Community Corner
Randy Smith of Randy's Electric Gives Back to Local Organizations in Any Way He Can
Randy Smith of Randy's Electric does more than just run a business. He is a firm believer in helping his community in whatever ways he can.
One major organization he's involved in is called Breaking Free. Breaking Free is a non-profit organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota that helps young women who are victims of sex trafficking.
Their mission, according to their website, is, "To educate and provide services to women and girls who have been victims of abuse and commercial sexual exploitation (prostitution/sex trafficking) and need assistance escaping the violence in their lives."
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Randy's Involvement with Breaking Free
"My church supports it," he said, "So that's how I heard about it." But, the cause struck him a little bit harder because of his three daughters. He wouldn't want that life for his children, so he was drawn to help give those women a second chance to live their life normally.
"My heart goes out to these people," Randy said, "They're trapped."
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Randy and his family contribute any way they can. He and his wife financially support Breaking Free and one of his daughters attends their banquets.
"It's an organization we support and we believe in," Randy said.
Additional Community Involvement
Easter is right around the corner, which means so are the egg hunts that kids love so much. Randy is helping his church, Passion Church of Maple Grove, put together an egg hunt with a whopping 50,000 eggs.
"It's the biggest egg hunt in Minnesota!" he said.
Randy explained that he helps to financially support this - as that's a lot of eggs and candy to go around!
How this egg hunt works is they hide the eggs inside the school on Easter Sunday and give the kids a limit to how many eggs they can grab. This way, it's fair fun for all involved.
And, this annual event keeps getting bigger. Randy said the first year of the hunt they hid 1,500 eggs, the second 10,000, the third 20,000 and this year - the biggest yet - at 50,000.
When asked about how the community turnout has been, he said, "We had a couple thousand people last year" and he expects it to grow even more this year.
If you have children that love egg hunts and want to participate in this event, check out the Passion Church's Facebook page or visit www.bestegghunt.com for more information.
Why Give Back?
Asking someone why they give back to the community is a loaded question, and a tough one to answer. But, Randy did so in just the right way.
"We all need to be involved in people's lives," he said, "Nobody has got it all together, but we can help other people to do better."
Randy continued, "It's just good for us to get out and get involved. We need each other as people."