Accountant’s contributions to Elba add up
When Melissa Wood, accountant and entrepreneur, opened her accounting firm in Elba nine years ago she didn’t realize how much she would add to the town she describes as a close and genuine community.
Since then, Wood expanded beyond her firm to open a Christian bookstore, Son Exposure, as well as a coffee shop, Waymaker Cafe, in downtown Elba.
Wood’s businesses helped decrease the number of unoccupied buildings in downtown to single digits in a shared community effort to revitalize Elba, a place she described as “where I want to be.”
But she’s not stopping here.
More recently, Wood began an effort to help foster families in Elba and surrounding areas as she saw an unmet need. A relationship she developed with a foster parent and child opened her eyes to the need for support that foster families have for items like clothes, food, bedding, and school supplies.
To answer that need she founded Fostering Angels.
She applied for non-profit status in January, with the official ribbon-cutting held on May 18 in the former Bradley Florist space at 1951 Hickman Ave.
Fostering Angels could not open fast enough to begin helping those in need. Before the ribbon cutting, they had already started getting supplies to families.
The need has only continued since the opening.
“We have already serviced 35-40 kids in the short time we have been open,” Wood said.
She added that Fostering Angels will also keep donations available to families who are not actively in the foster system but may be at risk. She noted that the struggle many families go through to keep children out of the foster system is like those within the foster system.
Fostering Angels knew they needed funding to open their doors and keep them open. The community of Elba was quick to supply aid as churches provided funding and citizens stepped up as volunteers.
The early support for the nonprofit caused them to briefly pause clothing donations, but Wood lists other needs. Wood said she wants Fostering Angels to be able to provide “whatever a child could need to help them thrive” including items such as toiletries, toys, pajamas, and school supplies.
Wood's simple goal is to “continue to bless.”
She noted that Fostering Angels is looking into expansion with future projects such as providing space for a Department of Human Resources room for social workers to speak to children in a more welcoming space and a food pantry for families to use.
Sandy Williams, the director of the Elba Chamber of Commerce, described her longtime friend saying, “There are some people in the world that no matter where they, they are going to try to make where they are a better place to be.
In Elba, you have a person with a heart for change who wants to make their community better in Melissa.”
She noted that Wood is the type of person who, once something is on her mind and in her heart, tries to be a “waymaker.”
Williams added that some may look to the official leaders of the community for leadership, but she credits people like Wood as the “quiet ones behind the scenes making a difference without getting all the credit.”
Tags: Elba
