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Models of the Maker moves forward
By Mary Madewell
Published October 27, 2009
Once homeless herself, the executive director of Models of the Maker spoke Monday about life-changing results the women’s transitional housing program produces on a regular basis.
“Just the love and support the place can bring you is unbelievable,” Dana Sale said about the program.
The transitional shelter, the only one of its kind in a 100-mile radius, plans a fundraiser at 7 p.m. Nov. 7 at Love Civic Center. The fundraiser, catered by Catering 4 You, features a silent auction and salsa music played by a group of professional musicians from Philadelphia Iglesia Church of Paris.
“Fiesta deAmour” is the theme for the evening. Tickets are $25 individually or $175 for a table of eight. Reservations may be made by calling 903-785-2777 or 903-783-0353.
“We are all about love,” said Kimberly Fasken, Models of the Maker board president, from the dining room at Ryan’s Heart, a planned shelter for homeless boys.
Fasken spoke about Sale and the future of the program, which lost its founding director earlier this year with the untimely death of Cindy Bowlin.
“When she took her life; it was scary,” Fasken said. “No one knew how to keep the grants coming and Dana had quit the staff because of too much turmoil.
“The director at the shelter took up leadership for awhile, but it became more evident to her that we needed someone who could keep funding coming in,” Fasken said.
Fasken, a long-time supporter since the shelter opened nine years ago, said Bowlin told her months before her death if anything ever happened to her she had trained Sale to take over.
“The Lord answers prayers and Dana came back,” Fasken said.
“The Lord has answered prayers like crazy.”
Short on funding in September, Fasken said Models of the Maker received a $10,000 grant from the City of Paris.
“That will keep our utilities paid until the end of the year,” Fasken said. Another $2,000 from Lamar County Commissioners court also will help to keep organization afloat until yearly grants begin again in January. Grants from both the Fasken and Lennox foundations also contribute funding.
“I just want to clarify the misinformation that Models of the Maker is closing,” Fasken said. “God has big plans for this place because he doesn’t want people to be homeless.”
Realizing the fundraiser comes at a time when all charitable organizations are requesting funds, Fasken said, “we really need for the community to step up and help us.”
Sale spoke briefly about the situation she found herself in 2004.
“I came back in 2000 from a very lucrative job as a credit analyst for International Paper in California to help my aging parents in Chicota, where I grew up,” Sale aid. “But work was not easy to find here; employers said I was over-qualified.”
But Sale said she took any job offered, from working in a convenience store to part-time jobs. She worked for Christus Hospital for a period but was part of the cut-back when Essent purchased the hospital.
“I worked in home health and in a day care,” Sale said. “I became homeless when my car blew up, I lost my job and someone even stole my paycheck.”
Sale said she made the decision to stay at Models of the Maker rather than depending on her ailing parents to drive her back and forth from Chicota to work.
The rest is history.
“Dana was so good at the shelter; she volunteered wherever she could while holding down a job,” Fasken said. “It wasn’t long until Cindy brought her on staff.”
Sale said she tells her story to remind people that being homeless can happen to anyone.
A transitional program, Models of the Maker provides not only housing but life skills training in an 18-week program aimed at getting women back on their feet and into the mainstream.
“The program works,” Fasken said. “I was just amazed at the number of successful women who came to Cindy’s funeral expressing gratitude for what Models of the Maker had done in their lives.”
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