Fair Hope honors couple

Sep. 7—DANVILLE — For about the last 15-16 years, Roberta Williams has been the client scheduler for Fair Hope Children's Ministry and her husband, Jim, also has assisted families.

To recognize Roberta's retirement as scheduler and the couple doing so much for the ministry, the ministry's board wanted to honor them.

The board at the ministry's location at 1225 E. Voorhees St. in Danville surprised and acknowledged Roberta and Jim's many years of helping guide the organization to what it has grown to today.

The ministry celebrated with cookies and refreshments and the couple was given a card signed by the board members and gift card as a token of appreciation.

The couple was gobsmacked and definitely surprised Tuesday night at the honor. Jim said the reception was amazing and Roberta also was grateful.

Jim joked how about the board does this about once a month?

"Gee guys, this is astounding," he said.

Jim said Roberta has done 9/10s of their work. They thanked the ministry board and all those involved with Fair Hope.

Roberta, 86, had been the client scheduler since around 2008. Jim, 88, a retired United Methodist minister who was minster when Fair Hope started having meetings, has spent countless hours building shelving, carrying boxes and bags of clothing as well as accompanying Roberta when there was an immediate need of clothing for families in crisis, such as if there was a house fire. The two of them have opened the mission to accommodate these emergencies, the board members said.

"This is a very small token of what they have done for our community," said Olivia Humphreys, secretary with Fair Hope Children's Ministry.

Roberta will be remaining on the board and will be active and helping to write grants for Fair Hope, so now her services are just going in a different capacity, according to new client scheduler Paula Meece.

"She has really done so much for Fair Hope these last 15 years," Meece said of Roberta.

Roberta said there would be times a case worker called, even when they were on vacation in Hawaii, and said a mother or someone needed help right away. There would be special appointments for the emergency need.

Jim said a particular client sticks out in his mind over the years. Case manager Cindy Rokosch had brought a young woman to get clothes and items at Fair Hope's previous building.

"When they were getting ready to leave, (the client) said 'how much do I owe you?'," Jim said. The woman was shocked to find out that she owed nothing, the items were free.

The lady then cried, and they asked her what was wrong?

The woman said "since it was free, now I can buy food for my family."

"That's been so many things like that have happened," Jim said. "That just sticks with me as a high mountain top of what we do here."

"We've really enjoyed it," Roberta said about helping families.

Roberta said in addition to remaining a board member, she'll volunteer where they need her and she is chairwoman of the history committee putting together the organization's history.

"We're not leaving yet," she said.

Fair Hope started as an outreach ministry in 2004 by founding members Jan Reeder and John Prather.

In 2005, the Bowman Avenue United Methodist Church offered its unoccupied parsonage for Fair Hope's use. In August 2020, Fair Hope inventory was moved to the former George's Buffet building that was donated to the organization. Moving from an unused, three level parsonage with stairs, to a one level, 9,000 square foot building, was a great achievement, according to the organization. Many volunteer hours were spent renovating the Voorhees Street building for Fair Hope's use.

Now the space is filled with clothes for newborns up to those 18 years of age. There are car seats, pack and plays, strollers, shirts, pants, dresses, shoes, pajamas, underwear, socks, coats and hats ready for winter and other items such as books and toys.

The building also includes a place to cut children's hair when they have a volunteer hairdresser, a check out area (named for Reeder), washing machine and dryer, kitchenette, board meeting room, area for sorting donations and storage of overflow inventory, and children's play area while their caregivers pick out clothing. Roberta painted a tree and mural on the wall for the play area. The board is hopeful maybe barber students at Danville Area Community College will help cut children's hair at Fair Hope.

Client appointments for Fair Hope can be scheduled on Mondays and Thursdays by a social worker, minister or pastor or local service agency such as Love INC, Your Family Resource Connection, iGrow or Salvation Army.

Last year, Fair Hope served 1,412 children. Volunteer hours were 8,311.