A North Texan made a career change after more than 30 years....and is providing "dignity in a bag" for those who need it most. He's this week's KRLD Difference Maker.
North Texan Michael Garrett never thought he'd be the CEO of a nonprofit after 3 decades in manufacturing.
“I started getting involved in non-profits and I started to see people with passion and desire but they were lacking resources. So I saw police officers. school counselors and case managers struggling to find ways to help families beyond their jobs,” Michael said.
He gave the example of a school counselor seeing a child come to school with the same clothes every day. Many times a school counselor would use their own money to buy the child clothes or a police officer might run into a family that doesn’t have basic toiletries and will fundraise to help the family.
That's when Michael created his own non-profit, called Trusted World, which provides resources to school counselors, police officers and non-profits, at no cost, in the clothing, food and toiletry world.
“Now when they see a family in need, instead of reaching into their own pocket, they can call Trusted World and order resources online from us at no cost and we deliver it to them within 48 hours,” Michael said.
For those receiving help, it’s more than just clothes and toiletries.
“School counselors cry when we bring the items to them because they realize how much of an impact it’s going to have on the family. We’ve seen grown men in transition homes, that have just gotten out of jail cry because the clothing we give is best of the best or brand new with tags on it. They are not used to being treated this way. We even had one of our transition homes tell us that we provide ‘dignity in a bag,’” Michael said.
We're proud to call Michael Garrett and Trusted World this week's KRLD Difference Makers.
If you want to donate, visit [trustedworld.org]trustedworld.org.
If you know someone making a difference in the community, send us an email at differencemaker@krld.com.
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