This month we are spotlighting Bruce Collier! Bruce has volunteered and advocated for The Children’s Center for the past three years.
Bruce toured our building in 2021 and immediately started looking for ways to help The Children’s Center and connect us with others. He has facilitated work days with the First Baptist Youth Group and Medina Christian Academy and volunteered many hours of his own time. We appreciate his commitment to children in Foster Care and his work to bring together people who share this commitment.
We asked Bruce to share a little more about himself so we could all get to know him better.
Roles and Responsibilities
How did you learn about The Children’s Center of Medina County? Why did you decide to become a volunteer?
I first heard about The Children’s Center through my friend, Layne Hedden, who serves our community on staff at Medina County JFS as the Foster Parent Recruiter. I had been volunteering on special projects with JFS and she said, “Have you heard about The Children’s Center? They do great work too.”
What is your current volunteer role? What do you do in that role?
I’m the Next Gen Pastor at our church in Medina. So I get to lead the teams of volunteers who minister to kids and youth. I love to mobilize the teens in our youth ministry and our entire congregation at First Baptist Church Medina www.firstmedina.org. As followers of Jesus, we know Scripture says it’s good to be compassionate toward the needs of others. Our church family will happily help however we can whenever we are asked, especially when it comes to serving kids and teens experiencing a tough time. I’ve given permission to Ashley, Ellysa, Kristen, Madison, Anna and the rest of the team to ask for help anytime there is a need. We’ll always say yes to meet the needs of kids and families. The people of our church have enjoyed serving whenever asked. We’ve helped in the following ways so far: campus maintenance needs (landscaping at The Center, cleaning rooms, donating equipment for The Center, painting) the precious Pinwheel Project to highlight the abuse that occurs against minors, gathering Christmas pajamas for every child in foster care, and a few other things). I love to volunteer with The Center and have found the staff to be kind and on mission and those are my kind of people! The teens at our church have enjoyed volunteering here too. The Children’s Center does such important work and serves our county’s most precious and often most vulnerable young lives. It’s a privilege to serve.
Personal Insights and Reflections
What are you most proud of in your work with The Children’s Center?
I cannot take credit for all the projects our sweet church jumps in on… it’s truly a collective effort. I smile knowing that I can find people who want to serve or volunteer and get them connected. That’s bigger than “just me” so that’s the most fun. I’ve also enjoyed introducing The Center to people who hadn’t heard of the important work they do. I love that we have a Children’s Advocacy Center in our community. How blessed are we to have such a sweet place that helps kids and families during a significant time of need?
What is the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from?
My parents gave me the best advice I’ve ever received… “Bruce, if you’re going to do anything, do it well… don’t do anything halfway… if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Okay so this is a little crazy but I grew up watching Hulk Hogan and so I definitely thought I’d be a professional wrestler. And all these years later, I’m a youth pastor… so we see how that turned out. 🙂
What would we most likely find you doing on the weekend?
My wife and I have two kids and they are 11 and 16 years old so we are in our “driving kids to every sporting event era” and loving it. You’d catch me at a baseball or soccer game on Saturday and then on Sunday, you’d catch me leading our amazing kids and youth ministry teams of volunteers who minister so well to the young people who call our church, home.
What is your most used emoji?
I try hard to find the humor and fun in life. As a youth pastor, I know that our kids and teens and families are constantly dealing with a lot! Life is serious a lot of the time and I really enjoy sending a laughing emoji anytime I can lighten the text thread.
😂
Community Engagement and Support
What does the community need to know about The Children’s Center?
I would love for our community to know that The Children’s Center is a great place; staffed by people who are caring and compassionate and take their work seriously. They value the youth and families they serve and they take seriously the need for client confidentiality, safety, cleanliness of The Center, etc. I would also let the community know there’s room for more caring, kind, volunteers who will help with the important work The Center does.
