Those who help others are now themselves in need of help.

Both of the Hope Chest resale stores – including the Katy location at 6545 Stockdick School Road near FM 529 – suffered significant damage from the late May storms that blew through the area. Along with the location in Cypress, the Katy resale store is operated by Cy-Hope, a nonprofit that began in Cypress in 2010 to serve underprivileged students in CyFair ISD and which expanded to Katy in 2023 in order to serve students in Katy.

“One little storm did a lot to set us back,” said Gayla Peterek, community outreach coordinator for the Katy location.

“Unfortunately, both of our Hope Chest locations were hit -- Cypress being the worst,” said Peterek. “We are facing a lot of unexpected, out of pocket expenses to repair both locations. Aside from building damage, we lost donations, due to water damage -- most especially furniture, our most impactful items to sell. Losing good quality donations is such a punch in the gut, especially furniture items, as they bring in the biggest funds to benefit our programs.”

The stores had to close for multiple days for clean-up and repairs, losing sales, losing donation in-take and losing of some donations already on the sales floor -- plus out of pocket repair fees, Peterek said.

“We are in true need of our community stepping up to help us restore our lost merchandise,” she continued. “As a non-profit, all donations are tax deductible. We are all about neighbors helping neighbors -- donations of all sizes help us help more students.”

Currently, the Cypress location is also working in a hotter than normal stuffy warehouse because of the damaged areas being boarded up, not allowing for air circulation.

But the charity perseveres.

“We have added a round up option at our registers to help with storm damage costs,” Peterek said. “We have a box truck for each store. Furniture donation pick-ups can be scheduled online. Our partnership with a recycling company allows us to also benefit from donated items too worn to sell in our stores. Your stained/torn clothes, shoes, linens, etc. can help students, while staying out of the trash.”

On May 29th the charity officially expanded into Waller with a ribbon cutting for a location to serve more local students in that community. Cy-Hope also recently held a ground-breaking for new baseball fields as part of the Dierker's Champs program, which works with disadvantaged youth to develop champions on and off the field. Under the direction of former Houston Astros All-Star pitcher, announcer and manager, Larry Dierker, its mission is to provide the best athletic instruction possible in a family friendly, positive environment, according to the program website.

Both of these were already in the works, before the storms, Peterek said.

“We will continue to stay on our mission to make the lives of kids better, regardless of any storms we face,” said Peterek. “All storms run out of rain, and we know perseverance will prevail! Cy-Hope.org has students to serve in Katy, Waller and Cy-Fair ISD.”

In 2010, Dr. Godfrey Hubert, then Senior Pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church Foundry birthed Cy-Hope as a separate 501(c)3 to rally the community around the 118,000 students in Cy-Fair Independent School District, of which over 60% are economically disadvantaged, according to the Cy-Hope website. To learn more about the organization’s programs for underserved students, visit www.Cy-Hope.org.