Yvonne understands the true value of education and is moved to contribute not only to her own family but to other children as well.

I think there’s a thing that when you go to a school of higher learning your thinking changes …You find a much more human person than you do if you find a person that’s uneducated. I can see it in my grandchildren. When you’re talking you can almost see the wheels in their little minds going around; young children, particularly. Then you see some children whose parents aren’t interested and you even try, like I buy some tickets for the various circuses and things and give them to the children so they can go to the circus to see that. I’ve given some to children that their parents don’t even bother to take them.

Service to the Family

Charity begins at home and service to the family is often the first step in service to the community. As with Yvonne, participants have been active in taking responsibility for the sick, the neglected and the helpless first in their families and then in the community. At 15 years of age, Laurie not only took in and raised her brother after her father had abused both of them but later cared for her abusive father when he became terminally ill with cancer. During the time when Rita started going to adult classes, she was raising her three granddaughters because

their mother wasn’t like a mother should have been. A couple of my daughters brought them to me to keep them until she thought that she could be a mother for them. They were very young and all of this was supposed to be temporary, but I wound up keeping the girls until they became teenagers. I really had it kind of tough with those three kids. They weren’t getting enough welfare money. They gave me a few food stamps for them. But, gosh, three girls, and they were going to be taken care of. I got a part-time job. It would help.

Florine is currently caring for two of her grandchildren while Joy is raising her grandson in addition to her own seven children. Odessa is an assistant pastor, a youth advisor, and visits the sick and shut-ins of her church. She has the custodial care of a mentally challenged niece who was widowed and became homeless when her husband passed away. She also cares for an adult son who experienced a mentally damaging injury. She is not the only participant to take responsibility for siblings’ children. Monica raised nine nieces and nephews while between them Ed and Lisa cared for 22 foster children. Della expresses the satisfaction she gets from the

fact that I’m able to take on four extra kids (I have my sister’s kids now). And I went from two to six. Those are things I am proud of. I don’t take credit for it. I give God all the glory because he gives me the strength to make it through another day. Those are the things that I am proud of. Just being a functional person in society.

Kathleen’s Story

In 1991 when Kathleen enrolled in a GED program, she was a single mother with a daughter and a son who had Menkes Syndrome, a rare disease in which a common cold can easily develop into life-threatening pneumonia. Due to her son’s handicap, Kathleen was a stay-at-home mom. When her son was strong enough to go to school, she volunteered in his classroom assisting the teacher to conduct range of motion exercises with her son and other students. As a member of the Home and School Association, she then expanded her volunteer role to working in the community.