April Missionary of the Month
- Janet Richey
- Apr 3
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 5
Three Separate Missions with One Common Denominator
“Building Bridges to Transform Communities”
Rebuild: “Harrisburg Community Development Corporation” provides affordable home ownership.
Restore: “Love the Hill” focuses on restoring and beautifying the community.
Revive: “The Hill Farm” provides food security and education on healthy living.
The Who and the Why
In the fall of 2013, Tannon and Cristina Herman moved to the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg with a profound invitation from the Lord to wholeheartedly love and invest in Allison Hill. The desire to love their neighbors well started with the simple act of picking up trash, which led to connections with their neighbors and local businesses. It was from those relationships that they learned of the community’s immediate need to deal with the illegal dumpsites around the abandoned houses. In April 2016, the Hermans founded Wildheart Ministries to promote awareness of the issues within the neighborhood and rally individuals in both the public & private sectors to participate in meeting those needs. Since 2017, Wildheart has been instrumental in advancing revitalization efforts within Allison Hill- removing over 3 million pounds of trash, seeing the crime rate decrease by 50%, and empowering neighbors to take back ownership of their streets. In the past couple of years, Wildheart has since expanded to operate a 2-acre farm in the heart of Allison Hill to promote food security and educate on nutrition & healthy living, and has started an affordable housing initiative, the Harrisburg Community Development Corporation (HCDC).
Four Distinct Programs
1) Wildheart provides volunteer opportunities for those who desire to impact their community and see their city transformed through acts of kindness and meaningful service. Volunteer opportunities may include picking up trash, gardening at The Hill Farm, celebrating with & hosting neighbors at our quarterly block parties, getting involved in our Christmas Gift Program, or sending a youth group for our week-long local missions "Summer Project."
2) Love the Hill - this program of Wildheart focuses on community beautification and blight remediation. Since its launch in 2017, volunteers, residents and the local government have been working together to "Love The Hill" and make tangible change by mobilizing over 13,254 volunteers to remove over 3 MILLION pounds of trash within 136 city blocks, affecting 2692 families (8890 individuals) and reducing crime by nearly 50%!
3) The Hill Farm - this program of Wildheart operates our 2-acre urban farm, providing food security for our community and selling produce at lower-than-market-value prices. We educate on nutrition and healthy living and host field trips for PreK through High School!
4) HCDC - Harrisburg Community Development Corporation is Wildheart's affordable housing initiative. Currently working on our Gateway project- developing affordable & safe housing for 29 residents with spaces for retail business.
An update on The Hill Farm- in their own words:
Wildheart Ministries has been leasing The Hill Farm on 213 S. 18th Street from the Harrisburg School District for the past few years. Due to some unfortunate lack of communication between the School District & School Board, the School Board was unaware that the property was actively being used for education, or even at all. As such, in November 2024, they gave us a 30-day notice of termination of our lease of the land. Since 30 days was not enough time for us to remove all items from the farm, we appealed to the School Board for an extension of this notice. Once that was accepted, we were able to attend several School Board meetings and share all that is happening currently on The Hill Farm, how the Farm has been positively impacting the Allison Hill Community, and our trajectory of plans for the future to get more students on the Farm and expand our impact. Thankful to have community members speak up on our behalf, the Harrisburg School Board retracted their intent to terminate our lease and reinstated us for 2025. The Harrisburg School Board is discussing whether to establish Wildheart Ministries on the property with a long-term lease or to sell the property to Wildheart. We are thankful for our Harrisburg School District partners and to continue building The Hill Farm on the 213 South 18th Street property!
What Can You Do?
• Stay connected! Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram
at @WildheartHarrisburg
• Learn about other Wildheart opportunities at our Interest Meeting on May 16th at 9 am!
• Join the Gala Planning Committee. Learn more on March 28th at 9 am. Email amelia@wildheartministries.net with interest.
• Be an advocate! More info here: commit to giving $25 a month, being a prayer partner, sharing about Wildheart with others & serving!
• Purchase some Colina Coffee or Merch!
• Volunteer for a Love the Hill event (clean-up, block party) or volunteer with us at The Hill Farm
• Sponsor or attend one of our fundraising events! Wildheart's Golf Outing (May 2nd) or Wildheart's "Celebrate Transformation" Gala (November 15th)
And for all our prayer warriors...
• Pray for those in the Allison Hill community to encounter the Holy Spirit through their Church Day Out that Living Water is participating in on Saturday, April 26th
• Pray that Wildheart will get fully funded for The Gateway development to build affordable housing for their neighbors
• Pray for The Hill Farm and its program to be stabilized and for their partnership with the Harrisburg School District to be strengthened.
• Pray for hearts to be opened when they interact with their summer project teams while they clean up the community and evangelize their neighbors.
• Praise God! 2,600+ families were impacted by the gospel through faithful ambassadors of Christ who performed many acts of service in the Allison Hill area!
• For more about Wildheart, visit them online at www.wildheartministries.net
What’s Coming Next
Farm Work Days: Tuesday and Wednesdays from 9-12 and 1-3 starting in March
Business Day Out: Friday, April 11, 9-12: Bring your business team to serve or come and network with like-minded Professionals. Group or Individual Sign Up
Church Day Out: Saturday, April 26, 9-3; Bring your church or come for a morning of litter pick-up and an afternoon block party! Sign up at this link to work alongside the people you worship with on Sunday mornings! https://www.livingwatercc.com/lovethehill
Purchase a ticket or sponsorship for Wildheart's Golf Outing- Swing for the Hill; May 2nd at Dauphin Highlands.
Love the Hill Clean-up: May 24th 9-12: Join other local volunteers to Love the Hill with our monthly clean-up.
Visit our website for other volunteering opportunities!
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