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Mary Poe was driving down Main Street in Brundidge when her eyes fixated on a vacant house she must have passed many times over the years.

For, almost, as a  surprise to herself, Poe stopped just to take a peaked in the window.

“When I looked in, I saw the times past, Poe said. “The house was in disrepair but, I wanted very much to go inside …

“Strangely, the back door was unlocked so I slowly pushed it open and stood in that empty place. But I had this strange but warm sensation. Then, this still voice said to me, ‘This place shall be called ‘Hope,’”

At that moment, in that place, Poe realized she was there for a reason.

“Standing there all alone, I knew, in my heart, that ‘this’ dark, lonely place could become a beacon of light and hope in a world of dark hopelessness,” Poe said. “I realized I had been brought to ‘this’ place for reason… to help struggling people.”

For “that place” to become a place of hope, it seemed that it would take a miracle.

Restoring the aging, frame house on a main street in a small Southern town didn’t seem possible.

But, Mary Poe’s vision was that the old-home place would become a beacon of hope and a place where forgotten dreams  would be fulfilled and life lived anew.

It is that place.

In support of the House of Hope and Restoration, the “Riding to Restore Lives Poker Run” will start at Ward’s Yamaha in Troy and end at Coast and Creek in Brundidge. Registration is at 8 a.m. and the ride will begin a 9 a.m. The entry donation is $25 per rider.

“Riding to Restore Lives” will feature live music, games, food and a  silent auction.