As the founder of The HOPE Center, I have always believed that businesses have an incredible opportunity to have ACTIVE roles in transforming communities. During my early years with Marriott, I saw first-hand how this company reached the communities in which they served. I wanted more companies to use their influence to do just that…to IMPACT lives. I believe that some of the very best minds in th
e world operate within businesses and that given the right forum, business leaders can encourage and train their staff to use their talents to be the change agent in communities. I believe that if business leaders would develop this aspect of their people, they would deepen the employees satisfaction on the job. After spending 30 years in Denver (where I raised my two daughters as a single mother working in food and nutrition, leadership and sales & last in the a community restaurant that I launched), I moved to North Florida in the areas of Suwanee, Hamilton and Colombia Counties, to expand the non-profit I lead on God’s command. I knew and have known that this unique non-profit would transform communities worldwide with global partnerships of HOPE and believed that we can make a difference TOGETHER if we could change the way people think before expecting changed results. At the same time, I believe that there is something for everyone in a community outreach including many diverse ways to bring value to all of our lives, through possibly learning a new skill, joining a group, teaching business and entrepreneurship, launching mentoring programs for young and old, and even connecting youth to Veterans. I hold a strong belief that we are lacking COMMUNITY today and so have I have created programs that center on the belief that “it takes a village” to change lives. So in 2017, I left Denver with the founder of the non-profit, (Hedges and Highway Outreach Ministries, Inc.) In the years prior to my leading and expanding Hedges and Highway Outreach Ministries, Inc., I experienced a heightened awareness to the real issues like hunger (in the richest country in the world), child trafficking, school shootings and the plight of the elderly haunted me. I knew that I had to do SOMETHING. God had led me to join a man who had similar passions and had just founded a non-profit. Although he and I are very different, came from the extreme opposite ways of life (I grew up with middle class parents, teachers and he came from the projects of Miami, with extreme trauma and hardships in his life) I built his non-profit business plan, went back to Denver Seminary to train as a Chaplain and in clinical mental health and founded a community restaurant. Together, our Denver restaurant was thriving, hitting a million dollars in 10 months and generating publicity from even FOX News as they followed our work! Well, just a year after we opened, when all seemed to be going great, God nudged us to let someone else run the restaurant and commanded us to leave Denver and to DO MORE. It was time to partner with others, yet we had no idea what that would look like. So, with the belief that God was calling me to DO MORE, I put all of my items in storage (they are still in Denver TODAY!), packed 1 suitcase and boarded a plane to North Florida, where God seemed to be leading me. I left Denver in 2017 with the founder of the non-profit, (Hedges and Highway Outreach Ministries, Inc.) HOPE Centers are only made possible in communities by a sponsoring business or group of businesses that desire a PLATFORM to bring their visions to life for the people in their areas. Each HOPE Center will be unique to the people, the visionaries who launch it and the leaders who lend their creative voices to create the programs within it! For this reason, we want to CELEBRATE with North Florida Pediatrics for being committed to brining people to wholeness, one person, one child, one community at a time!
