Two Cincinnati sisters with an eye for decorating worked their magic this weekend to bring Christmas to homeless kids.
Drive by the Day Center for
Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) in Lebanon and you'll see it's adorned with swags, wreaths, tinsel and lights, all the decor of a regular home this time of year.
It's fully decorated on the inside, too, where four families with young children are living this Christmas season as they work to get back on their feet and back into a home.
"The fact that these children can walk into this magical house...it's heart-warming," said Linda Rabolt, Executive Director of IHN. "It's the reason for the season."
Rabolt says she's "all about normalcy" for the children. So when Bonita Hoevenaar with Take 2 Redesigns approached her about doing a Christmas makeover, she quickly accepted the offer.
Hoevenaar and her sister, Brenna Kennedy, recently started their designing business, which specializes in helping people use what they already have to make their home more comfortable and pleasing to the eye.
The two grew up in Lebanon and were looking for a 'pay it forward' project, but never expected their project for IHN would grow so big.
"I had a garage full of decorations neighbors and friends wanted to pitch in," said Kennedy, adding that some neighbors even helped deliver the many boxes to the Center.
Then, as Hoevenaar and Kennedy started the decorating, something magical happened.
"I noticed as we decorated more and more the warmth in the house rose, and everyone was asking what they could do to help," says Kennedy.
She says the staff and the families all wanted to be a part of it, decorating together as one big family.
"The project had taken on a life of its own," says Kennedy.
"The decorations filled the residents with a sense of holiday spirit, and I knew that the work I was doing there was serving a purpose even bigger than I expected," says Hoevenaar.
Rabolt will never forget the gleam in 7-year-old Jo-Jo's eyes as she joined in.
Rabolt says the average age of a homeless person in Warren County is 7 and 89 percent of the homeless are families.
"To be in a shelter this time of year is hard," says Rabolt.
She says having a decorated home, albeit a temporary one, "gives them a reason to keep moving forward."
Rabolt says right now all of her families have jobs, they're just not making enough money to afford a home.
When these families do find homes, they will get to take some of the donated decorations with them Rabolt said.
