Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


An upcoming fundraising event is set to benefit the construction of a new mission house to accommodate the growing number of volunteer groups with a Pinckney non-profit.

“Hearts and Hard Hats” is a community spaghetti dinner fundraiser to benefit Building Bridges of Hope and its mission house construction project. It’s on Saturday, August 1st and starts at 6:15pm at St. Mary’s Catholic Church off Dexter-Pinckney Road.

Deb Read is a volunteer with Building Bridges of Hope. She says the Pinckney non-profit’s Co-Directors Adam and Jessica Carlile are St. Mary parishioners, Pinckney residents, and full-time missionaries living and working on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They host groups of volunteers from across the state and country to work beside them, including a yearly group from St. Mary’s Pinckney.

Read is one of the co-ambassadors for the trips and has volunteered for around a dozen over the years.

Read told WHMI “We half-heartily joke that the work they’re doing is one of the best kept secrets of Livingston County, and we’re trying to spread the word”. She added “It’s something that if you ever go, or have a chance to go on a mission trip, it changes your life. And it changes not only yours but the people you serve. That’s why we call it ‘Hearts and Hard Hats’ because it really, it changes your heart”.

The event will feature St. Mary’s Knights of Columbus “famous pasta”, video updates from the Carliles, and “raise your paddle” fundraising opportunities.

Read, who will be a future guest on WHMI’s Viewpoint program, noted the initial fundraiser for the new mission house was last August and they broke ground in November but fundraising efforts are continuing to keep the project moving. The project was prompted as the property where the current mission house that houses their volunteers is located was sold.


Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at the door or online. We have more in the provided links and attachments.