Executive Director Reverend William Cruz believes the visibility Good Samaritan gained with its move to Sun City Center will attract more volunteers, clients and donors. He invites visitors to drop by the new base of operations at 767 Cortaro Drive, Ruskin/Sun City Center (behind Taco Bell). BILL HODGES PHOTO
Good Samaritan’s move to Sun City Center extends mission outreach
By PHYLLIS HODGES
“Moving into the Sun City Center area brought with it a number of challenges but also blessings,” says Rev. Bill Cruz, executive director of Good Samaritan. The mission relocated from its Wimauma 10-plus acres to a 1,400-square-foot storefront administrative center in the Marketplace Shopping Plaza (behind Burger King and Taco Bell) in April 2018. The compact space, staffed by five employees, serves as a base, workshop, classroom, sales floor/boutique and all-purpose training center.
Good Samaritan operates on a unique premise that differs from other groups that distribute food, clothing, furniture, etc. to those in need. Its program, dubbed Seeds of Change, is all about self-help and education. Rev. Cruz likens it to the adage of teaching people to fish rather than handing them a fish.
Classes held throughout the year — some in SCC and some offsite in churches and the Wimauma Senior Center — include Bible study, sewing, crafting, cooking/nutrition, health/healthy living and English as a second language. Class participants earn tokens for attending; these can be used to shop in the Good Samaritan “store.” Rev. Cruz credits his wife Theresa with the idea behind Seeds of Change.
Passionate volunteers make the program work, and help is always needed. For its food pantry, volunteers pick up, inventory and organize business donations. In the adult education program, they lead and assist in the classes. They also provide childcare so that parents can attend classes.
One of those volunteers is Sun City Center’s Cinda Russell. She gets excited when reflecting on her experiences and friendships formed over the past five years or so teaching sewing classes. She is helping with the Christmas Blessings Outreach event going on now. Toys are being collected at the Cortaro Drive location, and they need volunteers to organize them. The remaining dates to help with that are December 12, 16 and 17. Call 813-634-7136 for more information about this and other special events that offer volunteer opportunities.
There are some basic messages Cruz wants to convey to residents around the mission’s new community home. First and foremost, he wants people to know they are “here” and endeavoring to connect with neighborhood resources (volunteers, businesses, clients, etc.). He says it is also important for the community to know that the Good Samaritan program works. They operate solely on donations; it is a 501(3)c organization and receives zero government assistance. And lastly, they are a nondenominational Christian ministry, and he emphasizes it is not a migrant ministry, but a ministry “period” for anyone in need.
As the only program of its kind in the Tampa area, the Good Samaritan program was recently evaluated by a team of three University of South Florida doctoral students to determine its effectiveness in enhancing the spiritual, educational and empowerment of clients. They surveyed those in the classes about reasons for participating, experiences and the impact on their life. The study summarily concluded that Good Samaritan is much more than a food pantry. Its self-help philosophy is attuned to the community’s spiritual, physical, food/health and vocational needs.
Cruz says they are grateful that God led them to make the move although it is a financial drain to maintain the Wimauma property until it is sold. They thought they had a buyer, but that deal stalled due to the county’s moratorium on rezoning for new houses in that area. “God is in charge and has a Plan B,” he says. “Second guessing what he wants us to do doesn’t work.”
