Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

For 25 years the Purpose of God Annex Outreach Center has strived to empower people and to expand opportunities within the community for disadvantaged and/or at risk youth, adults, and their families of all colors. On Thursday, March 21, community leaders, members of the community, and those whose lives have been touched by the Purpose of Good Annex Outreach Center came together at the annual fundraising event, to recognize and honor the work of founders Bishop and Mother Jones.

“Many of the outreach things we see in the community started with them,” said Sarah Godley, crime prevention community outreach administrator with the Washington Police Department. “For me working in outreach, I work directly with groups and individuals and I always go back to the things I learned from the Jones’, which is to help people and don’t stop until you have. To be a leader, you first have to serve, and that they have done as they continue to set such a great example in this community.”

“I have watched in awe and amazement the difference they have made in our community and across Eastern North Carolina over the past 25 years,” said Mark Hamblin, vice president of the Purpose of God Annex board.

The work of the Purpose of God Annex has been accomplished through its Summer Youth Program, Share Shop, Miracle Meals, and Project New Hope, which all improve the overall well-being and quality of life for those in need. Emanuel Williams started in the after school program, and went on to participate in the Summer Youth Program, and then boot camp. “Who I am today is because of all of these programs,” said Williams.

“I went to college, received a four year degree with a 3.2 GPA, went on to work in criminal justice and law enforcement, a funeral home, and the Public Works Department, and now have returned home to the Purpose of God Annex Outreach Center. If it had not been for the Purpose of God Annex, I could easily have been on the other side of the door with the inmates that I worked with at the detention center.”

 

Bishop Jones refers to this annual fundraising event as their Super Bowl or Wrestle Mania, as it is where they receive the majority of their funding for the entire year. But on this particular night after 25 years of serving the disadvantaged in the community, it was also a time of reflection. “

Tonight has truly been an awesome moment,” said Jones. “It is something that I could not have envisioned in my life and to have this caliber of people come out tonight and support us is surreal. I’m so thankful and grateful to God for a nonprofit to exist for 25 years in this small community. I have to understand that is a miracle unto itself. And then to be a Black owned nonprofit doing a professional job that people appreciate makes me feel mighty good, mighty good. I’m thankful, blessed, and humbled, and I hope I can keep going.”