Congratulations and thank you from me, from the staff and residents of the Mansion Assisted Care Facility in Cambridge, N.Y. and certainly, from me. This morning, we reached the $10,000 gofundme goal that will enable the Mansion owners to purchase a specially equipped van for the elderly and impaired.

It will arrive any day now, just as their old van is expiring.

George Scala, the Mansion’s owner, will pay the remaining $10,000, special vans are expensive. I thank the Army of Good for a mighty victory. We have challenged the very false notion that our hearts have turned to stone. They are filled with love and generosity.

The new van will have steps that are lower and ramps to help people get in and out. The old one didn’t.

Some of you seemed to have sensed what this new van will mean to the Mansion residents, it will be their lifeline and pathway into an outside world that sometimes seems to have left them behind. The van will take them to doctor’s appointments, to field trips and parks and other places to visit, it will enable them to visit sick friends in the hospital and family members who can’t come to them.

You have opened the world to these loving and curious people, and to the loving and caring people who take care of them.

In a time when many our doubting our compassion and generosity, you have shown yours. You truly are a special community, an Army of Good. If donations continue to come into the project, they will be put to good use on behalf of the residents. Thanks again, I do not really have words. That is unusual.

I know I speak for the residents and staff when I say thank you, it is very much appreciated. This gift will change lives.