After spending a career helping people while working for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, Rodney Rowe retired in 2009. But he is still helping people in Columbia County as the chairman of the Service Unit of the Salvation Army.
Rodney grew up in Okolona, and graduated from high school there. He went to Henderson State University and after graduation took a job with a construction company. After a short stint there, he accepted a job with Sears. He was moved around to various places in the Memphis region before he landed a management job in the store at Hopkinsville, Ky.
That store had not made a profit for several years until the year Rowe managed there. But though successful at his Sears job, home was calling, and Rowe moved back to Arkansas and took a job with Arkansas Social Services in Prescott.
Rowe expected that job to last only as long as it took him to find a job doing something he wanted to do. However, he soon found that helping people was indeed the job he wanted to do, and he stayed on with Social Services and transferred to Magnolia in 1976. He performed numerous jobs over the years at the Magnolia DHS office from field manager to county administrator before he retired.
Rowe was proud of the fact that during his time there they were able to make the Department of Human Services the contact point for the Salvation Army in Magnolia when the local office closed and moved to El Dorado. If they hadn't found an entity for the contact point, the Salvation Army wouldn't have had a presence in Magnolia.
According to its website, the Salvation Army began on the streets of London in 1865 when William Booth decided to abandon the conventional concept of a church. Booth wanted to take his message directly to the people. He had been traveling throughout England, and was invited to hold a series of evangelistic meetings in the East End of London. Booth set up a tent in a Quaker graveyard, and his services became an instant success. This proved to be the end of his wanderings, and he attracted dedicated followers who were some of the poorest people in London. To these congregations, he preached a message of hope and salvation.
By 1867, Booth had 10 full-time workers, but that number grew to over 1,000 volunteers and 42 evangelists by 1874, all serving under the name "The Christian Mission." Booth assumed the title of general superintendent, with his followers calling him "General." Known throughout London as the "Hallelujah Army," the converts spread out of the East End of London into neighboring areas of the city, and then on to other cities.
When Booth was reading a printer's proof of the 1878 annual report he noticed the statement, "The Christian Mission is a volunteer army." Crossing out the words volunteer army, he inserted "Salvation Army," and from those words came the basis of the foundation deed of The Salvation Army. From that point on, converts became soldiers of Christ and an offensive was launched throughout the British Isles. In spite of opposition and persecution, some 250,000 people were converted under the ministry of the Salvation Army between 1881 and 1885.
Meanwhile, the Salvation Army was gaining a foothold in America. Lt. Eliza Shirley left England to join her parents who had come to America, and in 1879 held the first meeting of the Salvation Army in the United States at Philadelphia, Pa. Hearing of the enthusiastic reception, Booth sent reinforcements in the form of an official group to pioneer efforts in America. On March 10, 1880, that group arrived in New York City. They were ridiculed, arrested and attacked, but in three years the group had spread the message to 12 states. President Grover Cleveland welcomed a delegation from the Salvation Army to the White House in 1886, and the organization has had similar endorsements from succeeding presidents.
Locally, the Salvation Army is best known to people who are Christmas shopping at Wal-Mart and other locations when they see and hear the volunteers who stand by the red kettles ringing the bells. That has become one of the traditional sights and sounds of the Christmas season since the idea began in San Francisco in 1891. There a member was brainstorming for an idea on how to raise money to provide Christmas dinners for the needy. Remembering a pot in Liverpool, England, that had been used to collect money for the poor, he came up with the idea of the Red Kettle. It was such a success that it spread to the East Coast by 1901, and went nationwide soon thereafter.
Over the years, the Salvation Army has established itself as one of the most beloved and effective charities in the nation. In Columbia County, all the money collected goes to fund local services. The active involvement of volunteers allows the Salvation Army in Columbia County to provide assistance to burnout victims, limited utility assistance, meals for the homeless, food for individuals and families, shelter, clothing, and emergency medical care for those in distress or chronic poverty. To quality for this assistance, there must be an emergency that a person has no control over that caused the need. There has be a change of circumstances as it relates to income or an unexpected expense.
According to Rowe, the Salvation Army does not provide cash benefits, but provides assistance through a voucher program that is honored at various businesses around town. That way the service that is requested is the service a person receives. Some businesses participate in a program that provides products at cost, and that helps the Salvation Army stretch its resources, Rowe stated. The Salvation Army also does not provide services that are already provided by other entities. According to Rowe, It's a 3rd party source for assistance.
The Salvation Army in Columbia County receives its funds from the Kettle Program, the United Way, a trust fund that pays interest, and Albemarle. In the United States today, the Salvation Army assists over four-and-a-half million people during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday periods. If assistance is needed from the Salvation Army, the contact point is the Department of Human Services, Rowe stated. "In the future we may have a new contact point, but as of now it's still DHS." The DHS office is located at 601 E. University.