Focusing On What Matters Most: How our team gave back to Bethany Christian Services

Every year, our team at California Closets Indiana | Illinois | Ohio | Kentucky tries to give back to our communities with closet builds. This past year, we worked with Bethany Christian Services, an organization that offers transitional foster care for unaccompanied children. We worked with them because our team saw an opportunity to give back to them meaningfully with a functional system they could use to store additional clothing for children who arrive without all the necessary essentials. 

At the beginning of the project, our designer Susan Martin-Gibbons met with them to plan for the build and develop a design that would best meet their needs. 

“​​Being provided the opportunity to design the much needed, additional storage solution for Bethany Christian Services, was such a blessing! Doubling, tripling one’s services almost overnight would be a daunting task for any organization, but working with this group, who knew what their immediate needs were, made my job easy. Bethany needed a beautiful, clean-looking space that exuded a calming aura while still providing the organization they required. They wanted their space to serve the physical, yet also the emotional needs of those they serve.”

Susan Martin-Gibbons | Designer | California Closets Indianapolis

Then, once a solid plan was in place, we shared the upcoming project with our staff to see who might want to help with the build. To our surprise, one of our designers responded and shared with us that her sister and she were both adopted from Bethany Christian Services. 

“I saw the project posted, and I was so surprised. It was such a happy coincidence. I remember texting my mom immediately and telling her how we were doing a volunteer project with the agency she worked with for mine and my sister’s adoptions. She was just as excited about it as I was and we were both just amazed by the coincidence. I couldn’t believe I was given such an awesome opportunity to go give back.”

Mikaela Shepperd | Designer | California Closets Indianapolis

On the morning of the build, about 10 of our team members met to complete the project. After making sure we had everything we needed, we took some time to speak with the main contact from Bethany Christian Services to make them aware of our timeline for the day and how the implementation of their design would occur. 

“It was so cool to be at the agency’s office for the build, and I just knew that I had to share my connection with the agency’s main point of contact. Before I knew it, I was speaking with her and sharing the experience my sister and I had. She told me they knew some people who worked on our case while we were there, and that was just a very small world moment.”

Mikaela Shepperd | Designer | California Closets Indianapolis

By noon, our team had installed an entirely new clothing organizational system for them. This included wardrobes, shelving, drawers to help store all the clothing and coats they keep in case children need them when they arrive. For the team at Bethany Christian Services, having storage like this was perfect for creating a space where they could store all the clothing items and sort them by age. Our team recognized just how important something like this was because they need to be able to find those items quickly when new children arrive. 

“When I arrived at the installation and saw our California Closets team busy completing the task at hand, I was thrilled at how the space had come to life.  A home for suitcases, backpacks, clothes, personal items, books, stuffed animals all now ready to be put away…and then, when I saw their faces, I could not help tearing up…just by looking at them, I knew we had accomplished our task. Not only did we design, build, and install a California Closet system…we did it with love. Just what they had envisioned.”

Susan Martin-Gibbons | Designer | California Closets Indianapolis

There is no doubt that our entire team felt extremely blessed to have this opportunity to give back meaningfully to Bethany Christian Services, with our closet build. By doing this, we knew we were building something to help design better lives within their organization. 

 To learn more about what Bethany Christian Services does, you can visit their website.