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First Baptist Church Zephyrhills

Helping others at the holidays, and all year-long

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As the holidays approach — a big holiday meal — can help create a festive feel.

But, for some families, those kind of feasts are beyond their financial reach.

Jackie Smack, a volunteer with the Neighborhood Care Center, places a pair of pants on a hanger, and works them onto the rack inside the center’s clothing department. Smack has been volunteering at the center for five years. She said she feels blessed to help others in need. (Christine Holtzman)

That’s where The Neighborhood Care Center, in Zephyrhills, comes in.

It has been helping families at the holidays — and throughout the year — for more than two decades.

During the holidays, the care center seeks to help its recipients have the makings of a traditional holiday meal. For Thanksgiving, for instance, it plans to provide families with a frozen ham or chicken, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn muffin mix, and pies. At Christmas, it provides recipients with turkey and all of the trimmings. Last year, it gave away 125 turkeys during the holidays.

But, helping others at the holidays is just a small part of what The Neighborhood Care Center does.

The organization sees a need and tries to address it.

“There’s always been a big problem of people not having everything they need – not having the money to buy it,” said Leanne Bickford, the nonprofit’s director, and also a volunteer.

The First Baptist Church in Zephyrhills began the initiative in 1993 to combat hunger and other dire circumstances that Zephyrhills residents face.

Now, a quarter-century later, the care center is still going strong.

It has an open pantry on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Each room at the center is stocked to address specific needs.

Children’s toys take up a portion of the bottom shelf of stacked canned goods, inside the warehouse of the Neighborhood Care Center. The canned goods on these shelves are reserved for the recipients of the center, to provide the makings of a Thanksgiving meal. The items consist mostly of canned pumpkin, pineapple, apple, and yams.

There’s a place for nonperishable foods and frozen meats. And, places for toys, furniture, clothing, tools, kitchen appliances and hygiene products.

Care center volunteers pride themselves on quality control, when it comes to accepting donations, Bickford said.

“My motto that I’ve tried to drill into everybody is ‘If you wouldn’t put it in your house, don’t take it’,” the director said.

The pantry relies solely on donations.

The contributions come from churches, local organizations and individuals —  including snowbirds.

Most of the food items come from the National Association of Letter Carriers food drive which occurs in May. That supply typically lasts until September.

Other donations come from Meals on Wheels, Panera Bread and Publix.

Dozens of gently used men’s, women’s and children’s shoes are neatly arranged on metal racks in the center’s shoe department.

Food is distributed as quickly as it comes in.

And, on any given day, 50 people or more may show up to receive furniture or clothing.

The service area for the center is restricted to Zephyrhills, because it can’t meet the needs of the entire county.

Beneficiaries must apply to receive items, but exceptions are made for homeless people who lack proper documents and photo IDs.

Sometimes the help goes beyond donated items, Bickford said.

“We’re not a full-fledged food pantry,” Bickford explained. “We are for emergency purposes – if they’re between food stamps or they come down from up north with nothing.”

When people are short on funds for utility and electric bills, or prescriptions, the care center can help to cover the expenses.

“I’ve had a mother come in with one child and they’re getting $350 worth of food stamps,” Bickford said. “Something is not right with this picture.”

Various churches allocate funds to the nonprofit in order to provide this assistance.

When the care center is unable to provide needed help, it makes referrals to other organizations, such as The Samaritan Project or The Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Volunteers Jackie Smack, left, and Leanne Bickford, who is also the center’s director, take a break from sorting the day’s donated items.

It also directs people to Zephyr Park to receive hot meals from local churches.

Bickford tries to get the word out about the care center when she speaks at various establishments, or in her daily encounters with strangers.

In addition to holiday meals, the care center also helps families to have happy holidays in other ways.

As Christmas approaches, the care center will host a Kids Shopping Day.

The Dec. 7 event, from 9 a.m. to noon, allows youth to pick out gifts for their parents.

Care center volunteers are hoping for a big turn-out to that event.

In the long-term, the goal is to find a bigger building to facilitate the growing number of donations.

Bickford put it like this: “There’s a big need, and I’m glad that we’re here to help (fill) that void.”

In helping others, she emphasizes the importance of preserving the recipients’ dignity.

“I keep telling people, ‘We need to treat these people the same way you want to be treated, because we never know when we could be coming in that door looking for help.

“We might be volunteering here right now, but you don’t know what’s in store tomorrow,” Bickford said.

For further information, call the care center at (813) 780-6822.

Helping others in need
Where: The Neighborhood Care Center, 5140 Sixth St., Zephyrhills
When: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon
Details: Zephyrhills residents in need can find an array of free items, including  food, clothes, kitchen supplies and furniture at the center.
Info: Call (813) 780-6822.

Published November 27, 2019

Sharing the story of women’s progress

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Madonna Jervis Wise, a local author who writes primarily about history, has been making the rounds lately, talking about women in the work force and “East Pasco Women Who Rocked.”

Women played an important role in munitions factories during World War 1.
(Courtesy of Madonna Jervis Wise)

Her talks, which have been delivered at the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village in Dade City, at the East Pasco Networking Group’s breakfast meeting and at the Zephyrhills Public Library, have traced the evolving role of women in society.

The essence of her presentation traces the progress that women have made since ancient times to the present.

First, she delivers an overview of women in history and then she focuses on the contributions of seven East Pasco women.

While delivering her talk at the East Pasco Networking Group, Wise said she keeps her mother and grandmother in mind.

Irene Davis Dobson was a founding member the Head Start Early Childhood program in Pasco County, and also active in programs aimed at creating awareness of contributions of African-Americans throughout Florida and across the country.

“My mother was Depression-era woman who worked most of her life. My grandmother was equally as industrious,” she said.

“As we go through the presentation, please stop and think about the women in your life.

“Right now, we have 72 million women in the American workforce. That’s 30 million more than 1984, and women roughly make up about 50 percent of the workforce,” she said.

Despite their large numbers in the work force, women still trail men in terms of pay, Wise noted. Women receive approximately 81 percent of what men are paid, she said. And, only 14 percent of the executive positions in Fortune 500 companies are held by women.

There has been progress, however, compared to opportunities for women in the past.

“Women weren’t allowed to participate in any capacity, throughout most of history —in terms of speaking, political involvement, certainly not leadership,” Wise said.

“In the American colonies, women didn’t own property and certainly didn’t vote,” she said.

“I do a lot of genealogy. Sometimes you don’t even find the woman’s first name in genealogy.”

Bernice Rooks was in the first class at the University of South Florida. She was student No. 18. After graduating, she taught for 29 years.

Census data from the 19th century shows blank spaces for occupations because women’s work was not recorded, Wise said.

Women’s role in the world of work has evolved over time, she said.

“By the 1820s, women were starting to go into the textile mills. Pay was about $3 a week.

By the early 19th century, women still were mostly involved in domestic services, laundry, cooking, cleaning, some teaching, nursing, she said.

But she noted, women’s opportunities have expanded significantly — even during her own lifetime.

“I remember when I was in school. They’d say, ‘Are you going to be a secretary, nurse or a teacher?’,” Wise said.

Madonna Jervis Wise has been giving talks about women’s progress at various venues during Women’s History Month.
(B.C. Manion)

Women now have more career choices. They can belong to civic clubs that once banned them. And, there are more opportunities in athletics and the military, Wise said.

For generations, East Pasco women have played pivotal roles in expanding opportunities for the entire community, Wise said. She singled out these seven:

• Irene Dobson: She came from a large family and picked cotton as a child. She taught school in Georgia and later in Dade City, and was a founding member the Head Start Early Childhood program in Pasco County. She has been very active in the community and has helped to organize African-American programs to teach new generations about the contributions of African Americans in Florida and across the country.

  • Bernice Rooks: Even at age 94, she remains active in the community. She was the valedictorian of the 1940 class at Zephyrhills High School. She worked at MacDill Air Force Base and was a school bus driver. When the University of South Florida opened in 1958, she enrolled, becoming student No. 18. She graduated and taught for 29 years. She is also known for the family business, the Crystal Springs Roller Skating Rink which opened in 1939 just before World War II. For 35 cents, you could skate all day.
  • Lorena Leatherman Neukom: Known as Neukie and her husband, Charles, opened the iconic Neukom’s Drug Store drugstore in 1921. The store closed in 2001. She was in charge of payroll, buying and keeping the books until she was 93. The drugstore was a popular place for politicians, snowbirds and local residents.
  • Rosemary Wallace Trottman: She was a widely known educator and researcher. She published “The History of Zephyrhills; 1821-1921.” She founded the Zephyrhills Historical Association. Her research revealed the effects of the railroad on the community and detailed the colonial years of East Pasco, in which the day-to-day activities of the settlers involved log-rolling, sugar-caning, subsistence farming and the beginning of unique institutions. Her father was a pioneer settler of Abbott Station.
  • Willa Rice: She has the distinction of being first and only female mayor of Zephyrhills. After being voted into office in 1958, she revamped the police department by firing two of the department’s five policemen and accepting the resignation of the police chief.
  • Margarita Romo: Her work to champion the causes of of farmworkers in Pasco County and around the state led to her being named to the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2012 & Hispanic Woman of the Year. She is founder of Farmers Self-Help, Inc., and has worked diligently for more than 40 years to help farmworkers help themselves.
  • Jean McClain Murphy: Most recently she was the 2017 Zephyrhills Founder’s Day Grand Marshal. She was an educator with Pasco County Schools. Known for her beautiful singing voice, she taught taught “Glee Club” at the high school level for six years. She remains the singing director at her Rotary Club, and has served as choir director for five different choral groups at the First Baptist Church in Zephyrhills.

Revised March 22, 2017