For over a year now Rhonda Baylor has been trying to make an impact where she is able in order to improve the lives of others in Surry County. She called her group “Bruised Not Broken” to symbolize that although life can throw challenges and obstacles in your way but that does not mean it is time to throw hands in the and give up.
Baylor came to this area some years ago with next to nothing. She had garbage bags of clothing, an old small television set, and a desire to change the trajectory her life had been on. Now things are different, and she is happy and healthy and helping others with clothing, food, and fellowship when others may send them away.
Baylor sets up shop on the second Saturday of each month in the parking lot of Gates Pharmacy, 364 N. South St., Mount Airy and she is extremely grateful to Gates for allowing her continued access to their lot.
She started with a meal service behind the New Market Crossing Shopping Center at West Pine Street and Independence Boulevard, but her outreach has moved around a few times since its inception.
Baylor said that she is always in need of clothing donations because need does not know a season. She said that folks “seem to donate backwards,” she explained meaning that in summer people are clearing out the fall and winter gear, conversely in winter a closet clean out may yield bathing suits or shorts – not what is needed at that time, but always still welcome.
She has procured a storage facility to keep the donated items in between months so that it does not overtake her own home.
One thing she has realized over the last year is that people in need do not always look the same, “Just because you have a house or a car, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a need as well.”
Some people come to Bruised Not Broken for the meals, Baylor said she found her way to one of Mount Airy’s preferred BBQ establishments who donated the meat, slaw, beans, and buns for the next outreach event, “God led me to them and they donated to us.”
When the weather gets cold she said there is not as much traffic for her outreach and sometimes folks driving by will pop in to see what is going on. Baylor is not one to let food go to waste, so if she finds that there is more food that people in need, she said she has been known to make to-go trays and hit the road in Mount Airy trying to spy someone in need.
Not every outreach needs to reach the masses, she said, some folks are simply lonely and in need of a human connection. She knows that feeling of isolation and wants others in this community to know there are people who care and are willing to stand in the cold on a Saturday morning in February to ensure others can get a hot meal.
Anyone can help and small things can make a large impact Baylor said while thanking, for example, Luke Morrison and Gates Pharmacy for hosting the event, “They are heaven sent.” Just housing the event sends the message they care about the community and are willing to be a partner and that is just the sort of ally folks in need require and Baylor sometimes leans on.
She was once bruised and beaten by life and the choices she had made but Rhonda Baylor has found a new peace and is driven to help others attain theirs as well.
Anyone who may be interested in volunteering with or donating items to Bruised Not Broken should contact her at: baylorsherrill@gmail.com.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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