TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - It's often been said that the people of northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan are generous people, willing to truly give and serve others well beyond their means in an effort to provide their fellow citizens greater access to care.
Perhaps there's no greater example of a caring community than Cherry Street Mission Ministries.
Cherry Street is supported entirely by the citizens of this region. More than 2,000 men and women, along with their families, serve in volunteerism each year, often generationally.
Cherry Street recently celebrated its 70th anniversary, seven decades of continuous, uninterrupted service to the community. What started as a response to returning veterans of WWII would soon become one of the region's great institutions.
The one thing that has been constant the last 70 years has been the great intersection Cherry Street creates for people of all conditions and backgrounds to seamlessly interact. This interaction has been the source for the way the community heals itself and the way we respond with action.
The present opioid epidemic and the number of children experiencing homelessness has given the community great pause. With every challenge over the past 70 years, you have turned to Cherry Street for help, and for a place to practice new innovations geared toward solving, not just serving, the problems we all face.
I invite you to drop by the former Macomber High School, now Cherry Street's Life Revitalization Center, to see how hundreds of community partners and employers have joined together to harness the will of this great community.
Together lets end the line people are waiting in, and imagine a life that works.
