Your Neighbors Need Help

If you’ve been to the Wimberley Square over the last 15 years, you know Stephanie Miller Moore from working at Kamaway Market, Chulitas, and Gypsy Market. “I’ve been through this whole journey with my best friend, so I feel I’m the best person to tell her story and ask the community for help,” she told us. 

Raul came to Wimberley from Kerrville to help his elementary school friend build a secure chicken coop to keep the chickens safe from raccoons. An area builder saw his detailed, high-quality work and hired him on the spot. Now for the last two months, he’s working by the hour to save money and fix up a place he rented in Wimberley. He said the 4-bedroom fell into his lap and seemed meant to be right at the time he started talking to his 18-year-old and 21-year-old sons, who have been living in Oregon.

Nancy Henson started off her phone call to Wimberley Good Neighbor with, “We just have to help this young man! He’s the kind of man we want living in Wimberley, and we can’t let him leave.”  Nancy went on to explain that Antonio S. was recommended by a friend from church to help her with house repairs.  She’s been hiring him ever since that day three years ago.  Now, as is happening all over Wimberley, Antonio S. will have to move with his wife and two children, who attend Blue Hole Primary and Jacobs Well Elementary School.  The vineyard where he lives and works is changing their operation and asked him to find another place to live by the end of May.  Antonio has enough money saved for a large deposit on a small amount of land to place a mobile home.  He has clients who are also willing to loan him money.  He’s a remarkable man, and his family is remarkable, too. His 11-year-old son is exceptionally bright, taking piano weekly and now learning guitar. 

On Jan 31st, Stephen R. was walking out of the Wimberley H-E-B with groceries when he noticed a young woman in the parking area, her face distraught. Stephen is a naturally considerate man, and true to his nature, when he saw her a little later on RR 12 by the ACE, clearly in distress, he pulled over to ask her if she was okay.

Martha Bettes passed away last week at 61 years of age.  To say it was an unexpected death is an understatement.  She was a dynamo in a small package with a forceful and loving presence.  Her daughter Michaella was waiting for her mom to return to Wimberley so they could find a place to live together with Michaella’s son.  Martha had only just left Wimberley during the Covid pandemic.  She had lost her job and benefits, so she moved near Houston to live with her sister for three months to save money.  She would be returning to Wimberley after that.

Martha moved to Wimberley in 2010 after she separated from Michaella’s father.  She wanted to live in the same town as her best friends and live in the place where her heart filled up with joy among the Hill Country bluebonnets.  Martha worked for a long time at Wimberley Inn and then Creekhaven Inn and Spa.  She was opinionated and emotional and got drawn into political spats on Facebook.

When Randy L. received the email that she was approved to have her 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe wrapped for advertising and would get $300 a week, she thought her prayers had been answered. She’d almost forgotten about the online application to work from home she’d filled out. The email she got from Davis Miller from miller.wraps@outlook.com, said simply, “CYTRYNY SODA DRINK would like to paste our advert on your vehicle while you make $300 every week for doing that. Let us know if you are interested.”

Randy thought about all the hardships she’d been having that $300 a week would fix.

You probably know Bru M. from her job as the service lead at the H-E-B Wimberley checkout. But you’d never know how much pain she’s in because she works hard to make sure her customers have a pleasant experience at check out and don’t have to wait in long lines.

Bru’s journey to Wimberley started seven years ago when her life went in a direction she didn’t expect. She grew up in a small town in the Sierra Nevadas, married and moved to the San Bernardino Valley. She had three children and started a tree company with her husband. Bru says that California wasn’t small business friendly, and they were financially struggling when they decided to relocate their business to Texas. Her sister mentioned a small town called Wimberley, and it sounded nice to them. On their visit, Bru stopped in at the Dripping Springs H-E-B, looked around and thought this is a place I can work until we start our tree business. It was only a part-time job but then she saw the hiring sign in the window at the Home Depot. She got both jobs and felt the move to Texas was meant to be.

Need:

Joanna C. and two children need help from the community for household items and clothing.

Circumstances:

The 2-bedroom house that Itzel, a WGN board member, found for her fell through. The previous tenants of the 2-bedroom property were upset they had to move and wrecked it so badly that the landlord has extensive repairs he has to fit in with other full-time work. He said it won’t be ready for months, if ever. We’re working with her current landlord (who himself is on a limited budget) to fix up her place. He’s purchased a refrigerator, air conditioner, there is a bunk bed and bedding space, and an added stove with oven. The money the community raised for her is restricted funds that will be used to help pay her current rent, which she is thankful for because Joanna hasn’t been able to work full-time due to her daughter’s medical care, earning only $400/week. We’ve received permission from one donor to use funds to purchase a storage unit for the property because the house is small.

Joanna needs the following items:

Furniture items:

• Chest of drawers — donated 
• Wardrobe to hang clothing — donated
• Small dining table with chairs — donated
• Curtains for windows: three windows — donated

Household:

• Pillows and pillowcases — donated
• A deep pot — donated
• Knives and cutting board — donated

Clothing:

Joanna wears between size 12 and 14 and needs all items. Her daughter is 10 years old, wears size 14 and size 4Y shoes. Her son is 16 and wears 34 pants, medium shirt, size 9.5-10 shoes size. Her son, who now works at Wimberley Cafe, really needs pants, shirts and sneakers. Her daughter needs sandals and shoes she can wear to church with a dress. She also needs shorts. They all need pajamas, robes, house slippers. — donated

Click here to read about Joanna C and her 2 children and how the community has helped.

In 1998, when Rhonda B. was 33 years old, she moved to Woodcreek North and built a 2-bedroom, 2-bath house with her now ex-husband.  Commuting to Austin, she had always been employed with a diligent work ethic, working first at Pepsi Bottling then Motorola.  After the tech bubble burst and she lost her job, it didn’t slow her down.  Rhonda got busy training for a certified pharmacy technician position, finding the career that she truly loved.  She enjoyed her job at the Brookshire Brothers pharmacy until one day she woke up and couldn’t feel her feet.  She refused to go on disability and tried to work part-time, but it was too painful to stand on her feet all day.   She still didn’t give up and went back to her former career in Human Resources, working at Wimberley Ace Hardware until her health problems became too severe.  Rhonda wondered how this could happen to someone her age, but the day she couldn’t walk her small dog up a hill, it forced her to accept her life had changed forever    

Dan Malin of  Capital City Roofing, LLC has been working with us, keeping margins low and submitting tax credits to help Rhonda. He recommended that she roof the main structure of her house first, so that she is in a dry, safe home. Thank you, Dan! We will keep raising money for her breezeway and garage until the July 5th deadline.

Maggie D. was born with a birth defect that, by the way, she’s not ashamed of or self conscious about.   She told us to write about it and call it what it is — a bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate birth defect that affected her ears, nose and throat.  People notice the small scar on her lip and don’t realize what she’s overcome or that she was born without an upper jaw or eardrums. 

 Maggie grew up in Austin and when she finished high school 15 years ago she got a job with HEB on Brodie Lane.  She met her husband, who grew up in Wimberley, then they got married and had children.  After her third child was born, they decided that they wanted a better quality of life and better education for their kids and moved to Wimberley.  She helped to open the Wimberley HEB and has been working there and earning enough money, supplemented by her husband’s income, to cover all bills plus be able to do a couple of fun things with their children every year. 

Joanna lives in central Wimberley with her 10-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son. They all live in one room without a kitchen for $800 a month. She called us asking for rent help, but we think it makes more sense to help her move out of the situation she’s living in. Joanna lived here for 15 years with her husband. Her 2 children were born here (CTMC), then five years ago they returned to Guanajuato, Mexico. She tried to make it work with her husband, but her daughter became very sick without running water and developed kidney problems that she still suffers from. Joanna came back to Wimberley in December; she is a U.S. citizen and so are her children. She had a cleaning job at Camp Lucy for several months until she switched to the kitchen at Deer Creek of Wimberley. Her manager at Camp Lucy extolled her as a worker: “She always showed up on time, filled in for other employees and was a very hard worker. I wish she had stayed and there were more like her.”