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HUGULEY — The Myers family has been helping people for 50 years now. Hermon and Cheryl Myers started doing this from their home in 1974. Adopted sons James, Jeffrey and Tony came to live with them that year and have been a help to them ever since, as has their daughter Christy. 

Churches and charitable organizations helped them with identifying local people in need, and the program expanded to the point where a new social services organization known as the Christian Service Center was founded in 1990. 

It was big enough by then to expand out of their house into a separate headquarters. It’s now in a large warehouse-type setting near the junction of FOP and Cusseta roads.

The Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season is fast approaching. This is always the busy time of year for the Myers family and the dedicated staff that support what they do. It’s always a goal of the Christian Service Center for everyone to have a good Thanksgiving and a special Christmas.

This will be a special Thanksgiving-Christmas season for the Myers’s. It’s the final one for Cheryl as the director. She will be stepping down at the end of the year in favor of daughter Christy Eddy, who will become the new director in 2025. Cheryl Myers won’t be leaving altogether, just taking a lesser role. 

She’ll still be there most days the center is open. Right now that’s 9 a.m. till noon EST on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The center is still a busy place in the off hours. There’s lots of stocking shelves and making sure the freezers are working properly.

“I know Christy will do a great job,” her proud mom says. “She was born into this and has been in training ever since. I still want to do as much as I can to help her. I can do a lot of the little things like checking the temperature of the freezers. You have to be very careful with that. One went out on us recently. We knew something was wrong when we opened the door on a Monday and there was a bad odor inside the building. All the freezers were fine when I last checked them the previous week.”

Most of the food provided to those who are needy comes from the East Alabama Food Bank, located in the Auburn Industrial Park. Some food comes from donations from churches, civic clubs and individuals.

“We spend approximately $1,000 a month on specialty food items such as baby formula and for those who are on special diets,” Myers said. “We are now buying hams for Thanksgiving.”

The Christian Service Center serves approximately 200 local families in Chambers County and in nearby areas. There’s a rising need right now among seniors. 

“For many of them,” Myers said, “rent and utilities take up most of their Social Security check.”

“We have two big orders from the food bank every month,” Myers said. “It used to be once a month, but the demand has grown such that we need to do it twice a month. It seems like it goes out as fast as we can get it.”

“When we first started this in 1974, word got around quickly about what we were doing and people started bringing stuff to our home,” Myers said. “I remember coming back home one day and someone had brought us a sofa. They left it on the front porch, and we had to move it to get inside. But that was okay. We knew of someone who needed furniture, and we were able to get it to them.”

“The Valley is a unique place,” Myers adds. “The people here are so generous, so willing to reach out and help others. We need people to help us this year with Christmas gifts. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t want anyone feeling left out when it’s Christmas. We have gotten a lot of requests this year for coats and other clothing items. We would like to have all our donations by December 10th. That will give us enough time to get it to them before Christmas.”

Myers has a special word of thanks to The Valley Times-News. 

“Our local newspaper has been so helpful to us for so many years,” she said. “We especially liked it when there were the community columnists in the paper. We were always getting information that way on people who needed assistance.”

The true heroes for the Christian Service Center are its volunteers. 

“Some have been with us since we opened in 1990,” Myers said. “Some church groups have been very supportive of us through the years and we really appreciate that.”

Groups from the Todd Christian Church in Shawmut and Plant City Baptist have been especially helpful this year.

“I hate the mention churches by name,” Myers said. “So many of them help us, and we appreciate it. I just don’t want to leave anyone out. I do want each and every one of them to know how much we appreciate their help.”

The Christian Service Center works closely with organizations such as the Chambers County Department of Human Resources (DHR) and the Circle of Care Center for Families to help those in need. 

They can give them information on homeless people. The Christian Service Center has packed food boxes with microwavable items for people who are living in motels.

Myers said that she has enjoyed working with Hispanic families that have been referred to them. “I have made some good friends from them,” she said.

Every day, the Christian Service Center puts into practice the Biblical teachings to love one’s fellow man in a non judgmental way. 

The Myers family adheres to the standard of trying to understand people and their circumstances and what can be done to help them.