October Doer of the Month: Jackie Craig
In 2016, I met our October Doer of the Month completely by accident—or maybe completely by design. I received an email from a woman named Jackie Craig who read my book and asked if I would be willing to meet when I came to speak at an upcoming event in Raleigh.
Frankly, I said yes, because I had her confused with a director of another nonprofit with a similar name. Weeks later, when I arrived, I was greeted enthusiastically at the front door by “Jackie” who I realized I had never met before in my life.
As I entered her huge warehouse space, I was instantly impressed. Matching cobalt blue chairs, a long white coffee table stacked with home design magazines, and a bowl of bright green apples completed the scene. This was all displayed in front of a white mantle that held oversize decorative letters spelling out: HOME. Painted on the mantle in the script was the mission of The Green Chair Project: Reusing Furniture. Renewing Lives. Stretching past this opening collection were dozens of more groupings, equally styled and curated like a fine home furnishings store. Jackie smiled broadly watching me absorb it all obviously accustomed to her visitor’s surprise of all she, and dozens of volunteers had created.
“This is a furniture ministry, not a store, right?” I clarified making sure I had not misinterpreted Jackie’s original email.
Jackie nodded with pride and began giving me a grand tour of The Green Chair Project. Areas were divided like a commercial furniture store with dining room sets, bedroom sets, and living room sets. There was a display for linens and dishes as well as accent pillows and accent pieces. Behind all these displays were giant workspaces where volunteers made the magic. Donated items might arrive slightly battered but Green Chair volunteers cleaned dishes to make sets shine like new, folded sheets into freshly pressed linens, and even cut and repurposed curtains. The scale of the building and the mission was beyond impressive but even more than that, it was the love that shined through.
Something had been nudging me the whole time Jackie was talking. I kept hearing Ask her why she did it. There had to be a story. There had to be a whisper like the one I had that led me to help house the homeless and build Moore Place. This all had to have started with an insistent whisper like I had that would not leave her.
“Jackie,” I interrupted her tour. “I have to know. Why did you start this? How did you know you were meant to do this?”
Jackie smiled at me. We locked eyes and I knew by the tears that welled up she knew exactly what I meant. We went to her office and I opened my notebook to scribble down notes as fast as I could as Jackie told me her story.
In 2009, Jackie was in charge of a unique Christmas project for her church hanging large portraits of people experiencing homelessness in the sanctuary windows. The larger than life faces pleading back at her for help and understanding were haunting. There was a theme with the photography installation: What Are You Waiting For?
As she climbed up and down the ladder, installing the exhibit, Jackie wrestled with that question and herself. “What can I do?” she thought. “What am I waiting for?”
That Christmas memory of wondering what she was waiting for began plaguing Jackie. “I had this feeling I was supposed to be doing something with furniture and this prison ministry or the homeless but I couldn’t see it yet,” she told me. “I mean, I’m not a decorator and what was I supposed to do—decorate their prison cells?”
Although the nudge was very unspecific, the nudge was also very insistent. Jackie felt she must prepare to do something but she had no idea what. Walking into her church a few days later, a woman approached her. “Jackie, I was cleaning out my home and I have a lamp and a toaster in my car. Do you know anyone who might need it?”
Yes. Yes, she did. Jackie knew a woman who was getting out of prison and could use those very things. Out of that moment and all of Jackie’s experience, The Green Chair Project was born.
Jackie started letting her congregation know that if there were items they didn’t need, she knew women who did. Her ministry began in a storage closet at church, overflowed into a Sunday school room, storage pods, and finally, an old office furnishing warehouse donated by a CEO with a huge heart. The abundance was overwhelming and so was the need. Jackie matched families with furniture and volunteers with purpose.
The beauty of Jackie’s mission goes far beyond the thrift store model. Everything at The Green Chair Project is infused with love and choice. Families struggling and coming out of homelessness are not made to take something because they have nothing. They are offered the ability to choose what they need in their new apartments. Everything from dish sets to couches is offered on display in order to begin a life. A life of new beginnings where items once loved, can be loved again. A life of dignity for others and for Jackie, a life of doing exactly what she was always meant to do.