Alex Aguilar has lived a rough life. He spent 15 years behind prison walls and another 13 recovering from it. "It was here in Hanford where I went into a home and got my start...my change in life," he added.
That change started at Victory Outreach, in a christian recovery home that doesn't exist anymore. Aguilar is on a mission to open a new one in Hanford and he's been washing cars every day for nearly 2 weeks to make it happen.
Aguilar said, "Any day of the week, if you stand out here, you'll see homeless, alcoholics, drug addicts walking up and down these streets and you can just see the need, the cry of the people."
Aguilar and four others have been washing cars, daily, at the corner of 7th and 11th at the Shell Station. Vincent Padilla says he's doing it because the church helped him quit drugs and stay out of jail.
Padilla said, "I had to meet the means beyond my own...there's people out there who need help and I'm willing to sacrifice for them and be an example."
The donations have been slow but steady. Aguilar says he collects about a hundred dollars a day but the church needs $3,000 to start up the home. On top of that, it needs another $3,000 every month to keep it running.
"We're just gonna come out here and labor, do what we have to do to raise the finances to get this started, we're determined," Aguilar said.
It's Aguilar's way of giving back to a church that took him in and changed his life.
Victory Outreach hopes to have the recovery home up and running in a month. Church members say they'll be at the Shell Station every day from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
TXT 24
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