NEW DIRECTIONS WITH KATHY JENKINS 4/21/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Tuesdays for Hope with New Directions right now on the Liz Callaway show with Nick Summer's talk for the entire grand string. All right, two pieces of business here. First, I want to say happy birthday to Pastor Danny Banks of the Myrtle Beach Christian Church having a birthday today. So happy birthday, Pastor Danny. If you know him, say hello, give him a big hug, birthday hug. And then part two of uh business, and I want to say congratulations to you, Kathy Jenkins. You guys got some sort of thing, I think, last week.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

You want to tell us about it? Yes, we got an incredible thing last week. Um, the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, every year they they award the best of all over the community. And um, New Directions was named Nonprofit of the Year.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Nice. We talked about this on Tuesday. We were hoping you were gonna get it. We did, we did.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

We found out about a month ago, actually the day before Compassion Through Fashion, that we were one of three finalists.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

And we had to wait a whole month to find out. And interestingly enough, I really didn't know how the whole process works. But um, but um you get a nomination, and somebody from who who's a member of the chamber has to nominate you. Mary Jo Rogers nominated us. Okay. And and it's not determined locally. They recruit chambers from um all over the region, and this was this was something they responded to from a negative comment um on the awards page. And multiple other chambers take these nominations, and based on the nominations, they make the selection. So I I have to say that almost makes it even more special.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

It does kind of take out that hint of impropriety out, and it's like everybody looks at it from the outside in and sees what great work you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Right, right. So we are we feel uh so incredibly honored, and um uh couldn't come at a better time. You know, we're launching a new women's shelter. Um we've got a lot of money to raise, and um and it's also my last year.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

I know.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

So it was it was very, very special to me personally and to us as an organization.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Well, congratulations. Thank you. And I did get the text, but I got it at like 2 a.m. when I woke up because you sent it like probably around eight, I think. Uh 7:30 or 8. Yes. And I was like, Oh, I'm not gonna text her at 2. I'll just I'll wait.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

You know, I'm famous for my 2 a.m. thoughts, so I was probably awake. Oh, maybe I should have been. I wake up between two and three every morning. If I've been struggling with something, I'm trying to um think through a question on a grant application or an item on the budget that I'm just not really sure, it just ding and you get it. Wakes me up.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

They they say that that's okay and not to fight it and to work roll with it. So if you have that in your mind, then work through it and just see, work through that question, whatever it is, write it down.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

And I do, I fall back asleep and um and then because if I don't, I won't remember it in the morning. I'll go, gosh, I had a really good thought at 2 a.m. I wonder why I didn't write it down.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

I've done that. Yeah, I've done that laying there. It's like, I have a really great idea for a song, and you wake up and you forget the next day. Yep all the time. All right, you brought a guest in. Tell us who the guest is. I I'm gonna see what hold on. I'm gonna see if I can remember what he said here. Um nope, I'm not gonna do it. You're gonna have to do it. Tell me who the guest is with that last name that looks complicated, but after he said it, I know it's not.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Well, I have just as much trouble as you do.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Mashevitz. Stanley Mashevitz. Stanley came through our program. Um he is an incredible example of somebody who who uh uh believed in himself, believed in the program, felt led to come to us, and um and now he works for us.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

See?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yes, and I I love hearing that. He he's b been in this community, I think he said over twenty-one years. Wow. Um so um Stanley is here to talk about well, first of all, just talk about what made you decide to come to New Directions.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Well, I was on the streets for two years.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Um that's a long time, Stanley.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah, especially somebody my age. I I had life knocked, so I thought, but uh a drug addiction from from back surgery and an alcohol on top of that, and it just got worse and fell out of a 44-year marriage and left a big hole. And I walked the streets for two years angry at myself and angry at everybody I came in contact with. Um it was just a mess. But every once in a while I'd treat myself to dinner outside at New Directions uh for the free dinner at 6 30. So I had a meal in my stomach, so I can continue to be an idiot on the street. Um and that's pretty much how that went. And once in a while I would stay uh in an overnight and then back out the next day and continue being an idiot until until I decided I had enough. Uh it got so bad that um by then I've lost every friend, every family member, and I've chewed them up. I just every single one of them I destroyed. Uh, lied to them so many times to try to keep myself rolling, and you know, I found myself utterly and truthfully alone. And uh it was a uh Sunday afternoon and I I needed to make a change, and I knew that I heard about the program at New Directions, and I knew it wasn't till Monday, and I had to survive till Monday morning, and I all but crawled through the door, and they were kind enough to take me in. And I really wasn't sure what was gonna happen. But uh I can tell you on the third day at 2 15 in the afternoon, an epiphany hit me and it just uh everything changed. It was like God led me to the place. I was ready to lay down and call it quits. Wow and it led me to there, and uh everything made sense all of a sudden, and I was I was getting some really good advice from people who knew that I found out I wasn't the only one that felt this way, and that there were answers, and uh I look at New Directions as a toolbox, all the tools are there. Just have to go to work, and I decided, well, okay, God, let's try this. And uh I haven't looked back.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

I they gave me phenomenal advice, they they got me healthy because I was I normally am about 230 pounds, and when I walked through the door, maybe 160. Um, you know, my health was failing, um, mental health was was bad, everything was bad. And in a very short period of time, they had me up on my feet, believing in myself. My faith was super restored with God. I have a personal relationship with God that is unshakable. And uh with his help and with new directions, it's it's I haven't looked back.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Um is it hard to look back? I know you said you don't look back, but is it hard to imagine? I was there once. Like you're telling me the story, so you can remember it.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

I I I don't ever want to forget that feeling.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Um and I I find it real helpful with what I do now for a living. I I if you'd have asked me five years ago, twenty years ago, forty years ago, what I'd be doing at this point in my life, I'd have said, sitting on a rocking chair, just waiting for time to pass, but I am so blessed that I've got an education on the street for two years to learn this job that I have now. And um it is a blessing that that that uh I don't forget where I come from and I can help others that are there now.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Um Are you seeing the results of that when you're helping folks? Are they are they taking what you're telling them to heart?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Many are. Um but I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. I think I get more out of it than they do. Okay, it helps me with my recovery. I'll be in recovery for the rest of my life. Um and with God's help, it'll be a good long life yet. But uh I mean it's a it's I can't I cannot express the the the the the comfort, the the the peace that I have inside and uh helping those that that that need it helps me. Uh it helps m helps them. Um I I truly am living a blessed life right now.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

What was that moment? Because you said you'd go there and you'd you take the free meal at New Directions once in a while. We're speaking with Kathy Jenkins, CEO of New Directions, for a few more months, right? How many more months?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Oh you know, we just finished our third quarter and we're um through the first month of our um next quarter, and I will be here until the end of the year. So we'll start a new fiscal year July 1st, and I will stay for six more months.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

And Stanley is a guest who we started out uh coming through the door, and as you pointed out, you said you know you go there once in a while for something to eat, and then you'd leave and go back and be mad, you said, angry at the world. What was that one moment where you just said, you know, maybe I'll stay? What what what helped you decide that this might be the time?

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Um we have uh when you go in there, if there's certain there's very very small amounts of rules that you have to follow when you're in there. But one of them, and I think it was the greatest thing that helped me, was you had to go to group meetings. And it was a group meeting that something was said that registered with me. Um that I it's out of the blue, it just hit me. And that's when I decided, okay, quit quit crying about yourself, you know, be a man, suck it up, buttercup. Um, go to work. I mean, uh take the advice you'd give you would give your son is go to work. And um it just I figured, what do I have to lose? Because I know where I'm headed if I don't. Right. And I guess I really wasn't ready to quit, even though I thought I was. Um, but um I just I can't tell you exactly what it was that that that registered. I can yeah, I can just tell you it it was it it it went deep inside me. And uh I just said that's it. I I'm serious. And every day I wake up and and I say, okay, God, what are we doing today? And and I just handle what he puts in front of me. And kind of it was it was the same way at at New Directions, you had to handle what was in front of you every day. And um uh every every bit of it made made sense to me at that point. You know, and that and being clean for 30 days, you know, being what you know, when you go in there, you know, it it it really helps a lot too.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

All right. Uh sorry, I had to bend over and get this. The question I was gonna ask you is where do you see Stanley in two more years? What's the plan, Stan?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

My plan is to not have a plan.

unknown 10:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Sounds kinda odd, right? Sure. What I do every day is I wake up and say, okay, God, what are we doing today?

SPEAKER_02 10:50

So you lean on prayer and faith a lot.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Oh my goodness, yes. Uh I lean on that and I lean on I lean on the friends and the and the the people around me, um, and I handle whatever's in front of me every day. I make no plans, which means I have no disappointments. Okay, I if you I don't there are so many grand plans you have when you're on the street. Sure. I mean you're gonna win the lottery, you're gonna, you know, gotta you're gonna meet a special somebody. Everything's gonna get better with money, you know. Um none of that is true. Uh you convince yourself of all these crazy things, but um and convince yourself you will. But you know, I just wake up every day and handle what is in front of me. And what is in front of me is the gift of working at New Directions. What is in front of me is, you know, I I I work a couple different jobs. I keep busy as could be. Um and with with with any luck, I'll do it for another 20 years, but that'd make me pretty darn old. But but uh I've I just I'm not gonna rock the boat, I'm not gonna change a thing, it's working.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

So how many how many days a week do you work at New Directions then? Five. Five days. Oh, you do five days a week. Wow. What are some of the what are the other what's the other job you said you do?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

I here again, I there's we're gonna lead right into this. I have a job where I drive people to work that are getting jobs from like they hire people from New Directions and other people around the the city.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

And I get to take success people that are success stories from New Directions that have apartments now, that are that are living life on life's terms, that are that are working every day, and people that are still at the shelter to job to their job and bring them back and and just just you know be a big part of of helping them move along. So pretty much everything I do is is related around that.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

So you're you're surrounding yourself with people who are waiting for that success story, and then also you're around people who have had the same success you have and climbing out of that through the help of new directions and all the programs.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

That is correct. It works, it really works. That's awesome. Yeah, it's like I said, it's it's a blessed life. I it it's there's absolutely zero negativity in it. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

And you know what? He's got a smile on his face every day and uh he works constantly, but it is so obvious how much he cares about these guys, and it makes such a difference for them to be around somebody who who has gone through it, which is why we have peer sports specialists that work for us. Um our peer sports specialist, and Stanley was talking on the way over here and saying that, you know, you can't get anything past them because they've been there, and um, and they understand the way somebody thinks. Some someone who is struggling with addiction, they understand it to their very core and and are driven by helping someone else. And that's what that's what we can see in Stanley. He is so driven by helping the guys who are where he was just a few short years ago.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

I had somebody who who's in a similar situation, a friend of mine who was rock bottom and decided to turn his life around and decided to help other people. And he said the greatest tool that he has is the fact that he went through that before because he can't out con a carn artist. That is true. He knows when they're conning and he knows, and he can get right through it and see it's all right. Can we put that aside and just get to the matter here? Absolutely true. It kind of helps strips it away and you get to it. Absolutely true.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

That's what they laugh at me about.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

What's that?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Kathy, please don't, please don't try to counsel people. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

Why? Because you fall for it too quickly. I fall for it too quickly. Well, that's why you need somebody with your disposition. I mean, you're positive. I can feel that. But you've also been there. He is positive. You've been there, you know. It's a life's lesson I'll never forget. Proud of you, Stanley. That's awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. That is really great. And the fact that you you've decided that God is your partner in this journey, that's also amazing. Yeah, well, I didn't realize that he was all along. I just didn't recognize it. Right, right, right. Yeah, that's great. I love it. Kathy Jenkins, congratulations on the award. Thanks for bringing in another awesome guest today. Thank you so much. It lifts my spirits up when I see that, Stanley. It made me smile today. I appreciate that. Thank you. You too also. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you. Ditto. All right. So we'll talk next week, right? Yeah. Are you in? I'm in. All right. I'm in. All right. See you there. Jenkins, New Directions. Congratulations on the award from the uh Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce. The uh what is it? Nonprofit of the Year. Is that gonna happen? That is correct. That is amazing.