TAKING CARE OF OUR OWN

Bob Stine’s life trajectory took an abrupt turn thanks to a simple question from his teenage son.

“I’d been working in paper distribution for years, but I didn’t like it,” Bob recalls. “We have three boys, and the youngest was getting ready to go to college. One day, he said, ‘Dad, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? You hate your job. You can’t follow me around with sports anymore. You’ve got to find something to do.’ It was very insightful. I thought, if money wasn’t an issue, what would I do?”

As Bob wrestled with that question over the next several months, one thought kept recurring. “When I was in high school, I worked at an organization which served kids and adults with special needs. I just loved that. Why did I stop doing that?” In timing that was beyond uncanny, Bob received a call from an acquaintance at Elim Christian Services, an organization serving people with special needs. “He asked me to serve on the board. I said I’d love to. I’ve been praying about this. After a year, I told him, I think I need to work here.” Soon, Bob was working full-time for their adult program. “We took adults with special needs to all kinds of things, including opportunities for them to serve others. The joy they found in not only being served but in getting the chance to serve was life-changing for them.”

Bob eventually retired, and he and his wife built a home in Shorewood Hills. But Bob still felt driven to give back. He spoke with his pastor at Harbert Community Church, who invited him to a Neighbor by Neighbor board meeting. “I learned about the poverty in the area,” relates Bob.

“The A.L.I.C.E. report breaks down poverty data by county; I was awestruck to see 60 percent of the people in our area have no savings. They’re one disaster away from bankruptcy. Delve into it further and you realize it makes sense—in a rural resort community, most businesses can only employ people for three or four months a year."

"To support all the things we enjoy about being in this area, you’ve got to pay a price somewhere. It helped me to get a handle on the need in the area and gave me a reason to get involved. Years ago, a pastor said, ‘Don’t give until it hurts. Give until it feels good. I’ve carried that with me.”

Bob appreciates the hyper-local aspect of how Neighbor by Neighbor serves the community. “This should be our job, as a community, helping people locally,” he emphasizes. “There is enough affluence here that we should be able to help other people thrive, who haven’t been blessed with many of the resources that we have. This should be a local thing—helping people to thrive, providing personalized help. Every person’s poverty is different, and we address that need personally.”