When Danita Reed first heard about Family Promise, she wanted to be involved.
“It sounded like something I wanted to be a part of,” she says. “I liked the concept.”
Since November, Danita has been volunteering as an administrative assistant one day each week in the office of Family Promise’s Day House, usually working on Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon or longer. “I enjoy it,” she says.
Before Family Promise had guests, Danita set up files, made copies for binders, and generally helped get all of the paperwork organized. She set up some of the information on computer spreadsheets (“I hadn’t done that in forever,” she laughs).
When the Day House first received guests, she spent some of her time visiting with them. Now most of them are away at their jobs during the day.
Danita also answers the phone, vacuums and dusts as needed, and recently made a run to Office Depot to get a printer cartridge. Sometimes staff members leave her a list of things to do.
Danita attends West Ridge Community Church, along with her husband, Justin, and their three teenage children. Family Promise is the first organization (other than her children’s suburban schools) that she has volunteered for on a weekly basis.
Danita says she has a heart for people struggling with hunger and homelessness.
“I can relate,” she says.
When she was young, her dad didn’t make enough to support their family, so her mom worked weekends at McDonald’s to pay the bills. Then when Danita was six years old, her mom left her dad. Danita’s mom struggled to provide for Danita and her little sister as a single parent.
“I remember breaking up our piggy bank to get some food,” Danita says. They lived with her grandparents at times. “If we wouldn’t have had family to take us in, we would have been homeless,” she says.
Ironically, the Family Promise Day House is on Chautauqua Street, just a few blocks from an apartment some extended family members lived in and Danita visited as a child, and not far from her grandparents’ old house, so each week she revisits part of her past.
Seeing the Family Promise guests working so hard to provide basic necessities for their children—just as her own mother did—makes her grateful for what she has.
“Sometimes you can let stuff in your own life get big,” she says. “This helps me keep perspective.”
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Day House and office volunteers are a crucial part of our mission to help families get back on their feet.
You can join us! A variety of shifts are available. Sign up today.
Family Promise of Greater Wichita unites hearts and hands to provide compassionate hospitality and empower homeless families with children to achieve sustainable independence. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
