A group of female Warhawks joined forces to form a new organization on campus, Ambitious Women Society, in August The members of AWS hope to create a bond between all women in the Monroe community.

AWS president, Chiemeka Onyemechara, said the organization can achieve this goal through service work.

The society actively volunteers at different shelters, soup kitchens and food drives throughout Monroe. The organization helped at Grace Place Ministries’ soup kitchen last Friday by serving food and cleaning tables to prepare for more people in need.

“I believe Ambitious Women Society will bring positivity to our campus through our different events that are centered on uplifting women within our community,” Onyemechara said. “I believe women will have a greater appreciation for one another and become more of a united community.”

AWS vice president, Delayhia Stipe, said volunteer work not only benefits others, but it also makes her feel good.

“I believe it is important to see how everybody could always use a helping hand,” Stipe said. “Volunteering gives me a chance to show my gratitude for what I have by helping others too.”

Grace Place Ministries is a faith-based, non-profit organization located in Monroe. It was opened in October 2001 by Rhonda Grace as a way for her to provide a secure place for people in the community to deal with different traumas like drug addiction and abuse. Grace Place Ministries provides three main services to those in need: soup kitchen, clothes closet and food pantry. 

Grace Place Ministries feeds people every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:30 a.m. to one p.m.

Clothes closet is a program where the organization gives out clothes for free Wednesday and Friday from 11:30 a.m. to one p.m.

The food pantry is a program where Grace Place Ministries distributes food to those in need every month on the second and fourth Thursday. 

As Monroe local, Irma Mays, walked out of the courthouse, she knew where she would go to get the many hours of community service she needed to get off probation. She went to Grace at the Grace Place Ministries.

Grace was warm, understanding and welcomed Mays into her family. Nine months later, Mays can hardly wait to get to work in the mornings because of the friends and relationships she has built at Grace Place Ministries.

To Mays, it was not because she had a job she could make money from, but that she was surrounded by good supervisors and colleagues that wanted to help her turn her life around. She said that working at Grace Place has been the best decision she has ever made for herself.