The new 2021 year is a cause for celebration for all of us. The hope of a better, healthier and more normal year ahead is what we all desire and pray for. For Mid-Cities Care Corps (MCCC), this year marks another reason to celebrate with a special anniversary, our 40th!
MCCC was established in 1981 by two social workers, Beth Cochran and Mari Donaldson on a meager budget of $60 to purchase phones that allowed them to work from a small, donated office space at Richland Hills United Methodist Church. From this small beginning the Transportation program was born, taking clients to medical appointments. During the Holidays, volunteers provided food and gift baskets, and what would eventually become the Social Outreach program was started. MCCC moved to a 300 sq.ft. office space at St. Philip Presbyterian Church in 1985. The main fundraiser, a spaghetti dinner, was held yearly and rotated locations at local churches. Garage sales in the church parking lot also contributed to funding in the early years. MCCC has had many Executive Directors, the longest of which, was Duane Buuck, from 2007 to 2020.
Some of the most notable occurrences over the past 40 years include:
- Establishing an Advisory Board to compliment the BOD in 2008
- formally defining the Helping Hands and Social Outreach programs separately in 2009
- Moving the spaghetti dinner to the brand new Hurst Conference Center in 2010
- Renaming the dinner “Festival of Friends” in 2011
- Creating a new database for tracking all volunteer time, miles and interactions with clients as well as funding and donations in 2015
- Establishing foundational support with the first Friends of MCCC event held at Crown of Life Lutheran in April of 2017
- Building a storage garage in late 2019, via generous volunteers, to house our lawn equipment
- 2020 the year of the COVID19 Pandemic, change in Executive Director leadership and the first year of the new golf tournament
- In 2021 the announcement of the Living Legacy Community and the mighty winter storm that severely damaged the east side of St. Philip Presbyterian and closed our operations for a week
Special thanks to long time volunteer Kay Schmuelgen for helping this writer get the history on MCCC. In the coming days we will announce our plans to celebrate this milestone. Stay tuned!