Flower Mound residents donate, volunteer to help others

Many Flower Mound residents are volunteering their time, food and money to help locals who are in need and those who are working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tracy Black, general manager of the Flower Mound Youth Sports Association, said he was asked about a month ago if he would have interest in starting a Flower Mound People Helping People Facebook page, similar to the Colleyville and Southlake People Helping People pages, in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a way to help rally folks to help in their community as we all navigate this pandemic together,” Black said. “It’s grown quite quickly. We’re trying to stay positive and do good things in these tough times.”

The page serves two main purposes; to give local residents in need a place to ask for help, and to provide opportunities for people who want to help. With the help of friend Jennifer McDonald, Black is organizing donations and finding people and places to help. The group has provided food, groceries and supplies for individuals who are in financial need or are at-risk and need to stay home. Food donations from restaurants have gone to local assisted living centers and snacks have been delivered to local hospitals. Financial donations have been used to buy hundreds of meals from many local restaurants and delivered to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound, Medical City Lewisville and the Flower Mound Fire Department.

“While doing all this, we are following all protocols from the fire department and hospitals,” Black said. “Anything they ask of us, we are doing to ensure we’re not putting anyone in harm’s way.”

Black said the community response has been “incredible.”

“This is very much a ‘We’ thing, not an ‘I’ thing,” he said. “I just happen to be the person who got the group together. It’s a community effort that takes all of us to do good in our community.”

Lately, the group has organized a food drive for the GRACE Food Pantry, provided a hot lunch to staff at Rambling Oaks Extended Care, and more.

If you are in need of help getting essentials, you can write on the Flower Mound People Helping People page to ask for help. If you want to keep your request private, you can direct message Black or McDonald, who are listed as the group administrator and moderator. If you want to help, there are several opportunities listed on the page, which is updated frequently.