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ST INS CARES-Connecting Blessings-Meeting Urgent Family Needs
•"Cabo" Jim Schaller•Season 6•Episode 17
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A single bed can be the difference between chaos and stability for a child, and that is not a metaphor. We’re joined by Brent Hite, the founder of Connecting Blessings, to explain what he and his wife Kelsey are building in Southwest Florida: a practical, people-powered nonprofit that spots real needs and fills them fast.
We talk through how CarePortal works in real life, including how social workers and community partners share urgent “calls of concern” and how local groups can claim a request and respond. Brent explains why this model matters for family preservation and child welfare, because meeting a basic need like clothing, bedding, or household essentials can keep a family from slipping into crisis. One theme keeps rising to the top: beds. Bunk beds, cribs, toddler beds, and simple bedding are among the most common needs, and Connecting Blessings teams up with other organizations to source, refurbish, and get them into homes.
We also dig into the biggest obstacle Brent sees: not money, not logistics, but the belief that “I cannot help.” He shares why small, consistent acts of kindness create a ripple effect, plus a story from Florida Gulf Coast University that shows how timely support can shape someone’s future. If you want straightforward ways to volunteer, donate goods, sponsor a cause, or show up for your community, we lay out clear next steps, including how to find Connecting Blessings online and how their annual pickleball fundraiser at Ace Pickleball Club helps fund real, local impact.
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Connecting Blessings Brent Hite Fort Myers, FL, United States info@connectingblessings.org connectingblessings.org
Welcome to State Insurance USA Cares Podcast, where we celebrate the heart of our communities. Each episode, we highlight local charities and nonprofits who are bringing hope, help, and healing to those who need it most. Get ready to be inspired by the amazing stories of people making a difference. Because together we care.
Well, hi, and welcome to State Insurance Cares. We're the charitable giving arm of State Insurance USA. I'm Gail Langner. Um, you know, I think we probably know this every day. There are people in our community who see a need and choose to do something about it. And today I've got the perfect guest that's one of those people. Uh Brent Hite is the founder of Connecting Blessings. And so welcome to the podcast today, Brent. We're so happy to have you.
Brent Hite
Thank you, Gail. Thanks for having us. And we really appreciate Blake and the state insurance team for all your generosity and commitment to making a difference in Southwest Florida. Thank you.
Gail Langner
Well, we're absolutely honored to do it. As soon as we found out exactly what you do, we knew that this was something that we needed to get behind for
sure. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what really inspired you and your wife Kelsey to even start connecting blessings.
Brent Hite
Yeah, it's an excellent question. I think Kelsey and I were really led honestly by our local church community at Summit Church and just our own family. It really came down to asking our kids if we wanted to do this as a whole entire family. That started out, which uh reached out to our community group in church and had other like-minded families uh helping us out as well. And it was really just giving back to the local community that's given to so much to us.
Yeah, so the way I break down connecting blessings is we love God and love others by identifying problems and creating solutions. It's really an easy way of doing it when you really break it down. But I think the main thing is just connecting us with people that we can help in the community. So it looks different in different ways. We've been connected with the care portal, which, if anybody's aware of that, that's um community partnering and organizations like social workers that are out there helping kids on the front line and children in need and families in need. Um, we through Summit Church have a care portal connection and they send out requests to local community uh people, group groups like ourselves, for instance, with connecting blessings. We're able then to commit to helping those families and children in need. And that's really been the breakthrough for a lot of people locally because it keeps families together rather than placing them in the care of children's services.
Gail Langner
So give me an example of something, just maybe your most recent request.
Brent Hite
What requests that go out can vary a lot of times. It depends on what's necessary or like the urgency of it. You'll receive uh calls of concern through the care portal that request for bedding or let's say clothing. Um that then goes out into the local community, and then you can select and identify that you claim that care portal request, and your team can then go ahead and pay it forward by taking care of it themselves, even delivering it themselves. But mainly we work through other um services, mainly through um, let's say little like social workers that go take care of the items themselves. So um recent requests have been going through. Um we even do a lot for uh, let's say back to school initiatives, um things of care of that nature. But this is more um more of an urgent care need, if it would be like needs with clothing or needs with uh, let's say housing or anything of that nature.
Gail Langner
Is there anything that you see that might be the greatest need, or maybe you see a lot, uh, you know, very common asks?
of times, and we actually have partnered with another group that helps out with this. They are a group that helps with bunk beds, and a lot of it is because, of course, sometimes the the housing that they're in doesn't necessarily uh able to provide the the bunking beds for them, or let's say a bedding in general. So we actually come along them and they'll actually go out and uh research different ways to receive the bunk beds, fix them up, and then get them to the families in need. And those just don't have to be bunk beds, those can be any kind of beds, let's say um, you know, cribs, toddler beds, what have you. So I would say like the bedding mainly would be the the biggest need right now.
Gail Langner
Highest priority. So are you dealing a lot with foster families, Brent?
Brent Hite
Yes or are you okay? It's it's foster families as well, but the care portal initiative is actually keeping uh families together that are already um, you know, whole families, the the general families, the original families. Um, the way that looks is let's say if a mother has a call of concern that she wants to put out there to the social worker, then that social worker can get in touch with people locally to help. Um that's the best way to go about it.
Gail Langner
Okay. I see a lot, you're talking about your shirt, your church and so on. So I I there must be some sort of great collaboration between it, like explain the care portal to our listeners that may not know what that means.
Brent Hite
Yeah, so we're blessed to attend Summit Church, uh University Campus, and the local team there has what they call the Every Child Initiative. Um, basically, what that is is looking to make sure that every child is taken care of. Um, you know, as we were commanded and basically um to trying to take care of those in need, we want to make sure that children are one of those main priorities. Um, what the every child initiative does is seeks to find families' forever homes, those children's forever homes, I should say. So whether that is, like you've mentioned, foster care um initiatives, whether it's through um temporary respite, um, whether it's through a permanent adoption, um, those are all blessings that we can take on. I think the biggest call for us was getting part of that and seeing how great of a network there is out there. We just wanted to contribute any way that we possibly could. And that can be as easy as something is donating money or donating goods, you know, to the local churches, to in this case, the Every Child Initiative. Um, it could be helping out, as I mentioned, with that um person who's handling the bunk beds, or they actually go out and refurbish bedding for other individuals as well. There's just so many things that we're blessed with here in Southwest Florida to get engaged and connected. And I think really that's where our name came from. It was just being able to connect other people with who
you know needs the help, who needs the assistance.
Gail Langner
Exactly. What do you think your greatest challenges are, Brett? What, you know, what do you cut, what when does the brick wall come up?
Brent Hite
What's um Yeah, I think when people believe that they can't help or that there's too big of a call of concern, let's say, um, I'm always asking, you know, what can I do to help? And I I wish other people would do the same. Um, it's not necessarily a negative thing there, it's actually a positive thing. Um, anybody can do the smallest little thing and the biggest ripple of kindness and compassion can come through from that. Um, so I guess just be open to those random acts of compassion and kindness that can take place throughout your day. Be open to being that change that you can see really impact your local community and you'd be surprised of what it can do for the impact
Well, how can our listeners actually get involved, Brett? I mean, what would you suggest if, you know, just let's say it's me. How would I get involved? How would I help in what way?
Brent Hite
I definitely think reaching out to your local school, whether it's your local church, you know, any local organization that can help out, you can get connected with us at connectingblessings.org. Also follow us on Facebook. Um, we have upcoming events. The big one we do is our annual pickleball fundraising event. So if anybody's out there is is is um playing pickleball or interested in that, they can find more information about that too. But I think just being more engaged in your local community and again being open to those things where you can really be able to care for others and get open and out there to help others.
So tell me a little bit more about the pickleball. Tell me.
Brent Hite
Oh, yeah. So I played basketball my entire life. I'm originally from Ohio, and we had uh sports outreach through our churches and local areas for that. Down here, I really enjoyed playing pickleball. Pickleball definitely is more open with um younger audiences, it can be men, women, children, anybody for that matter. So, what we did is we teamed up with Ace Pickleball Club. They're an indoor facility. We rent out all 12 of their courts. Uh, we're gonna have that on Sunday, October 18th, this year. We had our uh last year's uh tournament at the same location. And the nice part about it is even if you don't really care about pickleball, it's just fun to come out and support you know one another, see what's going on in the local community. But we lovingly call that our passion. We don't want to call it anything negative. So it's a way of using our passions and our little um hobbies to pay back to the community. Um, we've had a lot of different fundraisers for different things, but this one by far is one of the funnest ones that we do, and it's really a lot more hands-on where people can get involved for that.
Gail Langner
And probably your largest fundraiser.
Brent Hite
Yes, largest one of the year as well. Um, we ended up going from what was we had three courts when we originally started this, and then last year we did the 12 courts. And I know for sure we're gonna need the exact same amount of courts this year. Um, have a lot of local great fundraisers that are fun uh donors, I should say, that help us with the fundraising that can get involved by being, you know, sponsors and things of that sort too, which is a blessing.
glad to hear that. If so, let me just ask you as we as we wrap up here, if you were to want to get just one thing across to the people that are listening to this podcast today, what do you think that would be?
Brent Hite
I think being able to give someone else a hope in a future, being able to take a burden off of your fellow human and really doing that human-being thing, um, keeping the human element alive. I really just push us all to go above and beyond in that in that regard. Um, I think just being open, again, being open to those random acts of kindness and compassion. You never know how simple a thing like opening a door or or waiting for someone, you know, to help. Like let's say down here in Florida, someone gets rained on, you have an umbrella, you know, being able to help them get to shelter safely. Um, you'll never know what that can do to that person's day and that person's life. So um things that we've done in the past, like we have uh connected here at FGCU, Florida Gulf Coast University, where I work. And we had a student who um came to us for a food uh uh insecurity, basically. They needed more food and assistance. We were able to provide that. That student ended up keeping in touch with me and has since graduated. And I never know what that's gonna do to that person forever, but you never know what that little ripple of of change can really change in someone's life just because you cared.
Gail Langner
Oh, you're exactly right. Even if if you're in the grocery store and and you comment on an elderly woman's hair or how beautiful she looked, or you know what a great smile she has, or you know, whatever, you never know. You never know. Exactly. So how can how can you be reached? What's uh uh could you run your website by us again, please?
Brent Hite
Yep, so it's connectingblessings.org, and you can find us on Facebook as well and connecting blessings.
Gail Langner
All right, that's wonderful. Brent Hite, the founder of Connecting Blessings. Thank you so much for uh being on the podcast today. Really appreciate it. And God bless you and and your wife and your entire team and your whole family uh for doing this. So you're making a lot of difference in a lot of people's lives, Brent. Thank you.
Thank you for joining us on State Insurance USA Cares. We hope today's story uplifted and inspired you. If you'd like to support or learn more about the incredible work happening in your community, visit StateInsuranceusa.com or call two three nine five six seven nine nine nine two. You can also visit cabowabojim.com. Until next time, be sure to let your sun shine and keep sharing good and positive vibes wherever the waves take you.
