A Kerrville couple has found their calling. At the age when most people are happily retired, they’ve been pulling 50 to 60 hours a week — or more — in flood relief work for victims in Kerr County.
Howell and Debbie Ridout have lived on the banks of the Guadalupe River for 18 years. They never anticipated floodwaters could change their lives so much. During the 2025 flood, they were away on vacation in Alaska on July 4 and returned to face $30,000 in pool damage, grateful their spacious home and other outbuildings escaped damage.
Their youngest daughter, Sarah Ridout Woolsey, operates the Impact Guild, a faith-based nonprofit based in San Antonio. When she and her sister, Lauren Ridout Ramirez, heard of their parents’ damage, they gathered 30 friends, brought in chainsaws and other equipment and went to work to clean things up.
During that time, Ramirez, who attended Tivy High School with the Eastlands, owners of Camp Mystic, worked together with other friends to obtain furnishings for the Eastland’s new rental house and raise funds for them in a GoFundMe campaign.
The Ridout’s daughters convinced their parents to stay in Alaska to finish their vacation, but as soon as they returned, a unique niche of how they could use their skills and talents to benefit their neighbors and other flood survivors emerged. Both had decades of experience in architecture, design and construction, plus interior design industry connections and nonprofit expertise, and within that first week, daughter Woolsey tied them into her Impact Guild to provide them with nonprofit status.
The Ridouts got to work and officially became the Arcadia Recovery Collaboration, a program of The Impact Guild, a community development nonprofit structured to help flood survivors turn rebuilt or restored spaces back into fully furnished homes.
“We obviously couldn’t not help,” Debbie Ridout said.
They began to work in tandem with area relief organizations with an outreach that spanned all of Kerr County. When a flood family secured housing, they furnished it and did it thoughtfully. Solicited donations soon began pouring in. Three warehouses filled quickly with furniture, bed linens, rugs, art, kitchenware, curtains, clocks — all the little things that make a house a home.
“An empty house is not a home,” Howell Ridout said.
They hired Megan Nichols as a project coordinator, thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. Nichols works with area agencies to ensure each request is vetted and assists each family with the process, timing and follow-through. She also is inventory controller for incoming goods received, a sizeable job considering goods are grouped by design style such as contemporary, rustic or traditional, allowing recipients to select goods to reflect each family’s style preference.
“We couldn’t do this important work without Megan’s assistance,” Debbie Ridout said.
The Ridouts’ many professional contacts became volunteers, offering to decorate each home tastefully. By this past July, 42 families had gone through the vetting process, found new homes and been outfitted, thanks to 33 volunteer project managers and 188 volunteers who donated 5,725 hours. An estimated total value of goods used exceeded $550,000.
The stark reality is that about 60 more flood survivors remain on the list, waiting. Why? Howell Ridout explained it’s all part of the process.
“For some, licensing, permits, location sites, financing and pricing take a long time, added to the competition for available reliable contractors,” he said. “We’ve come to expect that we’ll still see more applications coming in.”
Then the July 16, 2026, flood hit, bringing more sorrow and destruction, some to those who had rebuilt and to many others, devastation they never felt could happen. The Ridouts once again got grazed, this time sustaining about $3,000 in property damage, but once again, they turned to helping others. They’ve already received a dozen applications since the second flood, including five families who were outfitted by ARC’s program in 2025. Howell Ridout said they’ll probably need to be refitted again.
The process to receive aid through ARC is basic. Flood survivors complete an application and are paired with a project manager who assesses the family’s needs and lifestyle. Volunteers then select furnishings from ARC’s inventory and, on installation day, transform the empty space into a home, complete with a welcome basket.
Like many nonprofits, support is critical to their existence. Help has come from many sources, including the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, Global Empowerment Mission, Hunt Preservation Society, Habitat for Humanity, Hill Country Charity Ball and area churches. Businesses, including Moore’s Home Furnishings, Ashley and Mattress World, have stepped up as well, providing either new, clearance models, or overstock furniture and furnishings, either completely free or for pennies on the dollar.
H-E-B donated $10,000 in kitchen goods, and Austin-based Four Hands sent in an entire semi-trailer load of new furniture.
The Ridouts’ philosophy is that, when returning to their homes, recipient families should consider it to be a new beginning. So, unless it is in pristine condition, they do not accept used furniture.
Financial donations are what is needed most. A complete home refurnishing could normally cost $45,000 or more, but since so much is donated and volunteers do the work, the cash outlay for items not donated runs about $5,000. Somehow, they manage to work their magic on limited funds, but help is greatly appreciated.
When not helping others, the Ridouts enjoy time with their kids and grandkids, and Howell Ridout sits on the board of Mercy Gate Ministries, an area nonprofit he strongly believes in.
Woolsey is extremely proud of her parents.
“They have channeled their energy into helping families heal after both the 2025 and 2026 floods. They have given so much of their time, professional skills and heart to each person and their home,” she said. “It is a special type of healing to get to do this work as a family and alongside neighbors. So many people from our community have volunteered hours and given furniture or financially. That generous spirit of coming together has made ARC work.”
Learn more about the Arcadia Recovery Collaboration at theimpactguild.com/arc.
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