A worsening economy, a growing homeless population, and exponential growth in the Crosby-Huffman area have increased the pressure on Churches United In Caring to keep up with demand.
The need to fulfill their mission of helping has forced the organization to reevaluate their volunteers- only policy and look for help. They found it in their backyard.
“We have some faithful volunteers who come in and do their two or three hours a week and they’re gone and that’s fine,” said Board Vice President Shirley Ellisor. But there’s also a group of volunteers who have been pulled into a near full-time job.
“We’re all getting older and none of us want to do that,” she said.
The problem, and it’s a good one at that, is that they continue to grow, receiving more donations than ever, the thrift store is selling more, but the need from the community has also grown considerably.
“We have toyed with the idea of how in the world we could get a coordinator to lead and organize the volunteers and run the ministry,” Ellisor said. Up until now they have resisted the idea of salaried positions outside of a cashier for consistency’s sake, putting every penny they could back into the ministry and meeting needs.
On Friday morning, August 9, 2024, they made history announcing the hiring of Lee Ann Lockwood as their first coordinator to run the ministry.
“We’ll mentor her through the next several months to get her prepared to take over the reins completely,” Ellisor said.
Instead of waiting to secure a grant to pay for her salary, a group of private donors have stepped up with the funds to get them through the next six months.
“Never would I have ever believed that I would find myself in this position,” Lockwood said gratefully, “but it is going to be fun working with people whose vision is aligned with my same values.”
Lockwood comes by the ministry work from her grandfather and parents.
“My grandfather retired from Exxon,” she said, “and he was looking for something to do. He found his niche at CUIC.”
When Thomas “TJ” Denson volunteered, Exxon would match his hours with a grant and with it, he was able to get the freezers that helped them start the food pantry.
Her mom Dee Ann, a retired Crosby ISD teacher, is also a regular volunteer at the charity. She oversees the toys that come in through donations.
Lockwood worked in a juvenile detention center following graduation from college, and then a stint at the Star of Hope, and then KMCO in Crosby until they closed their doors and reorganized.
While she was unemployed, she found what she thought might be her lifetime legacy working at a youth camp in Colorado, but when that didn’t work out, she returned home to seek God’s will.
“My heart has always been in social work and helping others. I am, exactly where God wants me to be,” she said.
She has background working with the homeless ministry at First Baptist Church in Crosby for a season, and now she feels like God has been preparing her for this ministry.
“She walked in one day (to volunteer at CUIC) and I asked her how the job hunt was coming,” Ellisor said, and she hadn’t found anything, but she ended her conversation with Ellisor by telling her, “My heart is so here.”
It was the key that Ellisor and the board wanted to hear.
“She has phenomenal skills to help us including working with the computer,” Ellisor said.
Lock wood went to school at Crosby and grew up here until 1983 when she moved to Humble and graduated from there. She went to Sam Houston State University and earned a degree in corrections and criminology.
Meeting obligations at home was tough on the juvenile detention center salary as a single mom so she pivoted and went to work for KMCO for 24 years before the reorganization of the company.
While she was laid off, she was encouraged to come down to CUIC and volunteer. The rest is history.
“They had a need. I had a need, and it just happened to be that could help meet their need,” she said.
As for now, Lockwood said her first objective is to look for more volunteer help to handle the increasing demand of clothing, toys, and other donations.
“They’ve been around for a long time, so I don’t see changing a lot of procedures. They’re a very well-organized machine. I’ll be out in the community trying to find more volunteers and organizations to come in and give us a hand,” she said.
Next Saturday, August 17, is National Thrift Store Day and Lockwood said they plan on celebrating the event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with plenty of blue light specials throughout the day in all departments.
Want to volunteer? Call Lockwood at the office from Tuesday to Saturday after 9 a.m. at 281-328-3178 or visit their Facebook page at HYPERLINK “https://www.facebook.com/churchesunitedincaring/” https://www.facebook.com/churchesunitedincaring/