Since 2021, the Reeds Spring School Foundation has awarded a $10,000 scholarship each year to a student who quietly does great things to help the school and community. A person who does not seek the spotlight, a Wolf in the Darkness.
The Foundation also honors a community member for displaying those same characteristics, in hopes that students see community service as a lifelong pursuit.
Shirley West Mease received recognition for her devotion to feeding the community, both literally and spiritually.
Shirley has lived a life of service by living out the Bible verse: Love is kind.
Amelia Earhart said, “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”
So each prayer, each hug, each smile, each song, each minute and each morsel shared throws out roots that sprout trees. If that’s true, with the enormous number of kindnesses done in Shirley's life so far, we would need to drive for days to get out of the forests she has created.
The people who nominated her described her as “the most selfless woman I’ve ever gotten to meet,” “truly a blessing,” and “nicest woman on the planet;” “so passionate about every wolf that has been and will be in the Reeds Spring school district” and “constantly finding ways to serve others around the community.” In fact, one nomination summed up all the others quite well: “You cannot find a more deserving human for this award.”
Let’s look at a few specific examples of those roots being thrown: She has been a faithful, active member of her church for 35 years! Friends say they could count on one hand the number of Wednesdays and Sundays she has missed. She has served the church and its members faithfully, especially providing food for those who are sick and for families after funerals. She feeds both the stomachs and the souls of those she touches.
Staff and students praise Shirley for her ever-present prayer boxes on top of the refrigerators and prayer meetings before school, her delicious dishes as a school cook, and her feisty sense of humor. Co-workers delight in her beaming presence. She has sung Happy Birthday to kids in her lunch line and paid overdrawn meal accounts out of her pocket. Those stories come from the students and staff, not from her.
With two daughters, five step-children, countless grandchildren, and more and more great-grandchildren all the time, there are many, many trees sprouting in her family.
Her big and very public kindness is the annual Thanksgiving dinner. What started as a way to push through a sad occasion and try to feed 100 people the first year (when only 11 showed up in the snow), has turned into a feast for 600+ with groceries and hygiene items available as well as deliveries to more than 125 different locations in multiple counties in 2022!
With community gifts and contributions plus help from volunteers and family members, Shirley West Mease puts on a feast of love and kindness with some food on the side. The older her grandkids get, the more responsibilities in the kitchen they get, and the more visiting and loving and kindness Shirley gets to do during the meal.
This leads to monthly shopping trips with neighbors and kids who start eating solid foods and new friends to volunteer and on and on…as roots shoot out and trees sprout up around Shirley wherever she goes!
Shirley West Mease has created a forest of kindness, and the Reeds Spring School Foundation thanks her for being so generous with her love.