Misty Dothage has been helping the homeless since she has been eight years old.
She grew up in a small, cattle-farming family in southern Montgomery County where her dad would recycle metal scrap in order to put food on the table.
"I would ride with my father through downtown St. Louis to the scrapyards," Dothage said. "I was immediately captivated by all the homeless people along the streets. I remember my dad, out of concern, warning me that if I kept opening the doors or rolling down the windows then I would not be able to come along for the rides any longer."
A couple years later, Dothage's fourth-grade teacher gave the class a writing assignment: "If money was not an object, what would you do or create?"
It was then that she sat down and wrote her essay about establishing a homelessness rehabilitation program. Little did she know she would be called 30 years later to be the Executive Director of Our House: Caring for Callaway's Homeless.
Dothage graduated from Hermann High School and went on to join the US Army Reserves as a psychological operations specialist. She was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003-04 where she worked with Special Operation Forces for 13 months.
In addition to her military service, Dothage has been a behavioral health group home administrator, special education teacher, autism consultant, university housing project coordinator and a 4-H program associate. She has received various awards along with those, such as Army commendation medals, teacher of the year and national staff recognition awards.
She attended and graduated from Missouri State University with a bachelor of science in psychology, specializing in Special Needs Studies and a master of science in business administrative studies, specializing in project management.
"I never understood why God led me down such a confusing career path," Dothage said. "I always felt like I excelled at every job, but never felt like it was what I was truly created to do."
Once she saw the opening for the Our House Executive Director position, it was all finally coming together.
"It all instantly made sense," said Dothage. "I use the skills, education, and training from every job I've ever had. God was building me from the age of eight to be at Our House."
Dothage enjoys her career, but she pointed out it wouldn't be possible without the love and support of her wonderful family; family is important to Dothage.
She met her husband of 15 years, Dan, in the Army. They have two children, Auggie, 6, and Azlee, 4 and a half. They live in Montgomery County where they enjoy the quiet country life. Dan Dothage is very supportive of her career and is frequently seen performing maintenance and tech support at the shelters. Her children have said when they grow up, they want to "help the homeless be better and have houses."
"It is a family effort to successfully run a nonprofit," Dothage said.
Under her direction, the shelters in 2019 received the Kingdom of Callaway Distinguished Service Award at the Kingdom of Callaway Supper, and Dothage received the Kevin Ryan Service Award from Callaway County United Way in the same year.
"Those awards would not have been possible without a supportive board, amazing staff and a loving family," Dothage said.
Though she doesn't have much free time, she enjoys evenings in her backyard watching her husband grill supper and her children play in the dirt. She also loves landscaping, decorating and crafting
"When people are homeless or in crisis, their lives don't fit into a nice 8-5 schedule," Dothage said. "It takes countless hours to make a homeless shelter succeed. Every hour is worth it, but hobbies become a luxury."
For her children, she serves on the ICS home and school association, as the secretary for Liberty Cemetery Association Board as well as "taxi driver extraordinaire" for Hapkido martial arts and dance classes. And always looks forward to Sundays back at her mom and dad's house on the farm.
"Without parents that believed in supporting children' talents and interests, I wouldn't have had the drive to keep pushing through and loving unconditionally like I do every day at the shelters," Dothage said.
Dothage works long hours, but always makes sure she has time for her family. Though she believes she has plenty of stubbornness, sass and crazy ideas that she goes chasing after, those traits got her to where she is today.