Community spotlight: Kara Hornung
August 27, 2021 at 4:08 p.m.
Community spotlight: Kara Hornung
By Cyrus Johnson -
Two weeks ago, Hornung started a gofundme page online and gathered donations from across the area. Within just six days, she was able to raise the $2,500 needed for expenses. Last Saturday, cleaning crews and volunteer workers began the renovations.
Kara Hornung was born and raised in College Corner. Every day she drives by the Package Store and sees the eyesore. The outside of the building is steadily decaying. The paint has withered away on many parts of the front. The large sign above the entrance has seen better days; its missing paint, fading and hardly readable from the street. Most people drive by and think nothing of it, but Hornung was different - she took action.
Kara said this in an interview: "I decided this was it, it was my time to say something. I simply posted that I’d gladly clean it up and paint it for free if anyone else wanted to join me. Within seconds, there were countless offers to volunteer time, equipment and money to get it done, no questions asked. I was literally grinning ear to ear with joy not only for the beauty of our town, but for the business and its owners."
Next, Kara went to gofundme.com and setup a profile. Gofundme is a safe and easy-to-use website, where patrons seek donations online through social media and direct email. The website is considered the best available resource to digitally raise funds for a project, charity or start-up business. Knowing this information, Hornung took full advantage of everything it had to offer. She started the profile, then immediately began to share the cause in Facebook groups like College Corner Talk and Liberty Talk, as well as others.
Kara rallied the community with this Facebook post: "The owners are truly humbled and amazed with our community’s willingness to gift them something that they simply cannot give themselves at this time. A rough couple of years is an understatement and they have certainly felt it here. They are so deserving of a kind gesture to help them in a time of need and our community is coming together to make it happen. Our town is growing with lovely new businesses and storefronts, we want to keep the momentum going—and that means also helping the ones who’ve been here for years. We’d love to have this completed before September 11th, if possible... We have so many selfless volunteers lined up, now we just need the community to rally with any donation amount you are able to offer. None too big or small."
Her call to action was swiftly answered. Sept 11 was the deadline for Hornung's $2,500 goal, but on Aug 19 the dollar amount was reached. All it took was six days and 48 generous donations. According to gofundme.com, Jennifer Reister was the first to donate. Melissa Bussey had the largest donation at $150. Ten people donated $100 or more to the cause. The average donation was $52.
When asked how she felt about raising $2,500 in just six days, Hornung replied,"I was overwhelmed with happiness and pride. So quickly, the donations flooded in to reach our goal. I did not expect such a response, it really means a lot - for a lot of reasons. I also know there are even donations from outside of College Corner: Liberty, Bath and Oxford to name a few... The idea grew into something we are all proud to be a part of, and within a few weeks, it will be just as beautiful as its neighboring buildings."
The team's first goal is to get all of the chips and loose paint off the building. Jeff Agnew, owner of Power Clean, has provided a power washer to assist with removing the paint.
Once the building is prepped, taped and ready for paint, Hornung has arranged to have the Oxford Paint Compnay come and professionally spray the building. Beau Hiner is generously donating their time for free.
Kara said, "This is going to make all the difference in longevity and cosmetically, since the original plan was to roll it all by hand.”
The Package Store signage will be sanded and also given a fresh coat of paint. The light fixtures that hang above the lettering will also be replaced. If there is any money that remains after all of the priority items, the team plans to purchase benches and potted topiaries to really finish off the look.
According to Hornung, the store owner's had been planning to make these renovations but COVID-19 complicated everything. "But we’re beyond happy to help. It’s given our community a reason to come together, meet new people, take pride in College Corner and give back." To be fair, all small businesses in the county are currently dealing with the pandemic's wrath; Hornung assured this was the beginning of many projects to come. The Liberty Herald tried to reach out to PJ and Karen, but they politely declined to comment. Karen briefly stated, "We thank them for what they've done."
Want to start your own community project? This is how the gofundme.com works: To create a profile, simply go to gofundme.com and click on "Start Fund" link. Next, you go through the basic profile steps similar to setting up an email account. In this process, you will also be asked questions about your cause's purpose, along with how much money you are looking to procure. Once the profile is created, you can link your bank account to the website or link to a separate outside account for the funds to be transferred. The donations take 24 hours to process.
To raise awareness, GoFundMe allows users to share their project with people by integrating social networking sites and emails. People can then donate to a user's cause through the website using a debit card or credit card and track the progress of their funding. You do not need to be a member of the site in order to give a donation.
Gofundme launched in 2010 and its headquarters are in Redwood City, California - the heart of Silicon Valley. According to their records, Gofundme has built a community of more than 50 million donors and helped organizers raise over $5 billion.
To close, Hornung said this in the interview: "I'd like to encourage people to shop local; notice the small businesses around you and use them." She continued, "Care about one another, if you see that someone could use a hand, offer it to them. We don’t know everyone's circumstances and there is power in numbers. In just over a week, people who live here - many who don’t even know each other yet - have worked together to put a plan in motion to give an amazing gift... There are still so many good people in the world, be one!"
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Two weeks ago, Hornung started a gofundme page online and gathered donations from across the area. Within just six days, she was able to raise the $2,500 needed for expenses. Last Saturday, cleaning crews and volunteer workers began the renovations.
Kara Hornung was born and raised in College Corner. Every day she drives by the Package Store and sees the eyesore. The outside of the building is steadily decaying. The paint has withered away on many parts of the front. The large sign above the entrance has seen better days; its missing paint, fading and hardly readable from the street. Most people drive by and think nothing of it, but Hornung was different - she took action.
Kara said this in an interview: "I decided this was it, it was my time to say something. I simply posted that I’d gladly clean it up and paint it for free if anyone else wanted to join me. Within seconds, there were countless offers to volunteer time, equipment and money to get it done, no questions asked. I was literally grinning ear to ear with joy not only for the beauty of our town, but for the business and its owners."
Next, Kara went to gofundme.com and setup a profile. Gofundme is a safe and easy-to-use website, where patrons seek donations online through social media and direct email. The website is considered the best available resource to digitally raise funds for a project, charity or start-up business. Knowing this information, Hornung took full advantage of everything it had to offer. She started the profile, then immediately began to share the cause in Facebook groups like College Corner Talk and Liberty Talk, as well as others.
Kara rallied the community with this Facebook post: "The owners are truly humbled and amazed with our community’s willingness to gift them something that they simply cannot give themselves at this time. A rough couple of years is an understatement and they have certainly felt it here. They are so deserving of a kind gesture to help them in a time of need and our community is coming together to make it happen. Our town is growing with lovely new businesses and storefronts, we want to keep the momentum going—and that means also helping the ones who’ve been here for years. We’d love to have this completed before September 11th, if possible... We have so many selfless volunteers lined up, now we just need the community to rally with any donation amount you are able to offer. None too big or small."
Her call to action was swiftly answered. Sept 11 was the deadline for Hornung's $2,500 goal, but on Aug 19 the dollar amount was reached. All it took was six days and 48 generous donations. According to gofundme.com, Jennifer Reister was the first to donate. Melissa Bussey had the largest donation at $150. Ten people donated $100 or more to the cause. The average donation was $52.
When asked how she felt about raising $2,500 in just six days, Hornung replied,"I was overwhelmed with happiness and pride. So quickly, the donations flooded in to reach our goal. I did not expect such a response, it really means a lot - for a lot of reasons. I also know there are even donations from outside of College Corner: Liberty, Bath and Oxford to name a few... The idea grew into something we are all proud to be a part of, and within a few weeks, it will be just as beautiful as its neighboring buildings."
The team's first goal is to get all of the chips and loose paint off the building. Jeff Agnew, owner of Power Clean, has provided a power washer to assist with removing the paint.
Once the building is prepped, taped and ready for paint, Hornung has arranged to have the Oxford Paint Compnay come and professionally spray the building. Beau Hiner is generously donating their time for free.
Kara said, "This is going to make all the difference in longevity and cosmetically, since the original plan was to roll it all by hand.”
The Package Store signage will be sanded and also given a fresh coat of paint. The light fixtures that hang above the lettering will also be replaced. If there is any money that remains after all of the priority items, the team plans to purchase benches and potted topiaries to really finish off the look.
According to Hornung, the store owner's had been planning to make these renovations but COVID-19 complicated everything. "But we’re beyond happy to help. It’s given our community a reason to come together, meet new people, take pride in College Corner and give back." To be fair, all small businesses in the county are currently dealing with the pandemic's wrath; Hornung assured this was the beginning of many projects to come. The Liberty Herald tried to reach out to PJ and Karen, but they politely declined to comment. Karen briefly stated, "We thank them for what they've done."
Want to start your own community project? This is how the gofundme.com works: To create a profile, simply go to gofundme.com and click on "Start Fund" link. Next, you go through the basic profile steps similar to setting up an email account. In this process, you will also be asked questions about your cause's purpose, along with how much money you are looking to procure. Once the profile is created, you can link your bank account to the website or link to a separate outside account for the funds to be transferred. The donations take 24 hours to process.
To raise awareness, GoFundMe allows users to share their project with people by integrating social networking sites and emails. People can then donate to a user's cause through the website using a debit card or credit card and track the progress of their funding. You do not need to be a member of the site in order to give a donation.
Gofundme launched in 2010 and its headquarters are in Redwood City, California - the heart of Silicon Valley. According to their records, Gofundme has built a community of more than 50 million donors and helped organizers raise over $5 billion.
To close, Hornung said this in the interview: "I'd like to encourage people to shop local; notice the small businesses around you and use them." She continued, "Care about one another, if you see that someone could use a hand, offer it to them. We don’t know everyone's circumstances and there is power in numbers. In just over a week, people who live here - many who don’t even know each other yet - have worked together to put a plan in motion to give an amazing gift... There are still so many good people in the world, be one!"
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