Tuscaloosa charities with ties to 2011 tornado join forces

Judy Holland never saw herself leading a nonprofit organization. She was a costume designer for children's theater productions in Tuscaloosa and helped area high schools with costumes for their plays. A chance meeting with professional baseball player David Robertson, a Paul W. Bryant High graduate, changed the direction of her life.

Her meeting with Robertson came about after April 27, 2011, when a mile-wide, EF-4 tornado tore across the Tuscaloosa landscape.

"After the tornado (in 2011), I started dressing kids. I did about 300 boxes of clothes for children because I wanted them to know I cared about them. I accidentally met David. I knew nothing about baseball. I once asked him to sign a helmet for me and he had to tell me that pitchers didn't wear helmets. I knew nothing. I just never dreamed where this would go," Holland said, standing in the S.D. Allen Ministries warehouse in Tuscaloosa.

Holland, who has been the managing director of Robertson's High Socks For Hope foundation has worked with S.D. Allen, a ministry run by Calvary Baptist Church for several years. The church wanted to expand the ministry into a 501c3 to be able to grow and expand. The merger with High Socks for Hope was a natural development.

Both organizations were founded in the aftermath of the 2011 tornado that swept through Tuscaloosa. The tornado cut a 5.9-mile path of destruction, damaging or destroying more than 12% of the city – 5,362 homes and 356 businesses, included – and either directly killing or contributing to the deaths of 53 people.

More: By the numbers: A look back at the tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011

Ever since the tornado, the S.D. Allen ministry has delivered donated furniture to families in need. High Socks for Hope had a similar mission and has helped thousands furnish their homes after disasters.

S.D. Allen, the ministry named for a parishioner of Calvary Baptist who donated the original money to found the organization, recently merged into the High Socks For Hope foundation and will continue its work in Tuscaloosa under the S.D. Allen name and the directorship of Holland.

"They have a well-established name and have been serving in this community for more than 10 years," Holland said of S.D. Allen Ministries.

High Socks for Hope has been supplying furniture and mattresses to S.D. Allen for at least a decade and that organization has been delivering them to people in the Tuscaloosa area who are in need. The merger is a continuation of the collaborative work that was already going on.

In the Tuscaloosa area, most of the furniture High Socks supplies goes to people referred to the organization who are in need. High Socks has worked extensively to help homeless veterans and almost all of their furniture has been delivered and set up by the S.D. Allen ministry.

"We've been furnishing homes in Tuscaloosa forever and no one knows it. We've been working through other organizations except for the Habitat homes. We have done those ourselves," Holland said.

The primary work in Tuscaloosa for High Socks since the tornado has been in helping veterans. A transitional housing development built on the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center campus for homeless vets was furnished completely by High Socks. Holland said they furnished 50 apartments that were built on the VA campus in 2015.

The ministry brings a badly needed warehouse to High Socks for Hope and the foundation is transforming the ministry from supplying largely used furniture to new furniture that Holland works hard to buy at discounted rates or have donated.

Holland, whose mother still owns and operates Faye's Fabrics Sew and Vac in Northport, where her family owns several small storefronts on property diagonally across from Northport City Hall at the intersection of Main Avenue and U.S. Highway 82 said her father accused her of scooping up any available space to use as a warehouse for High Socks for Hope.

"He used to say I was the thief of all empty space. Every time one of the retail businesses would move out, I would slide in my stock for High Socks," Holland said.

The S.D. Allen Warehouse on 17th Street in Tuscaloosa features 4,500 square feet of warehouse space and about 500 square feet of office space, a luxury Holland has never had in Tuscaloosa. She said High Socks has a warehouse in Tennessee that is 50,000 square feet and she hopes to eventually have a facility like that in Tuscaloosa.

"One day here, I want to build a big warehouse and give other nonprofits a chance to use some of the space," Holland said. "I'm gonna build one one day. When I grow up, that's what's going to happen."

High Socks for Hope has been helping people all across the country when disaster of any kind strikes and they will continue doing that work locally through S.D. Allen.

"The thing is, we are doing the same thing here as we are doing across the country. We are furnishing homes for families who, for whatever reason, have lost everything and need help. We are going to start one more program in Tuscaloosa through S.D. Allen and it's going to be beds for kids," Holland said.

They will supply twin beds for kids and call the program "All About The Kids" after a favorite expression of Terry Saban, the wife of the University of Alabama's former football coach.

"I hear her, every time I give a kid a bed, I hear her saying, "It's all about the kids." People in Tuscaloosa will be able to apply online through sdallen.org to apply for a bed for their child," Holland said.

Case workers will go in and evaluate the application to ensure there is a need then volunteers will deliver the bed and set it up. Bedding, often in a theme of the child's choosing, will also be provided.

"I want every kid in Tuscaloosa off the floor. It is very important to me because a lot of people we help in disaster relief, especially, have never had a new bed ever in their whole life. I want to change that. I want children off the floor and on a new bed," Holland said.

Her passion is shared by Robertson who, when he was in the minor leagues, would move from city to city and have nothing, many times not even a mattress when he first arrived in a new town. While Robertson's original intent for High Socks for Hope was to make the organization a conduit where his money would go through the foundation to other organizations, his hiring of Holland to run High Socks for Hope changed all that.

"I drive David crazy sometimes and he says this is all my fault," Holland said, joking about how the organization has changed over the years.

Holland said her life is so dramatically changed by directing the foundation that her husband has been astounded.

"My husband said, 'Where is the little princess I married?' When he saw me on a forklift, he gave up and said that was it!" Holland said with a laugh.

Holland said anyone wishing to support the work can go to www.highsocksforhope.org, where donation links are available, along with information about how to volunteer and how to gain assistance.

Reach Gary Cosby Jr. at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Tuscaloosa charities with ties to April 27, 2011, tornado join forces