MorningStar Senior Living Takes Second Mission Trip in Service to the Poor
October 11, 2024
DENVER, CO — A group from the home office of MorningStar Senior Living recently traveled to North Central Mexico to build a home for an impoverished family in the colonias, a desolate expanse of acres where people live in ramshackle dwellings of metal sheeting and wood pallets.
According to a press release, after raising $15,000 for construction materials 10 MorningStar leaders headed south to live out the company’s vision of being “servant-minded, purpose-driven leaders in our senior communities and throughout the world.” Working alongside the receiving family, the team built the house from the ground up in two days.
The project was organized by Missions Ministries, a nonprofit dedicated for over 30 years to transforming lives and communities in Northern Mexico. Once the local family of five had saved enough to buy a plot of land, they were approved to receive a 432-square-foot home through Missions Ministries. It was left only for volunteers to agree to build it. MorningStar said “yes.”
Tears flowed as the Leyva family stepped through the door and saw what awaited them inside: new furniture, toys, clothes, toiletries, and several weeks’ worth of groceries. Neighbors and cousins ran in after, celebrating the life-changing gift their loved ones had just received.
“I’m a reserved person who doesn’t easily show emotions,” said Patrick Flores, senior property accountant at MorningStar, “but the more I saw and touched, the more the feelings piled up. I had goosebumps when I handed the family keys to their new home, thinking how now this family and my own family both have a roof over us, food on the table, warmth, and health.”
“Looking in the eyes of the people we were serving, working beside them, then experiencing such deep connection with them at the end of just two days, it was more powerful than I imagined,” shared VP of Memory Care Rebecca Martin.
With the funds raised MorningStar contributed to other outreach projects in the colonias, including visiting an adult center for the developmentally disabled, a local retirement home, and a children’s ministry.
ALSO: MorningStar Senior Living Celebrates Grand Opening of Holly Park
“MorningStar is who we say we are,” noted Chief Human Resources Officer Chris Livesay. “A trip like this puts that on display. If I consider the company’s six core values together with the words of our vision and mission, I think about integrity and valuing people. MorningStar not only prioritizes those central truths but finds ways to encourage them.”
MorningStar will host another trip to North Central Mexico in February 2025 for a group of 50, building three homes for which they must raise $60,000 in donations. Support can be given at MorningStarSeniorLiving.com/Foundation/.
MorningStar Senior Living, a fully integrated developer, owner, and operator of premier retirement communities, has a portfolio that encompasses over 40 properties under operation or development, representing 5,000+ independent living, assisted living, and memory care residences under management or in development in 11 states in the Midwest and Western United States.
