News

McMinn honored for 25 years of service

Anthony McMinn accepts the Old North State Award from state Rep. Chuck McGrady.

By Bill Moss, Published: February 23, 2018

In its first 11 years, the Hendersonville Rescue Mission had 11 directors — simple enough arithmetic to arrive at an average tenure of one year and an average stress factor of a lot.

Anthony McMinn has been director for 25 years, and friends, supporters and family members gathered on Saturday night at The Cedars to salute McMinn for his long tenure and to thank him for the way he has blessed the poor.
There are a lot of ways to measure success over that time.
“I could say it’s because of the way the program has grown,” Rescue Mission board chairman John Lampley said. “Or I could say it’s the breadth of services, from transitional housing to job training to health services and on and on and on. Or I could say it’s the quality of staff. Anthony’s a good judge of character. But I think the greatest reason is he’s the man God has given us.”

Putting ‘a new man in that coat’
Donnie Parks, who retired as Hendersonville police chief in 2007 after 30 years, was keynote speaker. Parks described his close friend in terms of his success, his love of God, his family and those he serves, his patience for human nature and impatience to get things done, his wisdom and foresight.
“Sometimes we’d go to a restaurant and I’d ask, ‘How do you know that person?’ He’d say, ‘That’s someone we worked with and we finally got him a job and he’s been here for three years,’” Parks said. “That’s not just putting a new coat on a man, that’s putting a new man in that coat. … The Rescue Mission is led on the premise of love and it’s a Christ-like love. The people that come to the mission are going through a period of darkness and that’s where you need Anthony McMinn, a special person to lead them through.”
As a friend, “I know I can count on him when I’m as high as the moon or when I’m so low I can sit on a dime and kick my feet and not hit the ground,” Parks said. “He’s a friend to the poor, he’s a friend to the rich. Race and ethnicity does not matter to him. He’s a friend to those who are forgotten.”

Old North State Award
State Rep. Chuck McGrady presented the longtime mission leader with the Old North State Award, signed by the governor and presented to someone who has provided years of exemplary service and commitment to North Carolina.
McMinn said he was accepting the award on behalf of his wife, his board, his staff and nonprofit agencies who partner with the mission “as we serve God to meet the needs of the less fortunate.”
“I’m blessed and and I’m honored but I could not do what I do without my wife,” he said. “It was almost 30 years or more that I was walking through the mall in Atlanta and I see her sitting on a bench. She had just graduated from college, and she was beautiful and she still is and she’s the mother of my children and she’s my best friend.
“I have the best board of directors I’ve ever worked for. It allows me to use the talent God has given me, God has blessed us. This award right here, it has my name on it. But Tim Jones, stand up,” he said to the mission’s operations manager. “I’ve got a great staff.”
The rescue mission, he pointed out, serves the downtrodden and the lost 365 days a year.
“When it’s snowing and sleeting and you’re by the fireplace, chillin’, we’re feeding people, we’re preaching and we’re loving. And I thank God that I have a staff that’s so committed. I’m awful grateful. Because if you think of the rescue mission, we had 12 directors in 36 years and I’ve been here 25. … We’re not here just by accident. We’re here by divine appointment. I thank God for you guys, my church family, I’m so blessed.
“All these agencies leaders that are here, you do a great job,” he said of the providers of food, clothing, medical care, housing. “We don’t try to do it all. What we do we want to do right. But sometimes we partner with you guys for the greater good of our community.”