It Happened in Crawford County: Beverly Morgan has a heart for helping others

Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part column.

Beverly Morgan is a daughter of George Ghist and Rosabelle (Rosie) Peterson Ghist. Rosie later married Cletus Banks. Beverly’s siblings are Anita Shackelford (See her 2023 story) and Mark Ghist. Beverly attended elementary school at Kearsley and when the question came up why she wouldn’t sit still, she said she was born on Spring Street and raised on Jump Street.

While attending high school she worked at Struble Drugs in the prescription department, and she was also in the Pep Club and choir. It was a bad decision when she was placed in business education/secretarial training. Her teacher asked her why she enrolled in those classes, as her skills were in totally different directions. She made the best of it and graduated in 1970 from Bucyrus High School.

Following graduation, Beverly went to F. and S. Engraving as a silk screener and off-set printer. Then in 1976 she started working at Mohican Outdoor School in Loudonville. It was wonderful working with the kids, studying alternative energy, wildflower and tree identification, pioneer cooking — all classes she loved teaching. The kids came from all over the state for a one-week stay. During the blizzard of ‘78, they were snowed in for two extra days. It so happened that some kids were from very affluent families from Cleveland. They thought the parents should arrange for a helicopter to fly in and get them. She also had a group of "regular kids" from Northmor Local Schools in Morrow County. Beverly helped all of them understand they were "going to share" food and anything else for their comforts. They quickly learned everything was shut down.

Beverly left the job with the outdoor school in 1979 to take another job with Richland County Children Services. She supervised a group home for dependent, neglected and abused children. She was the bridge to independence; they had to learn life skills, checking accounts, job applications, washing clothes — the basic life skills. They came to Beverly as "throwaway kids." Nobody had been able to manage them before. They had to learn how to develop relationships. They liked her, and she felt good about helping them evolve. Some of them are currently Facebook friends, and she gets to see their grandbabies.

Beverly was a certified trainer for the state for childcare workers. During that time, she was also involved one night a week with a support group for teen sexual abuse victims. Once a month they put the offenders, the victims and parents in a big group. It was the roughest night of the month. She also was trained to be an instructor for the high and low ropes course at Cape Abraham to build confidence, teamwork and problem-solving skills.

While Beverly was searching for opportunities to enrich the kids’ lives, they started taking classes at the Mansfield Art Center. Naturally, she took classes with them, and that’s when she fell in love with pottery. She ended up paying for classes so she could continue to "play in the clay." Soon after, the opportunity to do social outreach for the YWCA opened. Basically, the job was the same work as before, but with adult women on the welfare system. Beverly taught life skills, helped them get GEDs and provided day care service for them along with job-readiness skills. The YWCA also worked with teen parents — the same training but also learning how to finish school, too.

Beverly felt blessed because the businesses sought her out for the jobs. She never had to apply for one except when she first started working. Beverly also got married to William Morgan and her daughter, Emilee, was born in 1982.

Things changed dramatically in August 1994. While in Shamanic training, she had a vision regarding the Lakota people, and she was then invited to her first Lakota Ceremony in Plymouth, Ohio. In 1995 she went to Rosebud Reservation in Mission, South Dakota, and attended her first Sundance. She has been dancing there for 25 years since, except in 2022 when her health wouldn’t let her participate.

Sometime in 1996, Beverly also became attuned to Reiki as master teacher; it’s a universal life force energy. Reiki is designed to facilitate a person’s healing. In other words, she helps move energy so one can heal themselves. Her clients are mostly people who come to her asking for guidance and balance. It’s an honor to be of service to them. Also in 1996, she had another baby — Rose Willow Buckelew — and then Beverly took time to be with her.

Then, from 1998 thru 2001, the YMCA called Beverly back as the director of the program for social outreach for women and running programs for teenagers, much like she did earlier. We’ll end this section of Beverly’s life and follow up next week, part two, as she gets started in another chapter when she moves to Colorado.

Go online for more of Mary Fox’s stories and photos on bucyrustelegraphforum.com. If you are interested in sharing a story, write Mary Fox, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820 or email littlefoxfactory@columbus.rr.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Beverly Morgan's lifetime of service to others