate. Tim then goes out and gathers all these things, loads them on his trailer and into his truck, and brings them to places that then distribute them to people who need them. We often take these things for granted and throw out items people would be thrilled to have. Tim is hoping to help bridge that gap.

            It took some time to learn what things he couldn’t redistribute, such as sofa beds and China cabinets; pianos are a no-go. He also gets calls from various organizations when their warehouses are empty and he does his best to collect donations with his various contacts. When he originally met one of the estate sale agents he now works with on a regular basis, he had gotten her number and texted her this message, “It was nice to meet you. I am hoping to make a difference in the world.”

            She was so moved by this that almost a year later, when she had started her own estate sales agency, she remembered that touching sentiment and reached out. This was the beginning of them working together and helping countless people receive things to help them make a fresh start along with giving people the sense of dignity so often missing.

            “We truly love being involved in this,” Kathy and Tim told me. “So many of our friends and family who have helped out with this say the same thing.” They just ask us for our patience on those rare occasions when the timing for the pickup doesn’t align with the drop off hours. This could mean that they may have to park the trailer out front of their house overnight. So let’s remember that sometimes things that we are unaccustomed to seeing may just be something that’s helping others.