WS Chronicle

Earlier this week volunteers with the local non-profit MY FACE, Inc. did their part to ensure more than two dozen children in the community wake up on Christmas morning with something under the tree. Volunteers delivered gifts to children whose parents are in the non-profit’s MENTOR (Mentoring Empowerment, Nurturing, Opportunities, Responsibility) project, a hands-on program that provides mentoring, career development, community resources and other tools for families in need throughout Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. 

MY FACE initiated the MENTOR project in 2019 with only two families and in just a year’s time that number has grown to more than 30. Founder Dothula Baron said MY FACE and the MENTOR project started as just an idea she had one day, but with help from a few dedicated volunteers like Mattie Peebles and several local organizations like Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods (NBN), that idea has become reality. 

Baron said after doing her homework, she was able to get a grant from NBN to get things started and everything else just seemed to fall in place. “All I know is the idea just came to me. I just felt that mentoring was a great way to help young mothers,” Baron said. 

“For years I’ve been sold on working with women. Women’s programs, women’s transformation, women empowerment, and so it just went along with what I’ve always done and what I’ve always believed in.” 

Along with the mentoring piece, during the pandemic MY FACE has also provided families with meals, toiletries, household cleaning items, school supplies, and gift cards to be used for back-to-school clothing. She said, “We believe even before people can even think about financial achievement or employment, basic needs have to be met, so that’s where we try to help.”

Baron said before she even started planning for Christmas this year, several local agencies reached out to her and wanted to help. She said MY FACE has received support and assistance from Family Services, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, H.O.P.E. of Winston-Salem, Salem Chapel, and the Winston-Salem Foundation. 

“Even before we started getting the list and buying what the children wanted, agencies started contacting us volunteering to adopt families,” Baron said. “That’s what’s so beautiful about this – we have so many people who are just willing to give … there are so many wonderful people out there who are just willing to help. That’s really how things are coming together.” 

Volunteers dropped off gifts to families on Wednesday, Dec. 23. Baron said families were referred to the program by guidance counselors at schools that serve the Boston-Thurmond Community. When asked how it feels to be able to help so many families in need, Baron said she’s been where some of these women are, so being able to give back has been a real joy.  

“It’s a real joy,” Baron continued. “I’ve been through what these mothers are going though and it’s so great because the women are so thankful.”