Celebrating a Lifelong Spirit of Giving

When you first meet Jim Hamilton, you walk away feeling good because of his friendly, personable demeanor. You also walk away with a pen! 

Jim and his wife Mary are alumni from the Ohio State University, and any time Jim meets someone, he hands them one of his Buckeye pens. 

“I pass out a few pens every day,” Jim says. “I like to do that because I always like to surprise people. I say hello to them, and I wish them a good day. It's kind of a mission work.” 

The Hamilton’s are also passionate about the Immokalee Fair Housing Alliance project of building safe, affordable, hurricane-resistant housing for low-income families in Immokalee. 

“We first heard about Immokalee at our church, Covenant Presbyterian, when Cleve Cleveland and Betty Mongos from the Alliance came and spoke,” Mary recalls.  “I was particularly interested because I grew up on a farm and I know how hard those migrant workers work. When I saw the video and the slides of their living conditions, my heart broke. I just I can't imagine how anybody who owns those properties and rents to those people can sleep at night. I can't imagine a human being not caring about people you know.” 

As Jim recalls, his spirit of generosity and helping others dates back to his childhood days. 

“I just like to help people, you know. I suppose it comes from my mother. She was a first grade schoolteacher for 30-some years. She used to want to take care of the school kids. She wanted to help the kids that didn't have coats in the winter, didn't have shoes, stuff like that, so I suspect that I learned that from her. 

“You need to have the joy of giving,” says Jim. “I mean that's one of the things that I have always really believed strongly. We will be supporting this campaign to help people have better living conditions for as long as the Lord allows us to live. We really believe in it.” 

“It would be something that the Lord would be pleased in,” Jim says, “raising the money needed so that we can be able to take really good care of these people that work so hard. And when we get these new buildings built, that'll be a real joy to see those homes. Yeah, I can hardly wait for that!”