Life is precious. Just take a walk outside and look at the beautiful open sky and smell the fresh air. Me and you can appreciate the gift of life. But how glorious would the world be, if we only admired it from the other side of a hospital window? What if you were born with a disease that made life a constant struggle? Or what if a hurricane took away your house and your family? Or what if you went off to war, and came home missing a limb, or some other life shattering injury?

At least there is hope. However deplorable our living conditions might be, at least the human spirit can conjure up hope from the ashes of grief. As long as a glimmer of hope prevails, all is not lost. What are we without hope? The ability to see light during the darkest hours of night is what makes us human. Hope is always inside of us. No matter how dark our souls might be, there is always a flame flickering.

However, it is also an inalienable human trait to think that all hope is lost. When our souls are conquered by grief or jealousy or anger, recognizing hope might seem impossible. Sometimes, an act of kindness is all it takes to restore hope in these grief stricken people.

Hope is never gone. It just needs to be restored.

Restoring hope to hurricane destroyed locations

Gigi Stetler, the founder and CEO of RV Sales of Broward, has been restoring hope her whole life. Gigi’s charity has helped countless people from all walks of life, all across the world. Like when she donated an RV to Allen Giese, so that he could promote his “Ride to Awareness” across the country, and raise money for mental health organizations. Or how about when she sent motorhomes stocked with supplies to the Hurricane Dorian victims in the Bahamas. Gigi also sent life saving supplies to the victims of Hurricane Andrew, Katrina, Charlie, Wilma, Irma and many more.

When Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle communities, Gigi and RV Advisor provided necessary help, like food and shelter. In addition, RV Advisor changed their membership policy, so that they would donate $50 to Hurricane Michael victims, for every $25 customers spent on membership.

Gigi Stetler has been providing housing and other life saving relief supplies for thirty years. After Hurricane Katrina and Irma, for example, Stetler donated almost 40 campers stocked with supplies to the local police departments for the officers whose homes were destroyed.

RVs might be the most helpful item for a family of hurricane victims, whose home was just destroyed.

About thirteen years ago, Patrick Pedraja was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia. When he was eleven years old, instead of spending his summer eating Twizzlers and watching Flintstones reruns, Patrick wanted to educate America and increase donations for the National Marrow Donor Program. Only problem was that Patrick had no vehicle to tour the country. That is, until Gigi donated a beautiful RV with gas and insurance to help Patrick on his noble mission.

Gigi’s devotion to helping out those less fortunate, began with a simple twist of fate. According to Gigi,

It started back in Hurricane Andrew when that disaster happened. I lived it. All of the newspeople didn’t have any place to stay while they were covering the stories down there because it was just devastated. They had called me, my company, and asked for rentals and I said, ‘How many do you need?’ They wanted a quote for about 15 or 18 units and I said, ‘tell me where to deliver them, I’ll get them down there. And they said ‘how much?’ I said ‘nothing.’ And so it kind of started. I just always believe in paying it forward and I didn’t even think about business or anything at the time, I just knew that they needed it – and brought them down there. But it’s just something I’ve always done.
And then Katrina hit, and same thing, I ended up housing the Coast Guard. Actually, I housed the Pasco Cheyenne Police Department. A friend’s cousin lost his house and he was the sheriff and he asked me for an RV. I said sure, I sent one up for him and then he said ‘well, the whole sheriff’s department is homeless and they’re living inside the jail right now, and the prisoners are under a bridge.’ And I flew there to deliver them myself.

Gigi has also donated countless RVs to student veterans, allowing these young soldiers to experience the RV life on weekend and cross country adventures. After all, these young soldiers sacrificed their lives for me and you, we should be thankful that something is given back to them.

Hope is the most valuable commodity that a human has. Everyone always has hope, except sometimes situations are so bleak, hope may be difficult to spot. Gigi Stetler and the RV Advisor is always on the lookout for people and communities who may need their hope restored.