Brandee Thomas, is a journalist turned executive director of My Sister’s Place, a local, nonprofit shelter for homeless women and children in Gainesville.
“When I first started writing for The Times, I was given the assignment to do a story about My Sister’s Place,” Brandee said. “Before that, I’d never been to a homeless shelter and thought that I’d never met a homeless person. I was struck by how much it felt like home and how the face of homelessness was very different from the picture that I had in my head. The whole experience touched my heart because the women and children that I met could’ve been my friends or family.
“I realized in that moment that homelessness could happen to anyone and I wanted to do what I could to help the cause and bring comfort to those who needed it most. I started out as a volunteer and board member and almost a decade later they haven’t gotten tired of me yet!”
Brandee graduated from Georgia Southern University and is a native of coastal, South Georgia.
Outside of her worklife she says she is “obsessed with being a great auntee to my niece and nephew and spoiling my dog Jackson with accessories and clothes. I mean everyone needs a seasonally appropriate wardrobe, right?”
Recently we caught up with Brandee to find out a little more about her and what she loves about the Hall County community.
Question: What is the best part about Hall County?
Answer: “To me, the best part about Hall County is its people. It may be the Poultry Capital, but sometimes I think it should petition to be renamed the Kindness Capital. There are so many people in this community with a heart to help others and a genuine, do-gooder spirit. It’s contagious and I love it.
“I also love that I finally get to experience four seasons – summer is still my favorite though. Growing up in Brunswick, which is the mainland to St. Simons and Jekyll islands, the weather was either hot or hotter, with humidity thrown in for variety. Until I moved here in 2008, I only owned ‘cute’ scarves and a heavy jacket was no match for winter in North Georgia. Back home, our snow days were school being cancelled because the weather was supposed dip into the 30s and they thought the pipes might freeze. No actual precipitation fell from the sky. So imagine my surprise when I moved here, it snowed and I was still expected to come to work. Um, excuse me? When I told my grandmother this, she was ready for me to quit my job and move back home! Eight years later and she still calls to make sure I’m warm enough and have food if she sees freezing weather in the forecast.”
Q: What are some upcoming events/new for My Sisters Place that you would want to share?
A: “We are looking forward to our annual dinner-dance fundraiser on October 13 at the Chattahoochee Country Club. That event typically provides about 20 percent of our operating budget. There are always great items and trips in the auction and this year Banks & Shane will be providing our live music! Tickets are available on our website: www.my-sisters-place.org.
“We are still raising money for our future thrift store – we’re about $25,000 shy of our fundraising goal. We want to raise enough money to cover start-up costs and six months of anticipated expenses before we open the doors. The shelter has been open for 16 years and although we know the thrift store will be a boost for our program by providing residual income and work experience for our residents, we don’t want the shelter’s operations to suffer at all while we go through the growing pains of opening a store.”
Q: Even for friends and some family, what is something about you that not everyone knows?
“I’m an open-minded, picky eater if that makes sense. I eat with all of my senses. So if something has a weird color, smell, or texture, I can’t get beyond it to eat it. And if the kitchen or dining room looks sketchy, I can’t eat from there either. I’m all about good health scores!”
“Even though I was born and raised in the South and my family is about as southern as they come, there are some portions of southern cuisine that I don’t partake in. I don’t eat most of the southern salads like potato, egg and macaroni. I only recently tried pimento cheese and I don’t like sweet tea. I want my banana pudding without bananas – banana extract is awesome – and you never have to worry about me eating your pork rinds/skins. Ick.”
Q: Where could you eat for a week in Hall County? And if you could take anyone to lunch, dead or alive, who would it be and where?
“I can’t share my favorite food place because I’m afraid it will close down. Seriously. I’m like the kiss of death. Every time I get excited about a place and then start raving about it, it goes out of business! Need examples? There was this delicious BBQ place on the square that I loved a few years back now it’s gone. Same with Bucket-O-Shrimp and this Italian restaurant on Dawsonville Highway.”
“I would love to have high tea at Anastasia’s Tearoom with Oprah though. I have always loved her and would relish the opportunity to soak up some of that wisdom in person. She’s given me lots of useful nuggets already though, like, ‘When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.’ I think she got that one from Maya Angelou. On one episode, she mentioned that whenever she sees an article of clothing that she likes, she buys it in multiple colors. I adopted that philosophy, too. She also decreed jersey sheets one of her favorite things on a holiday episode – those are now the only sheets that I buy. When the last episode of her talk show aired, I was still writing for The Times and of the editors – Keith Alberston – let me borrow his office so I could watch it and say good-bye. I cried…a lot.”
Q: Where do you hope to be in five years, 10 years?
“In five years, I hope to have helped My Sister’s Place grow to be a multi-faceted organization that’s improving the lives of the poorest women and children in our community. Today, we only operate a homeless shelter, but I want to see us grow to include transitional housing and of course the thrift store.”
“In 10 years, I want to be able to say that I finally wrote a book. Writing is my first love and I’ve wanted to complete a novel since I was in the third grade. I’ve started at least four or five – fiction and nonfiction – but I can’t seem to settle on one idea or audience for that matter. Somedays I want to be Ann M. Martin and write a series like ‘The Baby-Sitter’s Club,’ but other days I want to be inspirational like Maya Angelou or a story-teller like Pearl Cleage. I’m throwing a lot of spaghetti against the wall – something’s bound to stick.”
The Faces of Hall County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live or work in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email babernathy@gonorton.com.
PROJECT PATRONS:
