A SMALL INVESTMENT - A HUGE RETURN “Thank God for Aunt Nell.” The words echo from a recent discussion with Dena Petty, an eleven-year member of FBC and the Founder/Director of Mentors Care, a nonprofit organization that connects at-risk high school students with adult mentors. If anyone understands the importance of having a caring adult in her life, it’s Dena. Growing up with an angry, violent father and a disengaged mother who was immersed in a religious cult, Dena reflected, “No one woke me up to go to school in the mornings. No one checked to see if I had my homework done. No one at home told me that I was loved or gave me hugs.” At age 16, Dena’s parents divorced. At 18, when she would no longer submit to the doctrines of her mother’s religion, Dena was disfellowshipped by church leaders, disowned by her mother, and found herself living in her car. To provide enough income for food and gas, she took a job, working day and night, hanging wallpaper in a government housing project. “I knew there was a different way to live. Aunt Nell, my mom’s sister, modeled health and godliness for me.” Dena didn’t have a lot of access to her aunt, having stayed with her only three times while grow-
Interview with Dena Petty
ing up. But the impact was dramatic. “I watched the way she loved her husband and children.
I watched the way she gave of herself in serving others. Her example gave me a goal for a better life.” On a trip to Florida, Dena met her future husband from her home state. Todd Petty was an engineering student at Louisiana Tech. Because of her attraction to him, Dena decided to enroll herself. “They told me I needed to take the ACT or the SAT. I had no idea what they were talking about. I had barely graduated from high school. But here I was enrolling in college!” she says. “My declared major was interior design, but truthfully I majored in Todd Petty!” she laughed. When Todd graduated and was offered a job in Georgia, Dena decided to leave school to concentrate on being a wife and eventually a mother to their two children – Bryce and Lexi. “I wanted my life to look like Aunt Nell’s. I wanted to have a healthy family. I wanted to give back to my community.” When the Pettys moved to Arkansas, she got her chance. Attending a small Methodist church, they
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