Citizen Of The Year

Citizen

YEAR OF THE by Caylie Howard | photos courtesy of Ginger Eads

To earn an award as prestigious as Citizen of the Year, the individual is required to have gone above and beyond for their community as a whole. It is a title to be honored and celebrated. The tumultuous year that was 2020 held many difficult and trying times for the world, which is why there is no one more deserving of this award than Ginger Eads.

Ginger grew up in the small town of Brownwood, Texas. It was there that her small-town values and roots for serving her community were founded.

“That’s just what you do. Civic involvement and volunteering make small towns work.”

From Ginger’s early years, she was surrounded by a strong circle of hard-working women. Both of her grandmothers held fulfilling careers -- one as the owner of a grocery store and the other as a secretary. Her mother, after having Ginger at 20 years old, went to college, received her degree, and became a teacher. It was from these ladies that she learned the value of being a hard worker.

“It’s one of my greatest strengths.”

Ginger attended Howard Payne University and graduated as valedictorian with an accounting degree. It was in her junior year that she met her husband, Denton County Judge Andy Eads. The happy couple has been together for 27 years.

“I knew immediately that I wanted to marry him. I found someone that matched my strong personality and I liked it,” she said. “He was someone who I could talk to about a wide variety of things.”

After graduation, both Ginger and Andy spent a year recruiting for Howard Payne University. This gave Ginger the time to study for her CPA exam.

After getting married in 1993, Ginger and Andy moved to Lewisville. Ginger worked in Dallas and Lewisville before starting her own firm in 1997. “I wanted to raise my kids on my own schedule.” By opening her own firm, Ginger was able to stay home and raise her three children, Everett (21), Addison (19), and Caroline (14).

For the first 14 years of her owning her own small business, Ginger operated from her home so that she could also focus on being a full-time mom. When Caroline started kindergarten, the opportunity arose for Ginger to move her office to Parker Square. This was ideal for Ginger, seeing as she would be working closely with her largest client, The Flower Mound Chamber of Commerce. This gave her the opportunity to assist in the day-to-day financial operations of the Chamber.

“I love helping small businesses, and I love helping the Chamber help small businesses. It works.” More importantly, Ginger prides herself on being a very involved parent. “Since the kids were little, I’ve always been very involved in everything they did. Whether it was Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, or sporting events,

I was there helping the organization if I could.” In the early years, Ginger’s community involvement was centered on what her children did. However, in more recent years, Ginger has become active in local community service.

Ginger is the acting Chairman of the Board at Medical City Lewisville, and she is very proud to say that she is a founding member of the Cross Timbers Rotary Club that was started in 2015 and now boasts 120 members. Ginger finished serving her term as the President of Cross Timbers Rotary in June. Even in the midst of a pandemic, Ginger found a way to make the club function. She created zoom meetings for them to meet. They were even able to start and finish a Habitat for Humanity home for an individual during COVID-19 while abiding by all of the regulations and restrictions brought on by the pandemic.

“I’m very proud to say that in the midst of a pandemic, we were still able to grow our membership in Cross Timbers Rotary.” Ginger Eads is the perfect example of what it means to give back to your community. Through her tireless hours of assisting small businesses this past year, her extensive volunteer work for her community, while also being the support system to her husband and our local Denton County Judge during a global crisis, she has proven that she is more than deserving of the honorary title of Citizen of the Year.

Ginger Eads is the perfect example of what it means to give back to your community.