Unscripted: Giving Honor to those that have Honored us
Unscripted
By Keith Edmonds
Ink Spot Contributing Writer
Brenda Majors & Charles Scott (FWHA)
“The Lord blesses us to be a blessing. A servant leader serves the needy and rejected, the despised, and trauma ridden expecting nothing in return. Waiting for Christ to reveal the hidden greatness in the vessel and rejoicing with them as their identity unfolds. Giving glory to the creative ability of God. Zechariah 4:6 states the following ..."Not by might, or by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty" I thank God for the privilege to serve.” ~ Brenda Majors
HONOR. How do we show it? What is the proper way to express it? How do we define it? When I looked for a definition for it I found this: “To regard with high esteem; to have an adherence to doing what is right; something regarded as an opportunity to bring pride and pleasure.” In today’s UNSCRIPTED I will make an attempt to show, express, and define the honorable works of 2 individuals that are retiring from the Fort Wayne Housing Authority, which provides affordable housing for almost 4,000 families in our city. After over 40 years of serving the organization and the community with class, dignity, and due diligence, Charles Scott and Brenda Majors have decided that this will be their finale. with FWHA and I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts on both of these deserving servants of our city.
I’d like to start with Charles Scott who started with the Housing Authority in 1993 with his first position being a part of the lawn and maintenance crew along with being a resident of the McCormick community. Charlie (as he is affectionately called) moved his way up to maintenance tech and then became the lead for the maintainence department. When I spoke with Amy Jacobowitz (Director of Asset Management at FWHA) she stated “Charlie had a very caring heart for the residents and was a natural choice for us when we looked for someone to work in this capacity. Charlie has seen many changes over the years with the maaintenance staff and though he was not always big on changes, he always worked with a smile and made things work! He worked well with all of the employees and was our go-to guy. Charlie would assist with on-call maintenance when they got backed up or needed an answer about one of our property sites. He was full of information on ALL of the sites.” Personally, He loves his Camaro and the staff always kidded him about his daily breakfast of Vienna Sausages and a Mountain Dew. As I stated before, he never liked change and was one of the luckiest people I know when it came to the lottery! We are all better because we got to work side-by-side with Charlie Scott for over 30 years.”
Folks, in my mind whenever you can get this type of comment from the people that you work with on a daily basis and have gotten to know, then you must be doing something right! Your pride in what you do and how you do it, make me feel very comfortable in saying that it’s reached a level of EXCELLENCE!
As I took a look at Brenda Majors and her contributions of over 12 years as the Family Self-Sufficiency Coordinator for the Fort Wayne Housing Authority and serving in the Social Service arena since 1986, I could not help but think how many lives that she has assisted, touched, and influenced in those over 35 years. One of the most dynamic quotes that I received was from Denita Washington (Adams Township Trustee and fellow staff member at FWHA) who said “ Ms. Brenda has a heart that directly sees the good in people and she led with love with all those that she encountered. She was a true advocate for the people God gifted her to serve. She counted it a privilege and an honor to go out everyday creating an avenue for those underserved or marginalized in our community.” I couldn’t help but think that this is what I’d like to be said about me when I close my career. These 2 individuals understood that to be successful in your chosen profession, you have to understand the saying “We become people on our journey through life when we join together as a community of learners rather than attempting to master this journey alone.”
Brenda Majors and Charles Scott epitomized what this all meant with their service, commitment, guidance and wisdom for the Fort Wayne Housing Authority. There is so much more that can and will be said about their contributions to the city of Fort Wayne through their years of dedicated service, but as their careers head toward what ever their next challenges will be, I think that it’s important to remember, one, that each had a gift and two, what are we required to do with our gifts? We GIVE THEM AWAY. That is what each of these fine individuals did and we’re all the benefactors of a job well done.
Good luck to each of you moving forward and it is our hope that when you look back on your accomplishments with FWHA it brings you great pride, joy and fulfillment.