Vaughn | Serving a community out of love during the holidays: Meet a couple making a positive difference.

Edgar Arias and his wife, Daisy, are the founders of “Creating Blessings,” a beautiful community movement rooted in pure love.

Completely broken and with nothing to their name, they arrived in the Sycamore community about four years ago after suffering a near-death experience in a tragic car accident.

The city of Sycamore became the perfect destination for them to restart their lives. Before their life-changing car accident, they were pursuing different business ventures, which they enjoyed, and – most importantly – were doing what they love most: helping and making a difference in the world.

Most recently, Edgar and Daisy shared their triumphant story on the 2-1-1 Talk Show at Kishwaukee United Way about their current garage donations given to people in need.

It all started May 7, when out of pure love Edgar and Daisy decided to bless the community with a garage sale. However, their garage sale would be unique and special.

You see, as a young child, Edgar always dreamed and had an intense passion for helping and making a difference in the world. This passion turned into the launch of “Creating Blessings,” a free community garage sale giveaway for anyone with a need.

“On my driveway, I set up three tables with a few newer items that my wife, Daisy, and I owned, from shoes, clothing, kitchen utensils, home decor, books, games and DVDs,” Edgar said.

Daisy didn’t think people would stop by because they lived in a small mobile home park with not a lot of traffic.

But Edgar had a vision and a plan, and he knew that what he was creating was something different and would attract those in need.

He woke up one day and said, “Today I feel like blessing my community!”

He moved forward intentionally and invited the entire community through the power of social media.

The key component of his garage sale is that everything would be free. The rest is history!

The community fell in love with his random gesture of love and wanted to get involved by donating their belongings as well.

Thus, a beautiful community movement called “Creating Blessings” was born.

The mission is simple: “Creating blessings for the community, by the community.”

If you don’t see Edgar and Daisy walking around the community helping and making a difference, you will see them with a big smile inside a long, yellow school bus driving around the community transporting and taking care of all the children and students, as they are both happily employed by First Student transportation company.

To learn more, visit their Facebook page Creating Blessings Private Group.

• Michele Vaughn, Ed.D., is executive director and president of Kishwaukee United Way.