On a warm summer day in 1994, Minister Shelly Gilmore had a vision: to start the Outreach Center of Christ the Savior. Lead by faith, Gilmore quit her job as a home health aid and set out to fulfill the vision.
“I wondered how would I do this with four kids and on welfare,” Gilmore said. “But somehow I pulled it all together to start Shelly’s In Home Services.”
In 1996, Gilmore and her staff of 20 women began to cook, clean and run errands for the elderly as part of Shelly’s In Home Services. Six years later, Gilmore started her most successful venture yet, Happy Spirit Adult Daycare.
But running both the homecare and daycare began to take its toll on Gilmore, so in 2006 she closed Shelly’s In Home Services to devote all of her time to Happy Spirit.
Sometimes called “Mama” by her clients, Gilmore offers a home away from home, five days a week, for adults with mental and physical disabilities.
The program’s 30 participants take activities in crafting and physical fitness and are taught basic skills in math, spelling, reading and social studies. Occasionally, they take field trips and watch movies. The goal is to get them to socialize with others, Gilmore said.
“When I first started, I had a red minivan and when I would pull up in front of their houses, even the ones that couldn’t communicate, would just run out of their houses as soon as they saw the van,” Gilmore said.
On April 2, the Outreach Center celebrated a new milestone. It held an official ground-breaking ceremony for its new 8,000-square-foot facility at 3904 Delmar Ave.
The new center will provide much-needed space for Gilmore’s growing business, located at 3624 N. Spring Ave. It will include a chapel, food pantry, kitchen, laundry room, office space, restrooms and a bathroom. There will also be an additional large area for the adult daycare center. The facility is due to open in the fall.
Getting the new facility clearly came with a struggle, Gilmore said.
“I stayed up a lot of nights, I didn’t know which way to go,” she said. “Every way I went to build the center, it seemed like I would get pushed back two or three steps.”
Over 10 years, Gilmore said she endured a lot of labor and anguish, including pressure from her landlord to end her business and getting swindled out of $10,000 by a fake accountant.
At times, Gilmore did not know how she would pay her employees. In the end, she said she lost about $20,000. Friends and even her family told her to quit.
“I’m not the kind to give up, I just keep going,” Gilmore said. “And look, God blessed me anyway.”
Three of Gilmore’s four children work with her at the Outreach Center. After the new facility is built, Gilmore says she plans to increase the enrollment for the adult daycare to 65 participants, and plans to start a child care center.
Her experiences, she said, taught her humility. She learned to relax and let God take control. Gilmore said, “Without God, I couldn’t have did anything and might have lost my mind and possibly my life.”
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