We Love Our Town campaign

BONNERS FERRY — “We Love Our Town” is not just the motto at Honey Do Painting, but an active way of giving back and blessing others, the owners say.

Lori and Joey Sanchez, the owners of Honey Do painting, started the “We Love Our Town” community outreach program last year in order to be an action group that involves the community.

“My husband had a dream to help addicts, [that’s] where it all started,” said Lori Sanchez.

Once individuals get out of prison, Sanchez said they typically revert back to their old lifestyle because it’s all they know and, often, nobody will hire them. The Sanchezes’ main goal was simple — help addicts get a career and a skill.

The Sanchezes call this a revocation of the mind. Lori Sanchez said that they have had some success stories and some failure stories as well. She compared the success and failures to passing a baton in a track race.

“We’re not always the last person [to help],” she said. “So we pass it and then they fall short.”

Sanchez said after two years sometimes the people they have helped are changed and the seeds they have sown come to reap. She said that most of the time when you pass the baton you don’t see the results until later, but the results are so sweet when people turn their lives around, she added.

It’s patient work, said Lori, adding the Sanchezes have learned to be patient.

The “We Love Our Town” campaign progressed to the community as a whole. In Coeur d’Alene, through Honey Do Painting, the Sanchezes have painted churches free of charge. They hope to do something similar in Bonners Ferry, Lori Sanchez said.

Sanchez said that Bonners Ferry is a small enough town that its residents can act as a team and work together. She said that the goal was to get the rest of the community involved with the needs of others.

“Giving is a blessing,” she said. “We don’t want to rob people of their blessings by not involving others.”

She believes that all people have something to share and give to others. It is not just a small set of people who can give back. The goal is to get more people involved and see that they too can be part of the community, she said.

This fall they were able to help quite a few people with painting needs, weeding and lawn care, but that is just the beginning. The Sanchezes have big plans to expand what the “We Love Our Town” program can do, Sanchez said.

Sanchez said the goal for “We Love Our Town” is for Bonners Ferry to unite. If someone needs help the Sanchezes want them to have an avenue to call.

Sanchez said that Honey Do Painting alone can’t do this, it is a team effort to tie together and show the community that we can be a family.

For Thanksgiving, meals were given out to families in need. The program aims to do this again for Christmas and is taking applicants. The Sanchezes would also like to host painting classes for youths and adult classes in the future.

“We are here for people who aren’t our customers,” Sanchez said.

The Sanchezes would like everyone to have a part in the program and take pride in knowing that the community of Bonners Ferry is a team and no one is alone.

The “We Love Our Town” program was created to help those in need, whether elderly, veterans, single mothers or just families struggling to get by, Sanchez said.

Honey Do Painting is partnering with Kevin and Brenda Painting, Grocery Outlet and Safeway employees for the “We Love Our Town” campaign. They want to partner with other businesses and organizations in Bonners Ferry to grow the campaign and to cover more of the community’s needs.

For more information on “We Love Our Town,” call 208-699-1790 or email honeydopainting7@gmail.com.