Q&A with Paulette Lemons

Residence: Centerville

Occupation: Executive director, Connections on the Parkway

Q: Where did you get the idea for Connections on the Parkway?

A: I am from a large family — 14 brothers and sisters — and I realize the importance of family values and morals. After 32 years at Robins Air Force Base as a logistics supervisor dealing with lots of families and family issues, I could see the erosion of families through various issues and problems. Connections is an attempt to help remedy that and positively impact children, youth and adults in our community. It’s to help strengthen families.

Q: What led to Connections in particular?

A: Thinking about my future five years prior to retirement, I prayed about what I would get involved with. The answer was to found Connections and somehow help families get better. As an older sibling I learned early on how to take care of younger brothers and sisters, cook and keep house. And I must admit that I’ve always been involved in 4-H. All that along with the business and leadership skills I gained in my career, and with the Lord’s help, I felt I had what it took to start and run this.

Q: As a home-grown nonprofit, people have a chance to check Connections out this month. What’s going on?

A: Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. we’re having an open-house event we’re calling our 4-H Healthy Living-Community Involvement Day. There’ll be a short program at 10 then people can drop in and see the facilities, demonstrations and what we’re all about. It’s sponsored by some of our community partners: 4-H, the Fort Valley State University College of Agriculture’s Family Sciences and Technology Cooperative Extension Program and United Healthcare.

Q: What will it be like?

A: There will be a schedule on our website (www.connections4u.org) before the day, but people can drop by and see demonstrations from students in the kitchen and throughout the house, tour our house and gardens and greenhouse, get information from community groups like Houston Healthcare, who will be doing health screenings and different vendors. We’re having a number of vendors come from the International City Farmers’ Market. There will be prizes and plenty of things to taste. There will be lots of youth involved and FFA students from Houston County schools doing things. We’ll have games for children.

Q: What kind of prizes?

A: They’re a little different. We’ll give away things related to what we do in the areas of cooking, housekeeping, life skills and gardening. A prize might be a packet of seeds to use at home or vegetables we’ve grown or healthy smoothies we’ve made. It’s all about getting a good representation of what we do here.

Q: What are some of your routine class and seminar subjects? How do you teach?

A: Our facility is a comfortable home setting we’ve adapted for teaching at 957 Carl Vinson Parkway. That’s north of Watson Boulevard. We have people learn in a real home situation so they can return to their own home and do the same tasks. We teach budgeting and financial management, computer technology, nutrition, food education and preparation, health-related topics and home management, home upkeep and safety skills. We also teach steps to being a healthy teenager and teen financial literacy. We teach a lot of things including all aspects of gardening in connection with the Fort Valley State University’s extension program. There’s so much we have to share in hopes of improving individuals, families and our overall community.

Q: How long have you been in operation?

A: We developed a community board of directors in August 2011 and began building relationships with other community partners and agencies. We began a pilot program that year and soon after started our regular work.

Q: How are you funded?

A: Through donations from individuals, businesses, corporations, faith-based groups and grants. We hope all the Middle Georgia and Houston County community — and all our Centerville neighbors — will come and learn more about us. We’re really here to serve and benefit others. We truly want people to understand how important they are to the overall community and how much better things are when everybody is doing well. We hope groups will come Sept. 24 — youth groups, senior groups, families, everybody.

This story was originally published September 11, 2016 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Q&A with Paulette Lemons."