Over the past 9 years, Birmingham has come alongside Red Mountain Grace to build a community of volunteers, partners, and donors. This community has served over 900 families facing their most trying seasons. We are so thankful for the individuals and organizations that have provided neighborly support for our out-of-town guests. As we celebrate our 9th anniversary, we would like to share a special story of community insight from our Executive Director, Austin Hardison.

“In February 2021, just a few months shy of my first anniversary with Red Mountain Grace, my wife gave birth to our daughter. Nine days after her arrival, my wife had a severe postpartum hemorrhage, during which she lost over three liters of blood.

For the previous ten months as the Executive Director, I had the fortune to play a part in Red Mountain Grace’s model of gracious hospitality; but suddenly, in a life-altering medical emergency, the role was reversed. It was during this season where I truly discovered how crucial of a pillar community is in our lives; more specifically, how crucial community is for the guests of Red Mountain Grace.

While my wife was in the hospital, my family and friends jumped into action. They took our two-year-old son to school. They gathered donated breast milk and nursed our newborn. Some people even did our laundry and brought us meals for a month. Because of the service and action of our community, I was able to focus on my wife’s recovery.

No one checks into a Red Mountain Grace apartment without having first experienced a life-altering diagnosis. Our guests come to us discouraged, away from home, and without their immediate support system. The difference between my family’s experience and that of a Red Mountain Grace guest is that we could receive the emergency medical care we needed only seven minutes from our home. We didn’t have to uproot our lives and leave our community. My experience during that season of medical need would have looked a lot different without my support system.

I now know firsthand how small acts of generosity and neighborly love bring incredible comfort and peace. I have a more profound empathy for our guests, and I am forever more passionate about how Red Mountain Grace rallies together to become a community for strangers enduring some of their most uncertain and trying days.”