The modest house Wauconda Way near Lake Worth Beach would never be grand, but it is home.
It’s where a teenager cares for his disabled grandmother. It’s where that grandmother envelopes him with the love and guidance he can’t get elsewhere. And it’s where, with an HGTV-like remodel reveal on July 1, they learned anew what kindness can do.
It’s hard to need, harder still to let others in on the depth of that need. But Beverly Shaw and her grandson, Robert Hall, did just that, telling The Palm Beach Post about their travails through the newspaper’s Season to Share series and hoping for help with some kitchen upgrades so its cabinets could be replaced and the dishwater, sink, stove and refrigerator — all broken for longer than they cared to remember — could be functional again.
It was on a rainy day in July — Shaw’s 64th birthday — that she and her 17-year old grandson would learn how well community members heard their call for help.
People they did not know, people from different backgrounds, pitched in to help. They were already getting help from the Palm Beach County office of Take Stock in Children, a nonprofit that works to break the cycle of poverty by guiding students and helping them find post-high school opportunities.
A season of hope from Palm Beach Post readers
Soon, others joined the quest to help Shaw and Hall.
Someone donated a refrigerator. Another provided a motorized scooter to help Shaw, who has diabetes and mobility issues, so she could get around better. Others donated cash, bedding, anything they thought would push back on their need.
All told, more than $60,000 was raised for the pair. And then a contractor who refuses to be named and acknowledged volunteered to oversee a remodel not just of the family’s kitchen. Bedrooms would be remodeled. Bathrooms, too. There would be new ceiling fans, new kitchen cabinetry and new appliances. Water would flow from a new sink gleaming between new countertops. The popcorn ceiling was shaved, modernized.
Take Stock in Children and College for Kids, which nominated Hall and Shaw for assistance through Season to Share, had them stay in a hotel for a month while the work was undertaken.
“When we were in that hotel room, in about two weeks, we were ready to kill each other,” Shaw would later joke.
Staff from Take Stock in Children and College for Kids, a program cofounded by Take Stock in Children, gathered inside the house on Wauconda Way to await Shaw and Hall’s arrival. Grandmother and grandson knew work had been done on their home, but they did not know the extent of that work.
Their arrival would be like one of those remodel reveals on HGTV.
When they pulled up to their home, Hall got out in the light rain and fetched a walker for his grandmother, eliciting “isn’t he a nice young man” sighs from staffers who watched through the window.
“Are we going to say ‘Surprise’ ?” one staffer asked as grandmother and grandson approached the front door.
“Surprise, happy birthday!” another suggested.
Finally, they agreed on something else entirely: Welcome home.
The door opened, and Shaw blinked, taking in the new brightness of her home.
“Big difference, right?” she asked Hall, as they both walked in and looked at the new lighting. “I don’t know what to say!”
Grandmother and grandson walked from room to room, marveling at the work and the kindness and generosity that paid for it.
“Oh, my God!” Shaw said more than once. “I love this. Look at this. I love it. I love it.”
Hall was quiet, walking at his grandmother’s side.
At one point, looking at the new cabinetry and the new appliances in the remodeled kitchen, Shaw turned to her grandson.
Life-changing gift for all
“Oh, my baby,” she said, reaching up to hug Hall, who responded with a teen’s shy stoicism.
Shaw eventually sat, pulled out an inhaler and collected herself. On a table next to her was a basket of linens, gifts from staff members. On top of the linens was a framed note that read:
“Dear Beverly & Robert – Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this journey with you. We hope this home is filled with many happy memories for years to come. It has been an honor to celebrate this special day with you. With warmest wishes, Your Take Stock in Children Family.”
Many of those who played a part in making the remodel possible were not at Wauconda Way when Shaw and Hall got those first glimpses of their new home. Shaw made a point of thanking those in her midst.
She reminisced with her grandson for just a moment about how things were before.
“Remember how dark it was?” she asked him, later adding: “We were miserable.”
Wauconda Way is brighter now, and it’s not just because of the new fixtures.
“I can’t thank you all enough,” Shaw said. “Everyone, the donors. It changed our life. It changed my life.”
About Season to Share
The Palm Beach Post’s Season to Share campaign, in partnership with the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties, raised more than $600,000 in its 2025 campaign. Those donations gave help and hope to nine individuals and families nominated by local charities and brought the total raised by Season to Share over the past 30 years to more than $18 million.
All Season to Share donations go to helping nominees via their nominating agencies. Once the nominees’ needs are met, the charitable agencies can use the funds to assist other needy families within their agencies. Season to Share funds are not to be used by the agencies for administrative purposes.
The reader-donated funds are managed and distributed to the agencies by the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin counties, a respected philanthropic presence for more than 50 years.
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education and Riviera Beach development for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Post charity drive helps Palm Beach County grandma, grandson with home
Reporting by Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
