Finding a Calling, and Making a Difference

(Ginger Dowdle has been selected as one of the National Association of REALTORS®’ Good Neighbor Award winners for her work as founder of Shepherd’s Ministries, a 60-acre farm where she and husband Steve run a summer camp for the community, as well as a year-round residential program for foster children and at-risk youth. Dowdle was formerly honored last week at the NAR Conference & Expo in Orlando.)

Shepherd’s Ministries actually began in 1995. I was married at the time and we made a little homemade brochure. The goal was to help at­risk youth. The brochure included a list of the things we would need to get Shepherd’s Ministries under way and successful. My marriage ended a few years later, and I put Shepherd’s Ministries on the back burner. I was very busy and didn’t think about the ministry for several years. Ten years later, I found myself living on a farm with fencing, horses, and pastures – coincidently, all the things that were originally on the “needs list” of the brochure we’d made in 1995. I had everything I needed. Well, a few months later, I met my (now) husband and I told him I wanted to help at­risk youth. He was on board and had experience with underprivileged kids, so it didn’t scare him off. A couple of months later, we got married.

NAME

Regina “Ginger” Dowdle

LOCATION

Statesville

FIRM

Sunrise Realty & Development

LOCAL ASSOCIATION

Charlotte Regional REALTOR® Association

(CRRA)

Ginger with her husband, Steve.

We started doing foster care, and the first two boys we had in our care we adopted. After a few years of them being with us, their parental rights were terminated, their mother was deceased and they didn’t want to move to go to another foster home to be adopted, so we adopted them. One of them is going to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the other one is still in high school and doing extremely well. We told them we wanted to work with at­risk youth, and we made sure that was something they were OK with and they were. We have anywhere from four to six boys living in our home – other than the two we’ve adopted – at any given time. In all, we’ve had over 20 kids in our care over the last few years.

When we started doing foster care, we realized that when kids age out of the foster system, they are free to go on their own. Initially, it sounds great, but think back to when you were 18 – you’re not ready to be out on your own. Many of our foster kids have gone from location to location, and they don’t really have skills to help them once they are out in the world. We really wanted to teach real­world skills so we set up our mechanic and carpentry shop to better prepare kids.

A lot of the time, on a foster child’s 18th birthday, kids are often taken to a homeless shelter. We wanted to do something about that. We have a duplex that we built so we provide housing for a maximum of four young men who have aged out of the system. We give them a sliding scale fee for their rent and continue to give them guidance to help them make good decisions. We’d like to do more but with the economy the way it is, this is all we can do for now.

I was drawn to work with teenage boys, because I always just envisioned myself as having boys. It may be because I had all sisters growing up, and I was a tomboy and very athletic. I just always saw myself working with boys. That’s not to say we don’t want to work with girls. One thing I’d love to eventually do is provide a Mercy House for pregnant teenagers. Now is not the right time for that, but I hope it’s something we can do in the future.

I am so pleased to say that when all of our foster kids have left our home, we’ve had a good relationship with them. They may not have always agreed with what we did or the rules we had, but they were always respectful. My husband is wonderful at it: He has a good temperament – I rarely ever see him get angry – and he has a great personality to work with these guys. We keep in touch with the children we have fostered, whether it’s through Facebook or them calling to ask for guidance or advice.

For more information on The Shepherd’s Watch Ministries, visit www.tswatch.org. v