Beauty For Ashes Spotlight : Mrs. Mamie Reid

The Beginning

Mrs. Mamie Reid has devoted her life to her family, career, and her community. Originally from Laurens, South Carolina, Mrs. Reid now resides in Simpsonville, South Carolina. She married Mr. Calvin Reid on August 5, 1972, and recently celebrated 51 years of marital bliss.    Their union produced two beautiful children, Andre (deceased) and Channon. 

Mrs. Reid’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Pathology with a minor in Psychology from South Carolina State University. She also received a Master’s in Personnel Services from Clemson University. After obtaining her degrees, Mrs. Reid worked in the Greenville County School District as a Speech Pathologist.  Her career path, later led her to Greenville Technical College where she worked as a Counselor for 26 years, before retiring. Mrs. Reid knew that she wanted to continue working, but in a different capacity. It was then that she decided to dedicate her life to community and service. 

Community Service

Mrs. Reid’s career within the Greenville County School and love of life helped shape her path in community service. Her passion for serving led her to develop and support many programs for children, healthy living, and seniors. Mrs. Reid formed the Ministry Development at Shady Grove Baptist Church in Pelzer, South Carolina. In this role she oversees, several ministries and is the community liaison for her church. Within the community she spearheaded the Riley Child Development Center Program that reads to children, provides gifts to teachers and school supplies. This program is ongoing. Another reading program that Mrs. Reid assisted with is, Building Dreams in The Community through Clemson University. This program was established for children with incarcerated parents. She is also, heavily involved in The Play and Learn Program. It was designed and developed to give children an appreciation of reading. She loves devoting her gifts and talents to students from every walk of life. 

To make sure members are focusing on healthy living and eating, Mrs. Reid oversees the LiveWell Greenville Program at her church. The church members are able to receive fresh vegetables from Shady Grove’s Community Garden. She also helped establish a Care Givers Support group for members caring for loved ones. 

In 2006, Mrs. Reid organized the Alzheimer’s Walk for Shady Grove Baptist Church. The walk takes place every year on September 30^th in Downtown Greenville. Mrs. Reid shared with me, that for being the top fund-raising Faith Based Organization in South Carolina in 2023, she will receive the Carroll Campbell~ You Make A Difference Award. 

The Community Partnership

In 2018, Pastor Hebert Edwards Jr. asked the Shady Grove congregation if they could bring in toys to support the Beauty For Ashes Toy Drive for kids, from the  Piedmont Manor( Housing Area) in Greenville, South Carolina. After the toy drive, Mrs. Reid contacted Pastor Kim Adams and a partnership was formed. She wanted to know what the next project was for Beauty For Ashes and what she could do to help. Once again Mrs. Reid partnered with the organization to provide packages for the homeless, hats, gloves and throw blankets for seniors, as well as packages for the mentally ill.

 
The Beauty For Ashes Community – Love Connection

In 2022, a vision was birthed to focus on children throughout our communities. The Beauty for Ashes Organization formed partnerships with several local churches in order to make this happen. We launched our 2022 #UMATTER Christmas Community Love Project and the response was beautifully amazing. We focused on several underserved schools and decided to adopt them. One of the schools adopted was, Grove Elementary where Mrs. Reid’s daughter Channon Reid is a 2^nd grade teacher. The students were given hats, journals, pens, special love letters and other special gifts and treats. The teachers were given $100 gift cards. After completing the 2022 #UMATER project, it was decided that more could be done for the school. In 2023, Beauty For Ashes adopted the entire Grove Elementary School to help fulfill their needs. Minister Kim Adams met with school officials to find out priority needs for the students. The priority was a food bank for the students to have access to food, whenever needed. Mrs. Reid was asked to be the Ambassador for Beauty For Ashes, to get the food bank set up. She sprang into action and reached out to a contact at LiveWell to find the assistance needed to make this food bank project happen.. A true angel was located and we are forever grateful.

Minister Alfred Johnson leaped into action and within a few days, a call was placed to Grove Elementary School to let them know,  that the program had been funded. Minister Alfred Johnson purchased can goods, meats and other supplies from The Food Lion Grocery Chain and built shelving to properly store the food. 

Thank you Mrs. Mamie Reid and Minister Alfred Johnson!

Mrs. Reid is a strong believer that God positions her,  in the right places, with the right connections, to help the underserved and her community. She is always on the search for a project that will support her passion to assist those in need. Beauty For Ashes celebrates you Mrs. Mamie Reid! We thank you, for being such an amazing outstanding Community Ambassador. We pray that you have continued resources and connections to provide for the community and those in need. 

Thanks for helping Beauty for Ashes to be the Hands and Feet of Christ!