kilgore news herald 15 10 28, womentoring (blue moon)

WWOMENTORING

Getting the most out of life isn’t how much you keep for yourself,

but how much you pour into others.” -David Stoddard

“Woman to Woman

A special supplement to the Kilgore News Herald

-David Stoddard

Women in Business 2 0 1 5

WOMEN IN BUSINESS 2015 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015KILGORE NEWS HERALD PAGE 2

Manufacturer of oil and gas processing equipment

Pictured from Front to Back: Amy Clements (Vice President), Beverly Nicholson,

Rhonda Wooddell, Stephanie Humphrey (Controller), Alexa Hall, Kate Clements, Debbie Lake and Terri James.

At Energy Weldfab, we take pride in our

team of dedicated professional women.

1702 Willow Lake DriveWhite Oak, TX 75693

Office: 903-297-2500Fax: 903-297-2501

www.energyweldfab.com

“A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman.”

- Melinda Gates

Paula Laroux, Judy Asaff, Debbie Harris, Morgan Brown, Sarah Horton & Misty Lee

1500 HWY 259 N | Kilgore, TX 75662

www.GabrielJordanBPG.com

(903) 984-3082

By JAMES [email protected]

When hiring is linked to a team-building philosophy, the result is an operation big-ger than any one individual.

At Kilgore Economic De-velopment Corporation, “We actually work pretty hard when we hire to consider the team and to figure out how new hires will fit into that teamwork,” Executive Direc-tor Amanda Nobles says, “to make sure that we continue to operate as a team, because I’m really convinced that’s what makes our office func-tion extremely well.

“And, they’re very different talents. All of the individuals have very different talents, and they bring very different things to the table.”

Currently, KEDC’s staff includes four women. Nobles has been with the economic development group since its inception 25 years ago. Jana Russell has logged six years with the organization, first as marketing manager (also manning the front desk) and now as assistant director. Heather Jurenka joined the roster two-and-a-half years ago, first as office manager and now as KEDC Business Retention & Expansion Spe-cialist. Stephanie Moore is the office’s current manager.

KEDC was recently award-ed the Community Eco-nomic Development Award (population 5,001 – 15,000) from the Texas Economic Development Council, based on a variety of projects and agreements the organiza-tion successfully closed in a 12-month period.

One aspect of KEDC’s suc-cess, Nobles said, is ensuring its staff members are on the same page, able to weigh in on developments, to build off each other’s strengths and

to be comfortable in each other’s company. In addition to a retreat about every 18 months and as-needed staff meetings, the group regular-ly sits down to lunch, more than just business.

Granted, “We do have conversation that address business a whole,” Nobles said. “It’s hard to get away from business. It’s hard to do if you’re all in the same office.

“It’s hard to make that

anything but business, but we do try to make it fun. The job’s got to be enjoy-able or no one’s going to stay here.”

It’s another element of “hiring for the team,” Rus-sell said, creating a unit whose individual pieces fit together, complementary.

“We all have different strengths, so when we get together, team-building is almost organic because we’re bringing something

unique to the table.”Mentoring is a natural de-

velopment of the process, playing off strengths and experience.

For example, “In many ways I consider Amanda to be the gold standard in economic development. I’ve had that opinion since my days at SWEPCO. Usually, as we’re working, if I have a different opinion from Amanda, the first thing I do is assume I’m wrong,” Rus-

sell quipped, “then I ask a number of questions.

“It would be difficult to narrow down the mentor-ing into one or two things because it’s a consistent, al-most daily event.”

Regular staff meetings en-sure each staff member in-cludes outside perspectives in projects being pursued independently.

According to Nobles, “Ev-eryone has the chance to ask questions about it, to

have input on it, or to say, ‘What do you think? What are some thinks you can bring to this issue?’ I think mentoring is extremely necessary, depending on an individual’s level of experi-ence with economic devel-opment and with their job description.”

Notably, hiring frequently finds people who meet the requirements of a post but

KEDC builds successful team

See KEDC, Page 7

Amanda Nobles, KEDC Executive Director

Heather Jurenka, Marketing & Retention Specialist

Jana Russell, Assistant Director

Stephanie Moore, Office Manager

NEWS HERALD photos by JAMES DRAPER

By CHELSEA [email protected]

The Boys and Girls Club impacts students’ lives as they enter the unit doors each day after school.

Whether it is through an individual mentor, a mentor-ing program or leading by example, the club’s goal is to instill leadership qualities in students – qualities that can help them succeed in life.

Peggy McAlister, Boys and Girls Club of Rusk County chief professional officer, es-tablished a Care to Share mentoring program for the county’s clubs when she first assumed her current position 10 years ago.

“Care to Share mentoring program is mentors that are committed to mentor at least one hour a week up to four hours per month, and it’s just to provide guidance and to provide valuable opportuni-ties for any young person,” she explained.

Mentors can reinforce learning or give other useful direction the students can use throughout their lives and ap-ply to their own situations.

“[Mentors are] people who care and want to help the chil-dren reach their potential,” she added.

Although the mentor is not meant to stand in for a parent, McAlister said, sometimes the student feels more com-fortable talking about certain situations with a mentor than with someone in the main family unit.

“Sometimes mentors are like a parent because [the stu-dent] might be coming from a single-parent household,” she said. “They’re not meant to replace the family, but to en-rich the family life.”

From improvements in grades and behavior, she said, she has seen the program’s success.

“We try to instill self-con-fidence to build their char-acter,” McAlister continued. “Just let the children know they have the potential to suc-ceed in life and that it’s theirs to decide.”

One of the Kilgore unit’s staff members through the AmeriCorps Program is a young woman, BGC Kilgore Unit Director LaKesha Hall said, she remembers as a stu-dent in the club.

“She is a young lady that I can remember having nu-merous conversations with her about bullying, about self-image, self-esteem, high school years (and) what that will entail. Just talking to her about life in general and what to expect,” she said. “My number one motto with all kids that I tell is, ‘Who do you have control over? Who do you not have control over? Control what you can and let God handle the rest.’”

Other former club mem-bers have come back to vol-unteer or work at the club to continue giving back to the organization that helped sup-port them as they were grow-ing up.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Hall said about seeing a for-mer club member come back to work at the unit. “Any per-son would like to take credit for something at some point. I’m not big on taking credit for a lot of different things, but I like to think… maybe, just maybe I had an influence or an impact on someone.”

Those who come back af-ter being a member, she said, learn the day-to-day opera-tions of the club and the rea-son for certain rules and why those rules are important.

When McAlister recruits a mentor for the Care to Share program, she said, “I want them to be a caring individual who offers support and en-couragement.” The goal is for the 10 different mentors to pass along support and infor-mation a student will need to have a successful future.

With the help of McAlister, the Boys and Girls Club has received a grant from the na-tional BGC Office of Juvenile Justice to support the mentor-ing program.

“This job is hard because it’s a nonprofit organization and the financial standpoint and all that is a day-to-day struggle to try to keep doors open,” she said, adding the grants the club receives help with the various programs. “Boys and Girls Club is a nonprofit or-ganization, but it is a business as well.”

With staff turnover occur-ring in the individual units as well, Hall said, she looks for advice from Robert Nash, her former unit director when she worked as the outdoor coor-dinator at the Boys and Girls Club in Longview.

“There were some of his

styles of working with staff, the way that the program would remain the same re-gardless how many staff came in and out of the door, and that was one thing that I wanted to make sure that I did adopt myself and that’s be able to keep the program consistent regardless of if the staff turns over or not,” Hall explained.

In general, she said, the Kilgore unit has a younger average staff age because of its close proximity to Kilgore College. With many col-lege-age staff members and volunteers, Hall steps into a mentor role to help them understand what it means to be an adult.

“As adults, once you’ve grown into that role and you’re used to playing your part, meaning paying your own bills, then it becomes everyday life to you. But for an individual who’s start-ing out fresh, it does help to have someone that can kind of guide them and give them some good advice and information about differ-ent things that are new to them,” she said.

As chief professional officer, McAlister uses her position to serve as a mentor to staff members and unit directors, such as Hall.

“I see potential in all staff members,” she said. “I try to take them under my wing and lead them to where they want to go and show them their po-tential as well.”

In Hall’s 11 years with the Boys and Girls Club – eight years as a staff member – she has gone from a staff member on the floor to training the staff now, she said.

Just like the students, McAl-ister said, the adults who work at the BGC need someone to encourage them also.

“They need someone to show them they can succeed beyond their expectations,”

she said. “I feel like I’m that person to inspire someone to learn more and to be more than what they are. In order for me to do that I have to have confidence in what I do for myself. I have to have the energy and the passion and, of course, the knowledge of the business.”

Hall has also taken tips from McAlister when it comes to public speaking and repre-senting the BGC Kilgore Unit in public.

“I can honestly say that I have learned a lot from her – watching her, how she net-works, speaks with individuals – from that to even just speak-ing in general,” Hall said. “I have been asked to be a guest speaker on a couple occasions, and I could kind of go back to different occasions where I’ve been there and listened to her speak, so I can honestly say she’s had a good impact on me in that regard.”

Although BGC is a non-profit organization, McAlister said, she profits personally from seeing the students grow up to be productive citizens in the community.

Some students who have gone through the Care to Share mentoring program have come back to help other students as a mentor or have come back to work at BGC as a staff member.

“It makes me feel elated because it means the Boys and Girls Clubs are needed,” McAlister said. “And it shows me that we are an organiza-tion that is making a differ-ence within our community.”

While staff members at the Boys and Girls Club help the students in the program reach their full potential and gain leadership skills to use throughout their lives, Hall said, she has seen those same leadership qualities develop in the staff members.

“It’s hard to teach some-thing or get someone else to

understand something that you can’t display yourself, and the staff, they kind of pick that up,” Hall said. “When you’re asking the kids to respect each other and you’re asking them to respect you, then you kind of have to do the same. You have to respect the kids.”

She herself had to learn how to be a leader and is still learn-ing about how best to lead her unit, Hall said.

“I think that anyone and everyone should understand that as long as you live and breathe, you continue to learn,” she said. “That saying, ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,’ throw it out the

window, because it’s not true.”Both McAlister and Hall

said they love their jobs“It gives me great satisfac-

tion that I am able to do a job that is meaningful, and I am able to give back to the com-munity as well,” McAlister said.

While a student at Hen-derson high school, Hall said, an English teacher told her to find a job she at least liked, so she would enjoy going to work instead of it just being a place she had to go to earn a paycheck. Her passion shows in each new thing she learns about Boys and Girls Club.

“It’s a growing process in any position,” she said. “I think that if I ever get to the point where I feel like I can’t learn anything else about Boys and Girls Club or learn any-thing new to bring back to the club, then it might be time to consider trying something different, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.”

Her own advice to students and young adults was to work at their craft and passions and to continue to learn about it, Hall said.

“In all honestly, for my-self, I can say that if you ask me a question about Kilgore Boys and Girls Club, I should be able to answer it for you. Why? Because I love my job. I love what I do and this is the information that I have that I can give the world and that’s about Kilgore Boys and Girls Club. When you love what you do and you know your part, then it shows.”

WOMENTORING KILGORE NEWS HERALD PAGE 3WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

Ensuring the CARE in Healthcare

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Owned And Operated.

Mentoring integral to philosophybehind Boys & Girls Club efforts

Peggy McAlister, Rusk County BGC CPO LaKeshia Hall, Kilgore Unit Director


No formalized training process comes to Julie Beck’s mind, and she can’t remem-ber any specific time of ac-tively ‘mentoring’ someone – rather, her experience has been one of both learning on the job and passing on her experiences through day-to-day business.

Carrie Jackson, Beck’s sis-ter and business partner, echoes the sentiment: teach-ing and learning has come by doing.

It’s been through build-ing relationships, Beck says: with past employers, with coworkers, with employ-ees and with other business owners.

“I was very fortunate,” she said. In addition to the ex-ample of her father Charles Jackson’s parents, business owners in Oklahoma, “Our grandfather (Charles Shertz-er) opened The Coin Inves-tor in Longview in 1979. Carrie and I played a part in that since it opened.

Helping Shertzer in the shop, “I’ve worked in retail since I was 17 – actually since I was 9, but I’ve been on the payroll since I was 17. When you’re in a fam-ily business … you help out where you need to help out.”

Eventually, Larry and Bar-bara Brush bought the busi-ness, running it from 1986 to 1991, when Beck bought

the company.Jackson puts her first job

in Beall’s Department Store.“I had two wonderful

bosses, Mr. Wilcox and John Bryant – both of them were really, really good to me. They were very patient,” she said, exactly what a 16-year-old needs. “They always tried to be encouraging and were quick to point out mis-takes but also were quick to show me how to rectify the situation and make it better.

“I think if it weren’t for them I probably would not have gone to work for Bar-bara and Larry with Julie.”

That experience, too, was formative, she said, teaching valuable lessons for later.

“(Larry Brush) would give me a lot of freedom, so much that it scared me,” Jackson said. “He was also good to show me when I had done something right and to help me fix my mistakes. Also, Barbara and Julie have been very good teachers and influence on me.”

Among the “freshman class” of new merchants in downtown Kilgore, the sis-ters originally leased space from Harry Crouse in his ‘Shops at 2-0-5,’ opening J&Co. with Owen and Jean Therneau in 2008. Two years later, Charles Jackson opened The Coin Investor of Kilgore.

The sisters purchased the Therneau’s interest in J&Co. in May 2014.

In her years running a business, Beck says she’s steadily grown into the role of employer.

“I’m honestly not good at delegating, so it took me a while to hire employees,” she said simply. The first though, Lori Smith, came as a relief at time when business was a little too much to handle: “I was a bit overwhelmed. We just clicked, and at that point I realized that it was going to be OK, that I could have help besides my sister.”

As Smith transitioned

into her own successful ca-reer, other women (and some men) joined the staff, including some employees who’ve now invested several years with the sisters.

“It’s nice to have employ-ees,” Beck said. For exam-ple, they’re ears on the re-tail floor draw constructive feedback for the business. “We can make changes and learn that way. The girls may observe a way that things might run a little smoother or that we might offer better service to our customers.

“I’ll listen to all of that. Of course, Carrie and I make the final call. I cer-tainly take into consider-ation all the things we’ve learned.”

Reluctant to hire help in the beginning, Beck says she now considers her em-ployees like family.

“We work very closely together,” she said. “When you have employees and

you feel a responsibility for them, you make sure they have what they need and you become close. You de-velop a sense of respect for each other and a deep care for each other.

“I try to make sure all their needs are met, and they certainly have been good in taking care of us at each of our stores.”

Jackson credits her sister with developing her own business acumen.

“Being able to watch Ju-lie every day in business has taught me a lot,” she said. “I think I’ve been very fortunate to have her for a sister as well as a boss and now a partner.”

Beyond the walls of the stores, Beck says she gleans valuable insight from other merchants in downtown Kilgore.

“I think all business owners, especiallty in the downtown core, try to en-courage each other,” she

said, “and say, ‘Hey, this is working for me, or ‘That didn’t work as well.’

“That’s how we came up with Sip ‘N Shop – our customers seemed to want something to do down-town, kind of make shop-ping a fun experience. I think we encourage each other and support each other in that way for sure – if one of those downtown is having an event, we try to include all the others. Not only is it good for the busi-ness person, it’s good for our customers.”

That, certainly, is essen-tial for Beck: downtown merchants, she says, offer a degree of customer service the ‘Big Box’ stores cannot provide.

Downtown stores stay competitive, Beck added, and “I think we all en-courage each other well,” praising Martha Fertitta of Main Street Gifts & More as well as other individual retailers for leading and for contributing to the shop-ping district.

Likewise, from this month’s Oktoberfest activi-ties to the annual Mingle & Jingle soiree Nov. 21, merchants are contributing their strengths to keep com-merce strong downtown.

“The more downtown has to offer, the more rea-sons we give people to come downtown,” Beck said.

It’s all part of an ongoing model, she added.

“When you genuinely care about people, the busi-ness sort of takes care of it-self. I think we’ve seen that with a lot of great (mer-chants),” she said. “I think we’re very fortunate in Kilgore. There have been a lot of great oilmen and be-hind them there have been a lot of strong women, kept the home fires burning.”

Sisters stress building relationships in business WOMEN IN BUSINESS 2015 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015KILGORE NEWS HERALD PAGE 4

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Austin Bank proudly salutes the dedicated womenat the Kilgore office.

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NEWS HERALD photo by JAMES DRAPER

A customer browses the racks of J&Co. Saturday, Oct. 17, during 2015's Oktoberfest activities downtown. Working in tandem with other downtown retailers is a key way of ensuring success, J&Co.'s Julie Beck says.


Celebrating Business Women of

Past &Present

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Wilbur Yates with (L-R) Donna Beets, Sr. Branch Office Administrator, and Dachelle Faber, Branch Assistant

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Volunteers at Partners in Pre-vention might not be superheroes, but through the program’s Kilgore extension they are able to support a child that might need that extra push to achieve success.

“It’s just a time for me to give back, to try to help children to be successful (and) to make good choices,” Partners in Prevention lo-cal mentor Beth Allen said. “That’s what Partners in Prevention is, that’s what it is to me is to help children make good choices – to encourage them. It’s not a super-hero type thing.”

As director of human resources at Kilgore ISD, she said, other school district employees serve as mentors to KISD students during the year and throughout a stu-dent’s education.

“There was just a need, and they came and told us that they would

like to get in the school, and they were there to give some training,” she explained. “And I thought, ‘Well, hey, I can do that.’”

Allen volunteers through the For-ever Friends program, which pairs women with girls in the district. Men volunteer through the Co-Pilots program in which they are paired with a boy in the district who could use another role model and source of support.

Both mentoring programs begin in first grade, but there are more mentors in the middle school and high school age groups rather than the lower grades, she said.

“It’s just a matter of caring and you just grow to love these children and want what’s best for them,” Al-len explained.

Allen takes the name Forever Friends seriously, and her long-term goal is to see her mentee graduate from high school.

“I’m planning on being there, whether I’m retired then or not,”

she said.Mentors in Partners in Prevention

are asked to volunteer one hour per week to have lunch with their men-tee. Outside of a school setting, Al-len said, mentors are given opportu-nities to take their mentees to social and cultural events, such as ballet, theater and orchestra performances.

To help the “whole child” during her hour with her Forever Friend, they talk about school in addition to more fun topics, such as friends. One of the biggest components of being a PIP mentor is to listen, but Allen also goes to support and cheer-on her mentee at school events.

Each student in the program is recommended to Partners in Pre-vention by a teacher or counselor, and the organization then tries to pair as many students with a trained mentor. Though some students are in the program due to discipline problems, that is not

By MEAGHAN SIMPSON

Sitting in the office of a New York City casting agent I was de-bating in my head whether to tell this guy off and storm out, or bite my tongue and listen to his advice calmly. Earlier that day I was walking towards that same meeting with a spring in my step. I was about to get my first agent! Finally the “in” you need to be seen by the theatres, producers, and casting directors that can make a career. I realized soon after sitting down in his office that I was way off. Sure—he could get me into great auditions at great theatres, but I would have to trade in my dignity.

The critical moment of the meeting was when he asked me what roles I thought I should be auditioning for. I gave him a short list of female characters from commonly produced plays. One of the roles I suggested was a strong female character that happens to be the object of desire for many of the men in the play. When the agent heard this he laughed in my face for a while and finally said, “You?!”

Okay. Sure. It’s not the cruelest thing that someone can say. I get that. But in the moment it was devastating. There were a mil-lion questions bouncing in my head. “Am I unattractive?” “Why am I putting myself through this?” “Who the heck does he think he is?” “Am I delusional?” I was going back and forth frantically from self-righteousness to utter embarrassment and shame. The other voice in my head was yelling: “Think of your mentors. This is not how they treat people. It is possible to be kind and

also have artistic integrity.”After that meeting, the one

thing I knew for sure was that I was no longer willing to be driv-en by the desire to be bought, sold, and traded by anyone un-able or unwilling to see my value. It was that moment that changed me from someone needing to be wanted to someone need-ing to make others feel wanted, and more importantly, recognize their own value.

Being here at the Texas Shake-speare Festival, I work with artists and students that are in the midst of the same struggle that I went through on and off for ten years. I recognize their insecurities and see them as an opportunity to empower and build instead of devastate and squash.

Have you ever noticed that we have no reality T.V. competi-tions for America’s Next Oscar Winner? Acting has no science and the judging of what is “good” or “bad” acting says much more about the one assigning the label than the actors them-selves. What this means is that it’s vitally important to nurture the minds of artists so they have a healthy and realistic view of who they are and what their strengths are. They need the skills to address the subjective views of others almost in equal proportion

The Worst Agent Ever or 'How I Learned to Mentor'

‘It’s just a matter of caring’

See ALLEN, Page 8

See SIMPSON, Page 8

NEWS HERALD photo by CHELSEA KATZ

Beth Allen, director of human resources for Kilgore ISD, volunteers at least an hour of her time each week to have lunch with her Forever Friend as part of the Partners in Prevention mentoring program. Allen’s role as a mentor is to support and encourage her young friend as she continues through Kilgore ISD schools.

Meaghan Simpson is a veteran member of the Texas Shakespeare Festival company and one of TSF's two artistic associates. She is currently co-directing a play for Artsview Children's Theater.


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Kilgore National Bank salutes its “Leading Ladies”. Not only have these women distinguished themselves in the banking profession, they also represent

untold hours of service given to the community of Kilgore. We are proud

of their commitment to our organization, our banking customers, and to

the City of Stars.

Job well done, ladies.

CelebratingWomen in Business

Tina Johnson was honored with the “Star Advocate” award at the recent 2015 East Texas’ Behavioral Health Summit for her dedication and advocacy for helping persons with mental illness. This award is nominated by professionals working with senior adults who described Tina as a tireless advocate who always goes the extra mile to help others. Tina is the Community Education Specialist at IPS who has been educating others about mental illness since 2005.

CongratulationsTina Johnson!

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With a 30-year career in nursing, Ilene Merchant chose to put her knowledge of anatomy and physiology to another use through massage.

“I just figured I can do that,” she said after a friend who had just finished mas-sage school told Merchant about the re-quirements.

Merchant then got her massage license and began traveling to people’s houses with her table.

Soon Merchant was ready to find a place to do her business without lugging around a massage table – and she wanted to find a place in Overton. Even though some people discouraged her from establishing her business in town, she found the perfect location on East Henderson Street, across from Texas Bank & Trust.

“I enjoy what I do, and it’s really more than just massaging to me,” she said of her business, Massage World & More. “It’s real-ly like missionary kind of work.” Merchant and her clients develop a sort of familial

connection because they get to know each other so well through the massage sessions. “I just pray that when I touch someone’s body that the Lord will help heal them through God’s grace. It’s all to glorify Him.”

One of the initial struggles to estab-lishing her business, Merchant said, was finding her building, though, because she needed it to be a safe place where clients felt comfortable.

Once she stopped worrying about find-ing the right place, she saw a sign in a win-dow of a downtown Overton building and jumped at the opportunity.

“When we shook hands, I knew then and she knew then I would get this build-ing,” she explained.

The building was in good condition, and a loan from the bank helped get her es-tablished. Merchant proudly said she has since paid off the loan about three or four years early.

“October this year, it’s been a year since I have not done any nursing because I just started dedicating my time to here because

Faith guides success

See MERCHANT, Page 7


Ilene Merchant, owner of Massage World in Overton, stresses the impor-tance of faith as she puts all of her effort into her own business after a 30-year career in nursing.

my business did grow,” she said.With an independent spirit and an

appreciation of education instilled in her and her six sisters from a young age by their mother, Merchant said, she was her own biggest motivator.

“Once someone said, ‘No you can’t do that,’ I think I challenge that,” she said.

That challenge and the drive to be her own boss gave her enough courage to “[step] out on faith” and try massage as a career.

Before taking the leap, though, Merchant said, she asked her hus-band first because she knew he would be her biggest supporter.

“With him pushing me to step out like that, that was a big influence too,” she said. “That mattered to me too.”

The venture has been more success-ful than she ever imagined.

“It’s just been awesome,” she said. “It makes me more involved with the community as well.”

With the experience she gained in

opening Massage World, Merchant said, “believing in yourself and trust-ing in the Lord” is the best advice she can give to young entrepreneurs.

“Believe in yourself [and have] a vi-sion,” she said. “Even if it doesn’t go just the way you planned, just believ-ing that you can do it.”

When someone hears they cannot do something, Merchant tells them they can if they put their minds to it and put in the work to be successful, she said.

“Don’t give up, don’t give in,” she said. “I have had times when I almost gave up.”

One of the biggest struggles Mer-chant has had in owning Massage World came during her first tax sea-son when she was audited and found her paperwork was not completely as it should be.

“That kind of knocked me off my feet and almost made me give up,” she continued.

Merchant’s coworker, Teresa Kilpat-

rick, has brought her knowledge and now helps Merchant during tax time.

“It just clicked,” Merchant said. “It’s like the Lord sent her here to help me with that.”

Kilpatrick was once one of Mer-chant’s clients but enjoyed the atmo-sphere so much that she went to mas-sage school to get her license as well.

“She really is a blessing to me,” Merchant said. “I don’t know what I’d do without her. We’ve really devel-oped the best friendship.”

Merchant advises people to have faith, to have a clear vision, to stay positive in all aspects of their lives and to not absorb the negative feel-ings around them.

“Do the right thing, treat people right,” she said. “I know for sure if we put God first, everything else will fall into place because there is noth-ing I have not asked Him for that He has not done for me and my family. Don’t operate off of fear. Operate off of faith.”


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Mentoring, according to Jeannie Faulkner Barber, isn’t unlike crafting a story.

“You want your reader to be in that story rather than outside of it,” she explains. “You’re supposed to do more showing than telling in your writing. There’s an art to that, and I’m still learning.”

Executive director of the Overton/New London Chamber of Commerce, Barber is a published novel-ist and, also, a drag racing enthusiast. Each passion, she says, brings opportu-nities both to learn and to teach, to share experiences and life lessons.

At the chamber, for ex-ample, the officers and board members change on a regular basis – as the recurring face at the table, Barber’s the one to carry procedures, protocols

and other institutional mem-ory on from one generation of leaders to the next.

Staging an event, she ex-plained, is executed to best-effect when at least one of the organizers has been through the process before. People need guidance be-fore they take up the reins.

For example, “Even with some of the same peo-ple being here, who take on dif-ferent responsi-bilities, they’ve only fulfilled one phase or aspect of an event where now they’re over the entire pro-gram,” Barber said. She also works on behalf of the Overton Economic Development Corporation and as secretary for the Over-ton Industrial Foundation. Changing hats often, “What

I have learned and what works best or what doesn’t work needs to be remem-bered. I try to pass that on.”

She also fills in as public information officer on a regular basis.

“One of the most interest-ing calls I’ve gotten is some-one who wanted me to help

them get in touch with the FBI. I didn’t want to know why – I just got them the number.”

Barber is the author behind “Taste of Fire,” a mystery story in-volving a female firefighter, as well as “Destiny

Never Sleeps,” co-authoring the fantasy tale. She penned “Scene of Double Decep-tion,” a romance/suspense novel, and has had her work featured in an anthology,

“‘Tis the Season.”“As an author, I also do

mentor other authors who are learning, who are in a dif-ferent phase than I am,” she explained. “I do editing and critiquing.”

Shepherding another au-thor, Barber added, is a care-ful process.

“In the writing aspect, you don’t want to discour-age someone when you re-alize they’re off base … just because they haven’t experi-enced, maybe, the depth of where I’ve gone with my tri-als and learning process,” she explained. Through the East Texas Writers Association or writer-to-writer interaction, Barber is happy to help as she can. Working with another local writer on a particular style, for example, “I want to put her on the right track: you have to grab your audi-ence from the first page or two or they’re not going to

keep turning the pages. But I don’t want to discourage her by saying, ‘Oh ,you’ve done this wrong.”

Mentor by example, Barber says: from the driver’s seat when possible.

“On a fun level, I’m a drag racer, so I’ve had the oppor-tunity to pass on some of that experience others,” she said. One woman didn’t un-derstand the working parts of the machine and was stymied by other aspects of the sport. Taking a ride, though, “I just floored it. She absolutely loved it.

With firsthand experience, “I was able to explain all the integrals of the different phases you go through before

you can get down the track.”Mentoring is also about

surrendering the wheel, Bar-ber added.

“I don’t want to appear as a know-it-all. I don’t want to appear to have knowledge be-yond my years or my experi-ence. You have to be a people person first. I don’t want to come across as brash. I just want to pass on what I’ve learned,” she said. “It has to be a team effort.”

In the end, it’s about pass-ing on love for something.

“Most definitely, I love my job at the chamber. My hus-band calls it my ‘full-parttime job. I love my writing, and I love my racing,” she conclud-ed. “I’m real blessed.”

True mentoring mixes business, pleasure

MERCHANT

KEDC

Continued from Page 6


who might not be familiar with the field of economic development.

Working in a unit, Nobles said, helps a person adapt quickly to KEDC’s specific needs.

“What is our purpose? What is our mission? Is everything we’re doing as-

sociated with achieving that mission through a very specific strategic plan and program of work?” she noted. “That is the thing that keeps the operation on track. You’ve got to be able to go back to the strategic plan, revisit it, make chang-es if necessary.

“If each employee has a very clear mission of what the vision is, what the mis-sion is, who the customer is, that makes the job all the more understandable. That makes the function that you’re performing as an employee fit into the whole.”


Jeannie Faulkner Barber splits her passion between work as executive director of the Overton/New London Chamber of Commerce and other organizations and her dual pasttimes of writing and drag racing. Mentoring, she says, is often about passing on the love of a thing to another person.

"I just want to pass on

what I’ve learned."

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always the case.Some students in the pro-

gram have recently suffered a loss in the family or have had trouble adjusting to a new situation.

“It can be just encour-agement and just kind of a cheerleader,” Allen said. “Someone to say, ‘You can do this,’ and then celebrate with them when they do… When she is successful, it’s a joy. Just getting to celebrate with her, it’s fulfilling to see her accom-plishments and just to be able to celebrate with her because she gets excited to come back and give me her reports.”

Even at the beginning of their mentor-mentee relation-ship, she said, they celebrated

the smaller accomplishments in areas they had been work-ing on.

“I try to encourage her to make wise choices with friends because when friends make bad choices, we can make bad choices with them,” Allen said. “It’s just all about trying to help her to make positive decisions in her life.”

Partners in Prevention does not just offer training and as-sign volunteers to a mentee. Someone from the Partners in Prevention office checks fairly regularly to see how a mentor and mentee pair is progressing and how a mentee is doing.

“They have been fantastic,” Allen said about her involve-ment. “They work with you

to make sure you have the tools you need… They give you the training and the sup-port.”

Allen’s daughter recently spoke with a former mentee who went on to become a po-lice officer.

“Apparently she needed some support at one point in her life – some encourage-ment – and she got that, and now look at her,” Allen said.

Anyone interested in be-coming a Partners in Preven-tion mentor can contact PIP Recruitment Coordinator Cindy Graham at 903-237-1015. More information about the program is also available at www.friendsof-pip.com.

ALLEN

SIMPSON



to the skills of their craft. I want to show them that you can be a theatre-maker and not be arrogant and bitter. You can write your own rules and create your own path,

and it may not be the path you thought you’d take. I’m their living example, and if I’m doing it right then perhaps I’ll be-come their mentor as well.

COURTESY photo by TSF

Meaghan Simpson takes the Texas Shakes-peare Festival stage as Lady Macbeth in summer 2014.

kilgore news herald 15 10 28, womentoring (blue moon)

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