Page 13 - June/June HER 2020

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hood Association ... I watched her give of herself in that association. ... Just listening to her passion for that area and the visions that she saw.
“After my mom passed, I went to the first meeting to quit because as I said, I was going because of my mom and her role that she played and her desire to keep going to the meetings. That was my goal: to go and quit. And they asked me — I remember Miss Elaine Jones ask- ing me ‘Are you gonna quit?’ and I couldn’t answer her. I wanted to but I just couldn’t bring it up out of me. I sat there in silence and she told me, ‘We need you.’”
Since joining, Wise’s involve- ment with the association has in- cluded fundraisers and projects that aid in bettering the commu- nity. Wise recalled a project she spearheaded where the associa- tion brought Santa Larry, a widely known professional Santa Claus who has appeared on radio and television shows after becoming the first black Santa at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minn., to the Hotel Hot Springs & Spa.
“We went to the same school but he was older than me and gone by the time I started college,” she said. “Everybody would mention his name because we had mutual friends and I was like ‘I wanna meet this guy one day.’ I did get the opportunity to meet him and he told his story about how he got off to being Santa Claus. I was ponder- ing in my mind ‘How can I get him to Hot Springs?’ Three years had past and I was still trying to think of a way to get him to Hot Springs.”
After presenting the idea to the organization and the president, Jean Lacefield, the project was giv- en the green light.
“At the time, Matt Fuller, was at our meeting,” she said. “He’s the owner of 501 Prime. ... After the meeting, he stopped me and asked what I was going to do for toys. You know, I’m trying to think of the money to get Santa here and he said ‘You can’t have Santa without toys!’ A couple weeks later, he met with President Lacefield and my- self and had us do a brunch. It was called A Little Taste of the Soul. That went over well, but in the process of doing that — I was kind of nervous doing it. I work better behind the scenes and not at the forefront. ... Bringing Santa Larry in to see all the people come through, get their pictures, get a toy. Hotel Hot Springs opened up their lobby to us. That was a great event. Peo- ple came all the way from Mem- phis, Tennessee to follow him. ...
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Just to get a picture with him.” The Gateway Community Asso- ciation has put on the event for two years in a row, but Wise said that everything is undecided as of now due to COVID-19. The association has been involved in constructing a pavilion next to the Webb Commu- nity Center and a fundraiser at 501 Prime called Oh What Fun, where kids’ games such as Go Fish were placed on tables. The association has partnered with Garland County Habitat for Humanity for a painting project helping homeowners paint their windowsills if the coloring is peeling and there is a Malvern Gateway Proposal in the works that includes plans of revitalizing Malvern Avenue between Grand
Avenue and Spring Street.
“When my mom was president,
there were a lot of things she talked about that I can see in this plan,” Wise said of the proposal. “She would always say ‘It’s gonna hap- pen. We don’t have any money but it’s gonna happen.’ So here it is. It’s just the vision that she had for Mal- vern Avenue and I can see a lot of the vision in the proposal and I get excited — she just wanted to see it flourish and bring out the potential. She had a passion and I guess I picked up that passion by listening
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HER MAGAZINE ¯ JUNE/JULY 2020 13