United Way Vice President recognized as Remarkable Woman
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL)— Throughout International Women’s Month, WRBL is recognizing women in the Chattahoochee Valley who have made significant contributions to the local community.
It’s all a part of our parent company’s, Nexstar Media, initiative Remarkable Women that honors the influence women have had on public policy, social progress, and quality of life.
Every week in March, WRBL will introduce you to four finalists’ of 2024’s campaign, this week being Pat Frey, Vice President of the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley.
Frey is also a mother, grandmother, director, friend, schoolboard member, and remarkable woman.
The New Jersey transplant has called Columbus home since the ’70s. Frey has spent the majority of her life helping those around her. Her career in public housing started as a junior at Baker High School; a job she took out of interest and necessity.
“I needed to find a job to help my family. My father had been diagnosed with terminal illness when I was 13, and it was tough making ends meet, so I needed a job,” Frey shared.
Following this job, Frey entered the healthcare world at then Columbus Regional Healthcare System working her way from program director, to manager, to recruiter. However, she felt a call back home. Leaving the hospital, she became a case manager in a Medicaid waiver program. The people she was working with had a monthly income of $900 or less.
“I was back home. It was serving the community that I had lived in, served in, loved in, my neighbors many a times. My mother attended the same day center that many of my clients did,” Frey said. “My mother was an amputee and had Alzheimer’s at the end of her life, and I had to work. Because of the work I had done, I knew the resources that were available.”
During this role Frey worked as a ‘liaison’ for the hospital with the United Way for about a year through volunteering and working with partner agencies like Feeding the Valley. In 2016 she officially joined United Way’s Home for Good Program.
“I wasn’t looking to leave the hospital, but the opportunity was there to serve the entire community, and I mean an eight-county region that crosses the river,” Frey informed. “So, it opened up the opportunity to serve more people and to be able to make more connections and available resources for individuals and families.”
Serving an entire community was the first thing she did. In 2016 she helped lead the initiative, 016, that eliminated homelessness amongst veterans.
“Right now, we have more resources available for veterans who are experiencing homelessness than we have the number of veterans,” Frey informed. “It’s what they call a functional zero. If everybody who’s a veteran wanted housing today, we could have them in housing.”
While she serves the most vulnerable in the Chattahoochee Valley remarkably; she reminds others homelessness is not prejudice.
“By the grace of God, there go I,” Frey shared. “When I was young, and I was 13 and my father was diagnosed with a terminal illness the only thing that saved us from being homeless was that his retirement check was $97, and our mortgage was $110. So, my mother only had to come up with a little bit and pay the light bill and the water bill. That’s the only thing that saved us. So, it could be any of us.”
Frey credits her life of servanthood to her parents and her upbringing, being raised on a dead-end street, and living by the old adage, ‘we are our brother’s keeper.’
“We knew when someone was laid off. We knew when someone wasn’t feeling well. We knew whose parents were going to be home when. No one had a babysitter, no one ever had to worry about whether they were going to be able to make ends meet because we all took care of each other,” Frey said. “If it was Miss Nancy who was the elderly lady in the neighborhood, her grass never needed to be cut because all of us in the neighborhood knew it had to be cut. There were no questions, and we just grew up that way.”
Frey was nominated by a viewer and selected by the Remarkable Women Committee as a finalist. Here’s what her fellow community member said about Frey when nominating her:
500 words can’t begin to tell the greatness of this lady. She is a single parent to her 3 children and a grandmother that is hands on and involved. She’s employed by The United Way and heads up the “Help at Home” program for the homeless population. She’s an extremely active school board member for her district. She volunteers at every opportunity, for every because that needs a voice. She just was involved in the “Big Gobble” for Feeding the Valley, as she is every year. She is always available, and her stretch is far and wide. She is so talented and skilled and has trained her children and grandchildren to cook, clean, sew, crochet, use tools, and be good citizens with a servant attitude and spirit. If they want something special to eat, she gets a recipe, and they prepare it to use reading, measurements, directions, and cooking. If it’s a lemonade stand, they get pallets and tools and directions and make it, along with preparing the lemonade, selling it, counting money, and making change. She is a teacher and truly follows the adage of if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime! One day her son was mowing a neighbor’s yard b/c the elderly man who always kept a meticulous yard and was in the hospital and she didn’t want him to come home and try to do yard work. Columbus Georgia is a better community b/c of Pat. She is a friend to all and a voice for a population that may not speak for themselves. She is small in stature but is a mighty force to be reckoned with if someone is being treated unfairly. She is a voice and a helping hand to all, regardless of race, religion, monetary status, zip code, title etc. But don’t take my word about Pat… Ask anyone, or “google” her… She is truly a “Remarkable Woman” and I’m so proud to call her my friend!
Viewer Nomination for Pat Frey
The winner for WRBL’s Remarkable Woman campaign will be announced in April.
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