If you’ve been to an event supporting Rescue Outreach Mission. She’s often the one at the door or registration desk, there to greet you, welcome you and help you.

But she’s much more than a greeter. She’s the one who makes our events shine, the one who covers all the details and works out all the logistics. She’s designing the invites and ordering the food.

“Lara has been a key piece of our team since the day she walked into Rescue Outreach Mission,” says Chris Ham, president, Rescue Outreach Mission. “She was one of the very first employees I hired, knowing her skills would be essential as we grew.”

When Chris started in 2022, he had seen Lara’s work at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Lake Mary. She had graduated from UCF with a degree in nonprofit management and was working with a work-readiness program for individuals with autism, but she was looking for a change.

“I just knew that it wasn’t what I wanted to do long term,” she says. “I thought I was going to take a summer to see what I wanted to do, but Chris made it very obvious what my next step was going to be.”

Lara had never considered working with people experiencing homelessness. Her perception of homelessness was similar to what many people experience – panhandlers and people asking for money at intersections.

“I’ve since realized that a lot of the people who are experiencing homelessness are people who just don’t have anywhere else to go,” Lara says. “They’ve hit a hard time, and they want to rebuild their lives, but they just need a place to do that safely.”

After a while, Lara realized that she was technically homeless herself for a time in her life.

Her first marriage ended suddenly. She couldn’t afford rent on her own, so a friend let her stay at her house for a year, without paying rent. It allowed Lara to get back on her feet.

That’s why one guest really stood out to Lara. The guest had left her husband with three kids. The woman was working to improve her life skills and to get child support set up.

“She would come and talk with me every now and then, just to let me know how hard it was,” Lara says. “I completely understood because she reminded me of myself and some of the things I went through in my 20s.”

The woman is now living with her family in another state, still working to improve her life. But it is guests like her that keep Lara coming back to work at Rescue Outreach Mission every day, where she knows she is making a difference in the lives of so many people who just want a pathway to their own place to live.

Since she started working at Rescue Outreach Mission, she’s taken on multiple responsibilities. She’s helped with social media and with volunteers. She’s worked on guest experiences, like holiday parties, community outreach and nearly anything that is asked of her.

“I love the fact that I can go home every day and know that I made a difference,” she says. “When a guest comes up to you and shares they found a job, or they finally saved up enough money for a down payment, that’s just so heartwarming.”