FROM LEAVING TO LEADING

In 1996, Marcie Dust fled an abusive husband, taking her two children, their dog, their turtle and nothing else. She suffered from chronic illness that kept her from working. A friend in Michigan said they could stay with him awhile. “In Michigan, even the trees were prettier” she remembers. “I could see a new outlook on life—there was hope.”

Marcie spent the next three years moving through 15 different places, including a storage locker. “I hoped I’d be able to work and pay my own way, but my health didn’t allow it.” Obtaining her divorce, SSI and disability took years, but Marcie eventually received the back pay she was allotted. She bought a mobile home at a park in Three Oaks. “I lived there 23 years, then in 2000, new owners took over and raised the lot rent by $200.”  Then, Marcie got much-needed good news. At age 62, her ex-husband finally took a job, which meant he would have social security. And Marcie would benefit from it. “I’m a survivor,” she reflects. “You do what you’ve got to do. It’s either that or give up.”

Still struggling to make ends meet, Marcie and a friend were in line at the Feeding America food truck. “As we waited, a nice young woman from Neighbor by Neighbor was asking people if they needed things done around their houses. Somebody had broken into my mobile home years before and ripped the back door off. I didn’t have money to replace it, so I’d just pushed cement blocks against it. I said I could really use a back door.” At the time, the organization was operating out of Harbert Community Church, where Marcie encountered them again as a church attendee. “I’d only been going there a couple weeks when I heard there was a meeting to vote on whether Neighbor by Neighbor could continue operating there.” During that meeting, Marcie realized how little people understood about the scale of poverty in the area. “Somebody said that ‘those people can go other places to get help.’ Those people. Like we had a disease,” she recalls.

“I don’t like public speaking much, but I stood up. My knees were shaking. And I told them that where I live, in every one of those trailers, everybody needs help with something.” When the vote took place, the group voted 38 to seven for Neighbor by Neighbor to stay."

"When Neighbor by Neighbor formed a board, they asked Marcie to join. She eagerly accepted. “I’m so grateful for the help they have given me. Now I have a way of giving back. If I can help someone, I’m all about that. They came into my life to help me, and now we’re all intermingled. It’s rewarding to know that I’ve helped—and in a lot of cases, saved lives, where domestic violence is concerned. I’m always giving out Neighbor by Neighbor magnets with our phone number. We cover a wide spectrum of things. Because life is a wide spectrum of things.”