Captains Derrick and Odessa Smith not only talk the talk, but they walk the walk when it comes to the local Salvation Army.
The husband-and-wife team have led the local organization for the past few years, and they’ve been instrumental during the recent move to its brand-new location at 2292 Ross Mill Road.
According to the latest annual report, the local Salvation Army served almost 15,000 people in 2020. The Smiths talked with John C. Rose on Thursday’s Town Talk about how the organization has fared during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as some of its long-range goals.
“It’s crazy to think we were able to reach that many people,” Odessa Smith said. The Henderson branch serves six counties – Vance, Granville, Franklin, Warren, Northampton and Halifax – and sometimes, they see people from outside Vance County. “Our goal would be to reach all six counties in the future,” she said, “but there is so much need in Vance County (and) we can only do what we can do.”
At the height of the pandemic, when children were not at school, Odessa Smith said more families came to get food during the popular food distribution events.
In addition, the new facility was able to quickly pivot to provide a place for parents to take their children during the day and complete their remote instruction.
“The biggest way we served people was our food box giveaways,” she said. The distribution events swelled to several times a month during 2020, but have since returned to monthly events, she added.
Derrick said between 200-300 cars regularly drive through to pick up food boxes, which contain provisions from the Food Bank of Central North Carolina in Durham as well as from local donations.
Now that children are back in school, Odessa said they are seeing fewer families and more elderly people coming to pick up food boxes.
Usually, the food box giveaways occur on the third Thursday of each month, but January’s distribution will take place Wednesday, Jan. 19, beginning at 1 p.m. Derrick recommends that people arrive as early as possible. Some people start lining up as early as 9 a.m., he said. “It is a task, at times, to keep cars out of the road,” Derrick said. “We utilize all our parking lot on those days.”
He thanked volunteers for helping make that food distribution run so smoothly, from those who come in and prepare the boxes to other individuals who help out on the day of the event. He also thanked all the individuals and groups who volunteered to ring the bell during the Christmas Kettle campaign.
The Smiths are able to walk the walk and talk the talk out in the community these days, largely because they know that the Red Shield Club and the day-to-day operations are under the capable supervision of Gina Eaves. Eaves joined as club director in May 2021.
“That’s made such a difference for us,” Odessa said. “We can go out into the community and rest assured, the club is taken care of and in good hands. She is the prime spokesperson for the Salvation Army. She believes in our mission…the Christian mission of the Salvation Army. We were so blessed to be able to bring her on, she added.
The mission of the Salvation Army is “to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.”
Derrick and Odessa say their organization is doing just that, and their efforts take many forms: from serving 75-100 children at the Red Shield Club after-school program to providing clothing vouchers for someone in need of clothing for a job interview.
“Folks are coming in for different things,” Derrick said. The community continues to be generous, he continued.
“I think it’s amazing – just when we think we don’t have the resources,” he said, something good happens.
The Salvation Army thrift store provides a revenue stream to support local programs, too. For each dollar that is spent at the store, located on Raleigh Road, 85 cents goes back into the community.
“As we are blessed, we are going to bless others in the community,” he said.
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