Mariah House provides free shower service and transforms lives in Texarkana

“I had a dream, a recurring dream to start helping people,” says Hatcher.

He decided his way to help people would be to provide a desperately needed but often overlooked service. A shower.

“You do it every day and it’s just like second nature, but someone that is sleeping in their car, or they lost their job and they have no way of paying their water bill, or they get put out from wherever they’re at,” says Hatcher.

He moves his shower on wheels around between the Salvation Army on Mondays and Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. and the Texarkana Public Library on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“Man, when somebody hasn’t had a shower in 2 or 3 days and they find out they can come here and get a free shower. They say, ‘it cost nothing?’, and they take a shower and they’re a different person than when they went in,” says Hatcher.

For the people who come by, it is often not just about freshening up, but also a step towards a fresh start.

“The only time you really feel like going to get a job or anything is if you feel clean about going about the people, and a lot of people don’t feel clean about going about the people because they have no shower. So they’re not going to go look for a job. They’re not going to do the things they need to do,” says Jimmy Mosley, who has used the shower a few times now, “I feel like I can now go do what I have to do and see about my pet and see about myself.”

Mariah House needs donations of toiletries, towels, and sanitizers as well as volunteers. Monetary donations can be made at Regions Bank. Other donations can be made at 512 Grand Avenue. For more information, call (903) 949-8260 or visit their website.