On a recent Saturday morning, as the sun was rising over Okeechobee, about 15 volunteers from Christ Fellowship Church, Luviano Roofing and...
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OKEECHOBEE — On a recent Saturday morning, as the sun was rising over Okeechobee, about 15 volunteers from Christ Fellowship Church, Luviano Roofing and the Okeechobee Livestock Market loaded up their vehicles with landscaping equipment and headed downtown to New Horizons.
They spent the next eight hours digging holes, planting shrubs and spreading mulch at the nonprofit behavioral health clinic. They also prayed, laughed and shared their love of community.
“We want to be a seven day a week church,” said Pastor Matthew Bowen, who oversees Christ Fellowship’s Okeechobee campus and the church’s 4th Saturday Serve program.
“Every fourth Saturday, we try to help the community in a number of ways: painting houses, landscaping, food distributions… or just loving on people on purpose.”
Bowen said the volunteers get as much out of service as the organizations and individuals the group helps.
These contributions by the church and others in the community have helped New Horizons enormously by transforming the property at 1600 S.W. Second Avenue. Now, when clients come to the office for mental health and addiction recovery services, they are greeted by a beautiful space where healing takes place and dignity is restored.
Over the past year, New Horizons has replaced the clinic’s roof, installed new siding and painted the exterior a pretty shade of yellow.
“We raised part of the money to renovate the building at our Farm to Table Supper last year,” explained the board treasurer of New Horizons, Debbie Clemons, whose family owns the livestock market.
“We also received a generous grant from the Altobello Family Donor Advised Fund, which supplemented the cost of care for uninsured residents of Okeechobee, enabling us to use other funds to make improvements to the building.”
Osiel Luviano, who also sits on the board of directors, purchased the plants for the landscape project. The church purchased the mulch and provided lunch.
Two beautiful landscape paintings were graciously donated for the clinic’s waiting room by Brad Phares, a local rancher and artist.
“That’s what neighbors do in Okeechobee,” said Phares. “We help each other.”
New Horizons is the largest mental health and addiction recovery provider in the four-county region, with outpatient and inpatient programs that assist 15,000 children and adults annually, regardless of their ability to pay. In fact, almost 60% of New Horizons clients have no source of income or any insurance, yet no one is turned away due to lack of financial resources.
To learn more about New Horizons, please visit www.nhtcinc.org or call 772-672-8333.
