(Atlanta, Georgia) In 2012, Holly and her husband Peter heard a call to action during a church sermon that was about to change their lives and the lives of a very special segment of the population.
"Use your networks and resources to help others."
Holly and Peter's day jobs included furniture and construction. Soon, the idea of creating custom renovations for children with special needs became a reality in the Ranney's lives.
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Holly and Peter's hobby soon turned into a non-profit--Sunshine on a Ranney Day.
Holly explains, "We do wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, dream bedrooms, and in-home therapy rooms at no cost to the family. It's all covered by our donors, sponsors, and volunteers.
"Our very first makeover was for a little boy, Matthew, who was battling a brain tumor in Macon, Georgia near Robins Air Force Base.
We found out that he wanted a military bunker bedroom so we pulled together all of our friends, family, and coworkers and designed him an amazing room, and then just everything kind of fell together...the Air Force Base got involved. They all came out and saluted him and helped get us stuff for the room and at the end of that reveal, that's when Peter and I looked at each other and realized that this was something that was larger than we had anticipated."
Holly and Sunshine on a Ranney Day has created new, customized living spaces for more than 250 families. The community of Atlanta has come alongside them in a big way.
"We have many sponsors and volunteers that have been with us from the beginning and they're still with us. It's like a huge family," Holly shares. "We have so many companies that when we call them and say, 'Hey we need tile, or we need this or that', they just jump right on. We share the children's stories and it's rare that we get somebody saying 'I can't help you.'"
The best part for Holly?
"You caught up in the reveal and every moment is amazing but my favorite part is hearing from families that we've helped years previously and hearing about the impact. Seeing them thrive...I mean so many of the kids that we've helped, some of them are in college now...we've helped children with cancer that lost their hair during the time and they couldn't leave their house, so we'd do a simple dream bedroom to get them a place where they could kind of escape and now are full-blown of hair, thriving, graduating college...getting married. I mean, those are the stories that I think are the constant reminders of why you're doing it."
