Perry Volunteer Outreach: A manifestation of Christian love

The words on the Web page for Perry Volunteer Outreach don’t begin to tell the whole story on the non-profit charity established in 2000. In matter-of-fact style the story is told of its work in emergency financial assistance for housing, utilities and medical needs. What the words don’t tell – and can’t tell – are the Houston County lives made better by the unselfish giving of time, effort and skill from ordinary people.

“The Lord just used me to facilitate something he wanted done,” says Frank Shelton, the unassuming director of the group.

In its 15-plus years of existence, the outreach has been a manifestation of Christian giving as it has helped repair old houses, warehouse old appliances and give them to people in need of them, and come to the aid of people in dire need of financial assistance.

Occasionally, Shelton says, people donate automobiles. “Most of them we give away, and a couple we keep,” he says.

Shelton, who shies away from any publicity, said that when he retired he decided to help people in need “in the location where I lived,” and the outreach was born. Those needing help just have to ask, and if the need is determined to be legitimate, PVO would try to help, no matter what. Others notice the good that is being done and in turn volunteer to help. It’s a deceptively simple but powerful program.

Currently, about 15 local churches send the program a check every month. All support for the outreach comes from the Christian community.

“They’re very generous, and they’ll help each other, and they want to help people,” Shelton said.

When others see the outreach in action, they want to get involved and be a part of it.

One such program called PAL, or Project Agape Love, gave away boxes of food but was ready to shut down for lack of donations about 10 years ago. They approached the outreach and asked if it would take over. It did and the food donation continues to this day, to the tune of 500 food boxes every year around Christmas.

The outreach can figure out how to perform its work in a simple but cost effective fashion.

Churches are asked to either give food or donate funds for the food. Big churches and smaller churches. The outreach believes that everybody wants to help, to feed hungry people at Christmastime, and then assembles the different entities to make it possible.

Kids Yule Love is well-known in this area, and the outreach found a way to help the charity spread its goodness beyond Warner Robins.

It registered 150 families, asked the community to help with buying toys for the children. The hospital takes 40 families, The Westfield School takes about 45 families, Walker Insurance Agency takes 10 families, and so on. They go out and purchase the toys and put them in a bag.

The registration form has a number which is then written on the bag of toys. The mothers come in with the number on the registration form, match it to the bag of toys and take the bag home. It’s a situation of the community taking care of its own, a simple but powerful situation.

It begins with a wheelchair ad

One day soon after the outreach began, a woman advertised a wheelchair she wanted to sell. She lived in an apartment not far from the outreach office, and they went to her place and knocked on the door. After explaining who they were, though, she still wouldn’t let them in her apartment. “I’m afraid to let you in,” she said. The outreach volunteer said they would be back with a woman to try to calm her fears. The woman lived all alone, her husband had passed away and she didn’t appear to have any friends. She was so fearful and didn’t go anywhere, but finally let outreach people in her place. “I’m absolutely so lonely, don’t have a church to go to and my husband has died,” she said. The outreach wondered if there were others in the community who find themselves in a similar situation and decided to do something about it.

So, a game day was created about 10 years ago, a bingo game where one had to be at least 55 years old to attend – no children allowed – and meet out at Rozier Park. A group of volunteers fix them a little lunch. The game starts around 10 a.m., they play until noon, eat lunch, then an invited person gives them a talk about religion or personal health, and then they continue to play bingo for prizes that mainly come from the “10 for $1” bins at stores. Many are necessities for cleaning up the home or snacks. The main thing is senior citizens have a place to go for fun and fellowship. They have church on Sundays and bingo on Wednesdays, and they love it.

Older people can at times behave like children and fuss. The outreach gets plenty of calls in December when the bingo games are temporarily halted. One caller said she was having “bingo withdrawal” and asked for the game to go on as usual.

But one can see 50 to 75 seniors having fun, socializing and occasional winning a prize on Wednesdays. But even the most sincere of helping hands can sometimes come up short. The woman who advertised the wheelchair which started the bingo game day at Rozier Park eventually was overcome with her loneliness and committed suicide.

Taxi service

Public transportation or even taxis just don’t exist in Perry. The outreach provides rides free of charge for those who need to go somewhere like the grocery store or a doctor’s office or the Phoenix Center. A couple of donated cars in “pretty good shape” help fill the need with the help of – what else? – volunteer drivers who pick up those needing a ride, take them to their destination and take them back home when they need it. Most of the appointments are in Warner Robins, but callers have to be from Ga. Highway 96 on down. The drivers are Grace Village residents, which is a story in itself.

Grace Village

Perry had no homeless shelter. Using experience in contracting, the outreach figured out costs in labor and materials and came up with a $1.5 million total needed for a shelter that would work. Also, it contacted James Donald, then director of prisons in Georgia, who asked if the outreach would be willing to take in women prisoners who had just been released. Donald came to Perry, talked to outreach and decided, “We can do this.” Donald then left for Atlanta and called back to say, “We’ve got a problem.” It seems that prison labor could not be used to aid a private entity. The outreach talked to city officials about a shelter. They at first resisted but then relented and said they would take ownership of the facility. The land was donated and the facility, Grace Village, was built. The outreach runs it and the city just owns it. With the city owning the facility, funds became available through grants. A HUD grant was written and $500,000 was awarded to build the facility. More funds were raised by selling sponsorships for rooms or furniture. Grace Village opened in 2010, and the outreach proudly notes, it is debt-free. Already paid for.

Most of the women at the village are just released from prison and are using their time there to get on their feet again. “Most of the women who go to prison find that when they’re released their job is gone, their kids are gone, their family is gone, she has no automobile; she’s just released.” The outreach finds the women a job, manages their money for them until they get enough funds to get a place on their own. It’s not easy, but it works.

The outreach went through the same process as above to build Abba House, a drug rehabilitation facility. But that’s another story to be told later. As with Grace Village, it is a debt-free facility.

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