Our story
Words are pretty cheap these days. Think how loosely
and pervasively such terms as “love”, “awesome” and
“unique” are used. So when people say that the story about the founding—and indeed the history of
WUMCO since the first seeds were planted some 45 years ago—is “incredible”, your first reaction
may understandably be “Yeah, whatever.”
But for those of us who know something about the organization and the remarkable couple who gave
so much of their lives to it, we can think of no more appropriate word.
The couple we are talking about is of course Fred and Jane Stearns. It was a case of “love at first
sight” when these two folks met so many decades ago. Perhaps nothing bound them more closely to
each other than their mutual concern for others, particularly those hurting, impoverished or in need.
They were, to use a term that was to come into vogue in later years, “soul mates.”
Fred and Jane never started out to found an organization to “provide quick and friendly assistance to
needy persons” in the up county area, as WUMCO’s mission statement puts it. Sure, Jane had for
almost their entire married life been passionate about social service and social justice and actively
participated in organizations on the cutting edge of change. Fred, as a Federal Government employee,
was restricted in the ways he could be involved but supported Jane’s activities totally. Still, even up to
the time Fred retired (in the early 70’s) the couple was dreaming about moving to Colorado, not
operating a new social service organization.
That move to the Rockies never took place, perhaps mainly because of Jane’s growing sensitivity to the serious survival problems faced by many of the less fortunate scattered along the back roads and byways in western upper Montgomery County and also because she met a woman by the name of Beulah Harper. When Jane met Beulah she discovered that Beulah had started her own little “food pantry”, using food donated by friends and sometimes off her own shelves, to help put meals on the tables of needy families. At this time (1968) Jane was deeply involved in her own social outreach, driving folks without resources and without transportation, to clinics and doctor’s offices, as often as three or four trips a week.
It’s hardly surprising that these two ladies, each with a strong social conscience, became fast friends and allies in trying to alleviate problems among the needy. Of course they recognized that there was more need than the two of them and a few other committed people could adequately respond to. The two women decided that a “help organization”, like those being formed in other parts of the county, was needed. They reached out for assistance but often without success because even among area churches and civic organizations there was disbelief that, as Jane puts it, “We need a Help organization here.” It was rough going for the first few years and the road became even more difficult with the untimely death of Beulah.
Still Jane’s work continued and she saw a gradual growth in awareness of the human needs that “Poolesville Help”, as the organization was first called, was trying to address—and with that growing awareness came more support. With his retirement, Fred became a fulltime partner with Jane and helped secure incorporation followed by IRS 501-c-3 status for what was now called “Western Upper Montgomery County Help.” The IRS status meant among other things that they could apply for grants from United Way and this these in turn helped in securing financial support and donations of food from civic organizations, the churches and a growing number of individuals. Jane was the “public face” of WUMCO and Fred handled finances and sought (successfully) grants from both government and foundations. Not so incidentally, one of the first United Way grants provided funding for the hiring in 2000 of WUMCO’s first paid staff person, Renee Brooks (still with WUMCO). Jane says: “There is no doubt that we would not be operating today if Renee had not come on board.”
As the cliché puts it, “The rest is history” as the organization grew in both stature and scope of services. And quite a story it has been. No one who lives in the greater Poolesville region today, and is knowledgeable about community affairs, would quarrel that it has exceptional—indeed singular—admiration and support.
We began this brief history of WUMCO by referring to the Stearns’. We end it on the same note. Fred was to die unexpectedly in early 2006. His death was a heavy blow to Jane and left a hole in WUMCO. It did not however deter Jane long from regaining her stride. Today she says simply: “I believe I was put here to do this and that’s what I have done. You can call it a religious thing and that is what it is.”
Of course Jane would be the first to disclaim for Fred and herself all the credit for WUMCO’s success. And she would be right.
But where would one go, whom could one find as another example of two selfless people giving a combined 70-plus years in serving fulltime their brothers and sisters in need without ever asking, or even desiring, a penny of compensation, and to boot even donating the use of part of their home for the WUMCO headquarters!
We rest our case. The story of WUMCO and Fred and Jane Stearns is indeed “incredible.”
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Jane Stearns,
WUMCO Executive Director
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