One man’s idea to help underserved communities in Arlington has grown into a major nonprofit that helps meet the needs of domestic violence survivors, aids foster children in adapting to new surroundings and provides assistance to at-risk children, senior citizens and the city’s homeless population.
ShareFest-Texas was founded in 2012 by John Thielman, who lives in north Arlington’s Viridian community. The agency helps find housing for women recovering from domestic violence and their children and also collects and distributes furniture and household necessities to furnish their homes.
But that’s not all. ShareFest-Texas collects luggage for foster children needing to move their things into new homes and collects bicycles for unhoused Arlington residents in order to provide mobility that might help them find work.
The organization has delivered furniture and household items for more than 300 families affected by domestic violence since its founding. It began as a way for Thielman, 78, to donate items to SafeHaven, the well-known Tarrant County women’s shelter, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, it helps provide hope to the underserved via collaborative partnerships and community service.
ShareFest-Texas began by helping beautify and fix up several Arlington Independent School District schools such as Kooken Educational Center and Wimbish World Language Academy with the help of students volunteering with Kiwanis Club International.
That work is something Thielman, an IT professional, was exposed to in California where he worked for shoe company Skechers. He worked with ShareFest and its activities in some of the toughest neighborhoods and schools in the Los Angeles area.
After a few years there, he returned to Arlington and started ShareFest-Texas.
“I lived in Viridian and we used a couple of those clubs to clean up the construction mess when it was expanding. It was a lot of fun,” Thielman said. “We worked with AISD campus beautification. We did two elementary schools, one of which was Kooken, the other one was Wimbish. We did a lot of internal murals.”
Thielman said those school projects “kind of put us on the map in the Tarrant County area.”
After students affiliated with Kiwanis International could no longer volunteer because of policy changes brought on by the pandemic, Thielman changed his focus to begin helping foster children.
“We heard that they needed suitcases, so I started collecting suitcases until my garage overflowed with them, and they were using those for when a foster event happened,” Thielman said. “Child abuse or something of that nature.”
He said the kids get a suitcase for their belongings instead of a black trash bag, which were previously used.
“I collected hundreds of suitcases, and was passing them out for that usage,” he said.
Thielman said that the homeless population ballooned around that time, too, and ShareFest-Texas stepped up again.
“I came up with the idea of providing bicycles to homeless people so they could get to and from work and find better work,” he said.
Thielman said there were a couple thousand known homeless people at the time and he would accept donated bikes and get them street ready with new tubes, tires, seats — whatever was needed to make them usable.
“I did several hundred bikes over the years,” Thielman said. The refurbished bikes allowed people in need to find work in a wider search area, he said.
Then, Thielman took on the plight of women and children affected by domestic violence.
“I was connected to all the agencies, Arlington Urban Ministries, Arlington Housing Authority, Arlington Night Shelter, SafeHaven and Salvation Army,” he said. “I was taking furniture to their retail outlets where they would sell it.”
Thielman said those organizations spread word about what he was doing with the furniture and other items he collected at Viridian.
“My neighbors became my best friends. They knew when my garage door opened,” he said. They brought items to Thielman when they cleaned out their garages or replaced furniture in their homes.
He said that during a visit to SafeHaven’s retail outlet in Fort Worth, he met the organization’s director of housing who quickly asked for Thielman’s help. He said the director said they had to reduce occupancy and move those clients out of the shelter into apartments.
“I wasn’t there for 15 minutes, and he asked me if I could help. And of course, being naive, I said, ‘Yes,’” Thielman said. That was in August 2020.
“When I asked him when he wanted me to start, he said, ‘Next weekend,’” Thielman said. “We did 14 apartments between August until the end of the year. It just ballooned from there.”
Thielman said he will soon have to rent storage lockers to hold what he gathers, including many beds.
“It’s more than a material value, because we do things beyond just delivering furniture. That’s just a piece of this,” Thielman said. “We’re transforming lives.”
Arlington Mayor Jim Ross helps ShareFest-Texas volunteers unload furniture last year at a home for a victim of domestic violence and her children. (Courtesy photo | City of Arlington)
ShareFest-Texas’ work hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Last year, Arlington Mayor Jim Ross rode along with Share-Fest’s crew helping a mother and her children move into a safe home, furnished with furniture and other items provided by the organization.
“We actually went out and delivered some furniture to a young lady who had children and was a victim of domestic violence,” Ross said. “It was really cool to see that kind of work firsthand, what they did, unloading the furniture and getting it into her place.”
Ross lauded the nonprofit’s work that day.
“They helped her get into a place, helped furnish it, helped with all kinds of stuff — just a great group of volunteers doing wonderful work,” he said.
Lance Murray is a freelance contributor covering business for the Arlington Report.