She lives a life of purpose and helps others find theirs
Story by Lynn Hobbs, photos by Leigh Lofgren
Some people see a problem in the world and complain that “something” should be done. Others get involved and volunteer here and there. But there’s a few who find a solution and take the bull by the horns.
Theresa Kemp is one of those few.
“Doing this is something I have a passion for and I feel like I was called to do it,” she said. “I feel like God leads me because a lot of times what I'm doing, it’s just ‘there.’ I wake up and He’s saying 'this' and the vision hits, and I know what we need to do. It is hard work, it’s not like it’s a breeze. But it’s been a joyful act.”
Changing stations
Theresa and her husband, Gary, moved to Reynolds Lake Oconee from Atlanta in 2002. “That was before Publix and The Ritz were here, and I had only lived in Dallas and Atlanta, so I’m thinking we’re out in the middle of nowhere,” she recalled with amusement.
Although the Kemps had always been involved in their careers and volunteer work, they purposed to enjoy retirement life for their first year in the middle of nowhere. “But after about four months, I was like ‘okay, I’ve got to do something,’” she remembered. “Golf and tennis were fun, but I needed to do something else.”
Theresa was grateful to discover Habitat for Humanity and St. Vincent de Paul chapter locations in the area because she had volunteered with them before. In the SVDP meeting, she met Tom Heber, who said he was with Greene County’s Habitat. When Theresa expressed interest in working with Habitat as well as SDVP, Tom invited her to a meeting. She attended and joined. “And ultimately, I became the chairwoman of the board and that was like a whole ‘nother world,” she said.
Theresa served with Habitat from 2002 until 2013, with six and a half of those years as chairwoman. “We always called those ‘the glory days,’” she said of the 55-home subdivision built behind Cotton’s Corner during that decade. She still serves on the HFH Board of Advisors.
A new train of thought
While at Habitat, Theresa inadvertently discovered a solution to a problem that would change not only her life, but the lives of countless others as well. Dave Thillen, a volunteer and later a board member, was setting up community-donated computers in the Habitat homes of families with youth. Dave also installed word and math games on the computers.
“And every year, he would upgrade that software and when they hit Greene County High School, they were some of the smartest kids in the school,” Theresa said.
Dave also began coaching each child in the Habitat homes to create and follow a plan to graduate high school and college and the resulting lifetime rewards.
“At the time, the county had a 65% graduation rate, but the 88 Habitat kids had a 94% high school graduation rate,” Theresa said.
Realizing the only differences were stable housing with computers and guidance to plan for success, Theresa was inspired. “I thought to myself, we’re helping these 88, but we need to help hundreds of children. We need a program that will help hundreds.”
Theresa looked up the statistics and learned the poverty level of single-parent homes with children in Greene County had risen drastically every year until it exceeded 70%. “And so, it was like a calling,” she said. “I loved Habitat and I wept when I stepped down. But I kept thinking we needed to do something to help hundreds of children so that every student has the chance at what Dave’s doing.”
By then, Greene County High School administrators had asked Dave to implement his program with all the students in the high school, not just the Habitat students. So, Theresa decided she would do the same thing at the middle school. But the middle school teachers told her the students were not educationally ready for middle school when they came in.
So, Theresa decided to start at the kindergarten level. Again, she was told by school officials that 50% of children starting kindergarten were not ready, and the number was higher for those starting pre-k. She was told the children had never even touched a book, neither did they know a single letter of the alphabet, number, color, or shape. When the parents learned their child wasn’t ready for pre-k or kindergarten, their response was that no one had told them they were supposed to read to their child. They thought the school was supposed to teach them. And the parents began to realize their child was behind just like they had been.
Victory Train® on track
“And right away, the vision of Victory Train® began,” Theresa said. “I said we’re going to start at birth and we’re going to flood the home with books, puzzles, crayons, and all the materials a parent needs to get their child ready for kindergarten and life.”
But simply supplying the educational materials would not be enough. The VT Team learned that mothers of newborns had never been taught how to bathe their baby, how to hold and talk to them. “They said ‘why do I need to talk to my baby when my baby doesn’t even know how to talk?’” she said. “They didn’t realize that the words the baby and toddler hear are a learning process that has to be delivered with positive reinforcement.
“They are their child’s first and best teacher,” she added. “So, we basically partner with the parent and empower them.”
Each month, the Victory Train team and volunteers acquire and organize books, workbooks, coloring books, puzzles, games, flashcards, crayons, pencils, paper, scissors, glue sticks, etc. and pack them into age-appropriate (pre-natal to kindergarten) zippered bags.
“It takes five to six days each month to pack 1,000 packets,” Theresa noted. “We have so many volunteers that we actually have a waiting list because it’s a very popular thing people want to help with.”
Volunteer “Delivery Angels” deliver the packets to 380 children’s homes weekly, and are greeted by children literally squealing with delight. “And the parents are glad, too, because they didn’t know what to do with their child and now, they know every week,” Theresa said. She explained the activities in the packet are “not just one 15-minute project” but are activities to be worked on all week long.
“So, if the children are squealing at the door, we know how effective what we’re doing is, because those children can’t wait to get that packet,” she beamed. "Someone told us the other day that her little 3-year-old, when he sees it coming, he says ‘School is coming, I get to do schoolwork.’”
Victory Train’s only two paid employees, parent coaches Angel Armstrong and Tameika Miller, along with volunteer teachers and retired teachers, meet with the parents and explain how and why the materials should be used. “So, they are working one-on-one with those parents to get them on the right track,” Theresa explained. “And they’re learning their role is not just a primary caretaker, they’re the primary educator as well.”
One of the mothers called and told Theresa she was surprised because, “ever since you gave me that book to read to my child and I read it to her, now she wants me to read it to her over and over, all the time!”
“So, the parents are getting in a routine and the children are getting in a routine and they know this is what you do. The parent is learning as much as the child is learning as far as their role as the child’s first and best teacher,” Theresa said.
The packets are delivered year-round, and they include more materials in the summer and during holiday breaks when school is not in session. More than 10,000 packets were delivered into the hands of children last year thanks to the seven members of the VT Board of Directors, two employees, five Educational Team members, four Delivery Angels, 55 partners, more than 400 volunteers, and many more donors.
The engineer's loco-motive
Ironically, the woman at the helm of it all said the career she retired from was not at all related to the work she does at Victory Train to accomplish all those aforementioned numbers and tasks.
Theresa said she grew up in a family of 10 children, “so everybody thought I’d be the one to have 10 children, but I was never able to have children.” She was widowed at age 36 and remarried at 40. Both of her husbands had lost their wives and they both had children, so Theresa’s seven stepchildren were like her own. “So the 23 grandchildren are really the children I never had,” she said. “So, God had a way of working things out, but in His own way.”
In college, Theresa majored in child psychology and earned a master’s degree in human development, but her career was law firm management. She was the administrative director of a major law firm in Dallas with over 1,000 employees worldwide. “Of my nine siblings, seven of them are lawyers and my father was a lawyer, so legal is in our background,” Theresa noted. “So when I ran Habitat, all that law firm management came into play. And now running all these volunteers and organizing Victory Train, my degree in Human Development came into play. So, I felt like the two came together and culminated at this time in my life.
“Working with children was always my passion even though it wasn’t my career. But at the law firm, we always joked that you use more child psychology working with lawyers than you do working with children,” she quipped. “And it gave me the skill set to run a nonprofit.”
Gaining track-tion
Testing data reveals Victory Train is on the right track to a world of children moving in the direction of educational and economic success. A statistical study conducted at Greene County Schools revealed the VT pre-k students outperformed the rest of the class in standardized state testing. In reading literacy, they scored 21% higher, according to Theresa.
“That number alone is huge because reading is the foundation of everything they’re doing,” she said.
The same children were tested when their kindergarten year started. The rest of the class’s scores dipped because they’d been out of school for the summer. “However, the VT children scored higher again because they got packets all summer long,” Theresa said. More tests in December revealed even greater improvement with the children’s scores going up 50% over their August scores.
“This showed that not only were the VT children better prepared when they first started school, but they took new material and learned it faster than the rest of the class,” she pointed out. “So, the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners are behind this now. That was a huge piece of data that we were waiting on.”
Theresa said none of it would be possible without the donors, volunteers, “and this very giving community. When people hear Victory Train, they’re in, we don’t have to convince them. We’re saying we can break poverty in a single generation for hundreds of children. By getting the child kindergarten ready and starting school on grade level, they have a chance to stay on grade level. When the children arrive ready, it’s transforming the whole classroom setting for the teachers, it’s changing the school system.”
But Victory Train is not letting off steam. VT leaders are already researching for and providing ways to continue its current kindergarten graduates’ success on through elementary and middle school.
Theresa hopes to share the concept with other communities throughout the entire state and beyond. “It’s so simple and it’s working,” she said. “Enjoying life, enjoying family and helping others are my passion and joy. So, the work is not a burden because I see it transforming lives.”
For information on how you can help Victory Train, visit www.VictoryTrain.org,
mail 5800 Lake Oconee Parkway, Greensboro; email info@victorytrain.org,
or call 770-609-5990.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This story appeared in Lakelife magazine, Volume 18, Issue 5 and is the property of Smith Communications, Inc. No portions of the story or photos may be copied or used without written consent from the publisher.
