Center Point Alliance for Progress: ‘All Hands and Hearts asked me for the 2026 list. I pretty much just copy-pasted 2025.’

When All Hands and Hearts asked Anna Love for the list of homes affected by the July 16, 2026, flood, she did not have to research it.

“I pretty much just copy and pasted 2025,” she said Friday on Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week, “because that’s how it was.”

Love is the Vice President of the Center Point Alliance for Progress and a loan officer at People’s State Bank, the only bank in Center Point — identifiable on Highway 27 by its Angora goat logo and its massive neon sign. She is also a Mountain Home resident who raises Spanish goats with her kids and commutes into Center Point. On July 16, she drove in despite the bank being officially closed because the septic alarm was going off. In a large vehicle, she navigated rising water and watched the same community she watched flood the year before flood again.

The same neighborhoods. The same homes. The same families.

The Center Point Alliance for Progress was founded in 1976 — not as a disaster relief organization, but as a holiday program. Two local families could not afford Christmas. Neighbors stepped in. The “North Pole” project was born, and the organization has run it every year since, distributing clothes, toys, and H-E-B gift cards to children between 11 months and 14 years old from the 60% of Center Point School District families classified as economically disadvantaged.

For nearly 50 years the organization was strictly seasonal — dormant in spring and summer, ramping up in August when donor letters went out. The July 4, 2025, flood ended that model permanently.

The response to 2025 was extraordinary. A five-member subcommittee was formed to approve emergency grants within days. The organization started with $2,500 grants — requiring only an address and a physical assessment — and eventually distributed $5,000 grants to 28 heavily impacted homes. By the time the wave of outside generosity crested, CPAP had distributed more than $700,000 into Center Point. The Community Foundation contributed $200,000. Dallas television station WFAA contributed $150,000. Anonymous donors filled the rest.

“2025 was such a unique situation,” Love said. “When you look at floods historically, you don’t see the outpouring of funds like we saw in 2025.”

The 2026 response has looked nothing like it. The same families. The same homes. A fraction of the outside attention and money.

“Going into 2026, we as a whole have had to change our mindset,” Love said. “Advocating for Center Point looks different than what it looked like in 2025.”

The word she used to describe the prevailing community mood was “defeat.” She does not accept that framing for herself. An anonymous grant has put $77,000 in CPAP’s active reserve. She is still submitting grant applications.

“I’m still sending out grant requests because no is not an answer I’ll accept,” she said. “And I’m going to continue to fight for that.”

The North Pole numbers tell a compressed version of the larger story. In 2024, before the floods, 62 children in Center Point qualified for holiday wish list assistance. After the 2025 flood, that number jumped to 96 or 98. This year, with a second flood on top of the first, Love expects the number to climb again. Applications go out in September.

Compounding the pressure: fewer local families were able to serve as holiday donors in 2025 because they were navigating their own post-flood financial stress. The demand went up. The donor base contracted.

The board of approximately seven that manages all of this is composed almost entirely of Center Point locals: President Britney Cranford, Susan Walker, the Turners, and Mary Lambert — whose own home has been flooded twice. She still sits on the board and advocates without pause.

CPAP also works closely with a local Kerrville community leader who coordinates matching programs, splitting the cost of a family’s identified need down the middle. On the day of Friday’s broadcast, he contacted Love to request an updated needs list. She had one ready.

Love also pushed back on a misconception that banks and LiftFund are in competition with each other. Local banks refer struggling business owners to LiftFund because keeping those businesses alive keeps the local economy healthy — which benefits the bank. They are complementary, not rivals.

She closed with a pitch for Center Point itself, a community she said is undervalued in the regional conversation.

“Center Point has some of the most amazing restaurants in my opinion,” she said, naming Zanzenberg Tavern and Cafe Josephine. “It’s a pretty dynamic community.”

To donate to the North Pole holiday program or support flood recovery: contact CPAP through Center Point Alliance for Progress on Facebook.