I have been involved with Lighthouse both as a donor and as a volunteer. The reason I have aligned myself with Lighthouse is not just because of the mission, vision, and leadership (which are all great) but because of the significant impact that can be seen in generations of the Central community. If the proof is in the pudding, then the pudding of Lighthouse is thick with example of example of lives changed, people being empowered, and love experienced by a community that is often left on the fringe or just plain forgotten. Lighthouse has worked to not just swoop in like a hero with just food and leave, but rather stay and invest in the lives of the children, adults, and families. When times are hard and the messy details of a day-in and day-out lives of people will drive many away, Lighthouse has held the course and stood their ground, along side the people of central. Defying skeptics and odds, Lighthouse's impact in changing lives for the better is seen in the faces of volunteers, the children they are reaching, and the adults that were children once loved by the people of Heaventrain and Lighthouse.