Center of Hope:

Thursday was payday at Arc of St. Mary Center of Hope, and Billy Duhon Jr., was not bashful about noting such to Executive Director Kristal Hebert.
The individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who work at the Center of Hope, in Centerville, are participants in the center’s vocational program, and they earn their paychecks through that program.
At present, the center serves 19 individuals who, in the words of the center’s fact sheet, “are registered voters that work and pay taxes,” and that most are active in their communities.
The participants hail from all over the parish, and can be found working on site at the center, or on the mobile work crew.
“They are here from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every weekday, and they work. People don’t think they do anything, but they work,” Hebert said, “and they earn a paycheck.” To which she added, as it dawned on her, “Hey, today’s payday.”
From behind Hebert, Duhon sounded off, “Yep, that’s right. Today is payday!” He added, “And I’d like to say, that we get along and we help each other out.”
The ages of program participants range from 22 to 64 years old. However, Hebert says she enforces no cut-off age. If the participants wish to stick around, they are put to work and payed for their services for as long as they care to attend. Hebert says she has seen clients stay up to the age of 67.
In February of last year, the center relocated from the building where they had been since 1973 to their current location; a move of roughly 200 yards, at the price of a little over $700,000, $160,000 of which the program participants funded through selling 16 years-worth of raffle tickets.
“That’s how we pay our mortgage,” Hebert said. “Right now, the raffle pays the mortgage. If I could sell $10,000 of raffle tickets every year, our mortgage would be payed that year and I wouldn’t have to worry about it.”
She tells a story of the construction phase of the relocation, and how the program participants were collectively fascinated with the several phases of the project, watching intently as the new building came together. When finally, the structure was safe enough that they could be ushered through for a tour, Hebert says they found several construction personnel still working inside, and thanked them for the new building. Hebert told the program participants that they should thank themselves, because it was they who had paid for the new building, through their years of effort. “I said, ‘Every raffle ticket you sold went toward this. We are just paying them (construction workers) to do it. They didn’t build it, you built it. This is your building,’” she said.
One of the participants, Tina Thibodeaux, has been in the program since high school, and was even a participant when she was a child, back when the admission protocols were different.
Thibodeaux said that these days, she likes to stack newspapers, which is just one of the jobs available at the site.
When asked her favorite part of the new building, Tina said, “Right here. I like it right here,” in the great room.
Tina is 47 years old, and Hebert says Tina has told her that she doesn’t wish to leave the program, a sentiment Hebert shares.
When asked how long she wishes to be executive director of the center, Hebert’s answer was, “forever,” which, incidentally, is as long as she expects the center to be operational and effective, as well.
Flanking the center’s main office building, and to its left, are three non-descript buildings: One building is a warehouse and depot for all minor recyclables, where there are perfect cubes of plastic conglomerations, stacked 9 feet tall. The other two buildings are for general storage, and shelling pecans.
In the recycling building, Byron Wilson was filling a large, industrial-sized compactor with various colors of plastic bottles, under the supervision of one of the six assistants employed at the center. Byron stopped to render pleasantries, but wasted little time at that, and went back to filling the compactor. Before the day was out, rendered pleasantries had turned into a proper fist-bump.
Hebert is very particular about references concerning the participants at the center. She said it is important that people understand that she doesn’t teach the participants as much as they teach her.
“When I first started here, I had never worked in recycling. I didn’t know how to recycle,” Hebert said. “I was too embarrassed to ask the staff, my co-workers, how to do it. So, they (the program participants) would show me, and there was no judgement. They didn’t treat me like I was dumb for not knowing. They gladly showed me how to do it.”
Hebert said that she wants people to know that the center is open, operational and up for a visit.
The place is brimming with industry and compassion. It is in need of assistance and notice, and the people one will find there are the reason. The program participants have done, and will continue to do their part because it’s their job, and they are up to the task.
Center of Hope’s recycling program accepts milk jugs, two-liter bottles, bleach bottles and any plastic bottle with a “1” or a “2” stamped inside the recycle symbol on the bottom of the bottle. They ask that all bottles be lidless. They also accept all sizes of aluminum cans, newspaper and corrugated cardboard. They cannot accept tin foil, disposable pans, tin cans, waxed or wet cardboard, cereal boxes, glass, metal, plastic wrap, white paper, school books, church missals, shredded or packing paper or Styrofoam.
The center is open to the public and beckons to be visited, if not to drop off recycling and/or pecans to be husked, to take part in the special events they host, from time to time.
The staff of the center will serve Thanksgiving dinner to the program participants on Monday, and the yearly raffle drawing will be held on the 11th of next month.
The Center of Hope Thrift Store is at 1502 Main St., Franklin, and donations are also accepted at the 100 Missouri St., Centerville location.
Monetary donations are also accepted, and checks can be mailed to: St. Mary Center of Hope, P.O. Box 3, Centerville, La., 70522.