For six years, Connie Cashion has driven countless miles around Callaway County, delivering anything and everything to those in need. She climbed through packed storage units and hauled furniture out of her truck in the hundred-degree summer heat and freezing temperatures in the winter. Rain or shine, nothing has stopped Cashion bringing people the items they need: blankets to stay warm at night, kitchen supplies for cooking and furniture to fill out a home.
During this time, Cashion, who is commonly known as Ms. Connie, dreamed of running a free store - a place where she could house donated items and welcome the homeless, veterans, the downtrodden and serve them by filling their needs at no cost, including emotional ones. She imagined a building with three rooms. One for children's clothes and toys, one for houseware and one for adult clothing and bedding. Cashion hoped to reach this dream, she said, by the time she turned 60.
On Friday, she sorted donations with family and friends much like she's done years before. This time, though, it was in Cashion's soon-to-be-open free store, which she titled From HIS HOUSE To Your House. For Cashion, it's a culmination of community support and, what her daughter describes as, the realization of a longtime dream. The free store, Cashion said, is her ministry and a point in her journey set forth by God more than a decade ago.
"I couldn't do it - I have the heart for it - but I just could not do it if it wasn't for everybody. But, God always makes a way," Cashion said. "I want people to know they're not broken misfit toys and think they just happened, nobody planned them they were just mistakes...because it's easy to feel that way even when you have a job, even when you have all that, you still have a problem feeling like maybe I'm a mistake, I'm not what the world thinks I should be or look like, but I want people to know that they're not a mistake. That I love them and God totally loves them."
Her three-room free store, complete with a kitchen, at 301 Pioneer opens Tuesday, April 7 -102 days before her 60th birthday on July 18.
"Tell me God is not awesome," Cashion said standing in the kitchen, which includes a stove and oven. "I'm going to have heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer, a kitchen. C'mon, does it get any better? Does it get any better?"
Finding 301 Pioneer
Cashion said Anne Johnson, director of the Fulton Housing Authority, knew of her dream to run a free store and introduced her to the space, which has been not used much except for the occasional event and regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Walking into the building, Cashion said she didn't get too excited because "it might be too good to be true."
"This is the way I look at it: if it's of God, it will happen," Cashion said. "I don't need to do anything. I don't need to push. I'll just keep on doing like I'm doing, you know."
She walked inside a room and saw boxed shelving on the back wall. This is the children's room, she thought. Then, she walked into another room with a large closet.
"I knew that was housewares. (I knew) that God had set me up," she said.
The Fulton Housing Authority Board voted unanimously to allow Cashion to use the building for her free store, she said. And, she won't have to worry about utilities. Cashion said her connection with area agencies like the housing authority, SERVE, Inc., Our House, Wiley House, Faith Maternity Care, churches and the community at-large is the example of everyone coming together. What one can't find, she said, another can find.
"It's not that I'm great, it's that the community is great," Cashion said. "I'm just the spark and then everybody else jumps in and that's what builds a fire - it's community."
Building a following, support system
A Holts Summit resident for 14 years, Cashion started her ministry handing out winter coats. That snowballed into a winter clothes giveaway. Then, people started donating winter clothes and other clothes they weren't using. She went to county schools and picked up unclaimed clothing.
Holly Sherwood, Cashion's daughter, said it was common for her mother to stop by her home and request something for someone who needed it more than she did. It was also normal for her mother to give up things of her own.
"It was going to her house and realizing she doesn't have a spatula because there was a family who needed it," Sherwood said. "Or, she didn't have this because there was a family who needed that."
Eventually, Cashion held her first Christmas giveaway, an event in which people can shop for gifts they normally couldn't afford during the holiday season. The first giveaway was in Auxvasse and attracted about 100 people. Her last Christmas giveaway, which she held at the John C. Harris Community Center in 2013, brought in more than 620 people.
Since 2009, Cashion has been on the road, many times, making multiples deliveries in one day. This, she said, was made possible through God which has shone through the kindness of others.
"I think of the miles I drove, there's not way I could have afforded that gas," Cashion said. "But, just like yesterday, somebody saw me and said, "Pull up to the gas station, Ms. Connie, we want to fill your truck up.' It's things like that, all of us helping each other."
The physical labor has stressed her body, and she's fallen out of her truck when moving furniture, hitting her head at times on concrete. Her back is out in a couple places, her shoulder causes her pain and she fights arthritis.
"You know what, it's all worth it," Cashion said. "Every time I crawled in and out of that truck, it's alright because somebody smiled that day."
Better accessiblity, greater outreach
Cashion has learned of people's needs through her personal cell phone and Facebook - lines of communication Sherwood said made reaching as many people as they've had possible. Sherwood said Cashion and her partners will be able to serve more with the free store and associate the name "Ms. Connie" with a place.
"Now, with her being centrally located in Callaway County, she's more accessible," Sherwood said. "Of course, it's still going to be word of mouth while we start out, but for those who possibly couldn't get to her before, now it's going to be easier for them to access, especially veterans and homeless."
Cashion said agency pamphlets will be available in the front lobby. She will write employment information on a dry erase board near the entrance and she will help people with filling out paperwork for assistance such as disability and veterans benefits. Cashion said she wants to get to know the store customers at a pace they are comfortable with, listening to their stories and struggles. All she asks for, she said, is honesty.
The difference between a need and a want is a lesson she plans to teach. Don't plan on bringing a truck and loading up, Cashion said, because she doesn't work that way.
"When we lift up somebody out of the ditch, we should help them out and help them to a better life, not just be a quick fix," Cashion said. "It's not like a band aid. I'm not a band aid. I'm not a quick fix. I want it to be something where we can sit down and say, "OK, we've got a problem, let's see how we can work it to get better.'"
Store hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Cashion said she's always looking for donations, especially for personal hygiene products. She can be reached at (573) 253-4323.
"If I have to leave a living legacy, I would rather leave my grandchildren, great grandchildren, my nieces and nephews ... I'd rather leave them with the idea that one person can make a difference," Cashion said. "Don't ever think that because you don't have something or a big education or you don't have a lot of money or you don't live in a big house (that you can't make a difference) ... I want them to know that you can put on somebody else's hoodie and your hair might not be the greatest, but you can make a difference just by loving each other."