Life once gave Gina Grundmeier a proverbial lemon, but the Dexter, Minn., resident barely missed a beat before turning it into something sweet. Her charitable home-remodeling organization, Pay it Forward, rose from the ashes, so to speak, of a house fire that left Gina and her family homeless and without belongings.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for the self-described “sentimental girl.” “We lost so many things that are irreplaceable,” she says.
At the same time, the tragedy gave her a front-row seat to the kindness of strangers. A man who had recently remarried and moved into his wife’s home offered his place to the Grundmeiers. Gina, Todd and their four children lived there for a year, and all the while, Gina was thinking about a way of giving back.
Pay it Forward’s work isn’t limited to construction, however. For example, a call came in about a woman who was going through cancer treatment. A friend stepped forward to ask if the organization could help the young mom repair her car. The request confirmed what Gina has long believed to be true: There is a surprising number of people out there who need help.
Fortunately for them, Gina hates the “I-can’t attitude” and the word “no.” “If there’s a way, I’ll find it,” she says.
What happens next usually is Gina obsessing over the problem and working the phones to find a solution. In the case of the auto transmission, she called a local mechanic. “I said, ‘I have this much money. Can you help me out?’ Once people hear about what we’re trying to do, they come forward.” When it’s not enough, Gina has been known to dip into her family’s savings. (Cue Todd’s eye roll.)
Her desire to help goes beyond giving people respite from financial worries, as pressing as that is. It’s also about their dignity. “Everybody should know that they matter,” she says, holding back tears. “Everybody should know they’re loved.”
Though most people in and around Dexter are well-aware of Pay it Forward, the reverse isn’t important to Gina.
“I don’t have to know people to care about them,” she says.