You may have heard us refer to The Factory community as “The Factory Family” For folks experiencing poverty, living in a rural area like Gap, Kinzers, and Paradise can not only mean vital resources like groceries and health services are inaccessible, but building relationships can also be nearly impossible in some instances. For many of our friends at The Factory who struggle with physical or mental health, finding a community can be especially difficult. The Factory’s Community Care Team is a social group for seniors in Eastern Lancaster County. Community Care Team meets on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month to work on various craft projects, sip coffee, and catch up with one another. It has been so neat to see the friendships formed through this group. One of the Community Care Team’s favorite projects is to make “sunshine boxes” which are mailed to friends who may be in the hospital or going through a difficult season of life. The team fills a package with all things yellow and bright. They write notes on yellow cards with jokes and words of encouragement. After receiving a sunshine box during a fight with pneumonia, one gentleman called to inform his advocate that the box “was not doing what it should be doing”. He said that, “instead of feeling better, he laughed so hard until his chest hurt and he had to put the box away until he did not hurt anymore”. Another participant said that she felt so loved and cried when she read all of the little notes. These simple gestures are what make The Factory community truly feel like a FAMILY.