Within a year of moving to the 800 block of Vance Street from Northern Virginia, Kathleen Robinson has become intimate with her new neighborhood.
She has become involved with the CrossRoads of Trinity ministry and on Thanksgiving Day will open her home at 812 Vance Street to anyone who is hungry.
The past year was not kind to Robinson, who worked as a childcare specialist in the Leesburg, Virginia, area for 36 years. Her husband died in 2014. “It just came to a point,” she said, taking a break from yard work to prepare for next week's feast. “So God told me to move.”
(For more information call Robinson at 571-233-7445. Also on Thanksgiving Day, the women's ministry of First Baptist Church in Weldon will hold its annual Thanksgiving Day Feast at 301 West Third Street. Dinner begins at 2 p.m. For more information on that event call minister Touche Lawson at 252-673-2912)
Her ex-husband called her and said he was going to visit the grandchildren which led to Roanoke Rapids becoming her new home. In her morning walks in her new neighborhood she saw no one else. She took it upon herself to make positive changes in the block, home to numerous mill houses. “God sent me to this street,” she said. “I've been here helping the neighborhood. I take kids to school.”
Then came CrossRoads of Trinity in which she is involved.
Still, in the year she has been here, she says, “I still have a mission in the neighborhood. I needed to do a Thanksgiving meal.”
Robinson looks inside her refrigerator.
On a fixed income, she pondered how she could pull off a late afternoon feast. “God sent me to Just Save. They had buy one, get one ham and turkey. I got my turkeys and hams. He told me to make flyers.”
Once the flyers were prepared, people started asking what they could do to help. From the flyer she has collected enough food for the feast — turkey, ham, chicken, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls and cake — the items she can name immediately.
Robinson understands the needs in the community, having worked in Virginia with Mobile Hope, an organization meeting the needs of homeless teens. “I always thought that could be one of us.”
She believes through programs like these, “If we take pride in kids, we can let them know there is another way out.”
Donated sweet potatoes.
Robinson took it upon herself to be the monitor for her new neighborhood in Roanoke Rapids. “There were large groups of kids in the middle of street.”
She began taking an interest in them, having movie nights with popcorn and punch on her porch while neighbors across the street took time to teach the children arts and crafts.
There has been an investment in the neighborhood, she said. “I've seen great improvements. At first there was trash on the street and people weren't cutting their grass. Children were playing in an abandoned house.”
To prepare for the 4 p.m. feast, with help from her son, Christopher Stewart, Robinson is sprucing up the back and front yard, her porch and inside to accommodate as many who would like to come. “The game will be on in the living room. It's for anyone who wants to come. My door is going to be open.”
Her ministry will not end with Thanksgiving, she said. This coming summer she plans to open her house to a summer camp with activities for all.
Called Taking it Back Camp, she plans to have arts and crafts, sports activities and will also invite the fire and police departments to come.
While her son does not completely share his mother's enthusiasm about opening her home to anyone who is hungry, he is not going to stand in the way of her mission. “I don't won't my mom's expectations to go in vain or have them shattered by the ignorance of people. My mom means everything to me. I can't dictate her happiness and what makes her happy. I'm going to be security.”
Robinson sees the dinner and the upcoming summer camp as becoming annual events. “As long as God gives me breath. I'd like to see it roll down to the grandkids.”
