LOUANNE HUNNICUTT:
Soroptimist activist knows how to make a difference

TRAVELERS REST -- At the end of the work day each Thursday, LouAnne Hunnicutt drives her 2000 Chevy Blazer to a Greenville Literacy Association classroom, where she tutors an adult who is learning to read for the first time in any language.

"I get as much out of it as he does," Hunnicutt says of the weekly session that has helped her student climb three reading-grade levels in less than two years. "He wants to teach a Sunday School class. It's exciting to see him progress."

The joy that comes with witnessing that progress is a lifelong pursuit for Hunnicutt, a Greenville native who has given more than 400 hours of volunteer service to the GLA.

She's given even more hours to Soroptimist International of Greenville, an organization that has earned her devotion -- sometimes more than once weekly -- for 29 years.

"When you grow up volunteering," Hunnicutt says, "it's just something you do."

It's a tradition she learned from her mother, longtime volunteer Barbara McMullan, who joined the local Soroptimist chapter in 1969. Hunnicutt's daughter, Christie Ohlrogge, is also an active member.

Through the Soroptimist organization, Hunnicutt and others pour themselves into local charities that are centered on women's needs. Among them is the Rosewood House of Recovery, whose clients will soon be meeting Hunnicutt two evenings a week as part of a project to enhance job-searching skills.

The local Soroptimist chapter includes only 15 active members, which means that all 15 are extremely active. Last weekend, six served as volunteers at the GLA book sale and three others volunteered at the Rosewood House.

"If you believe in what you're doing, you don't care about the work," Hunnicutt says, in response to the local chapter's numbers. "We usually get plenty of help from our husbands, who are not members but make an impact indirectly."

With more than 40,000 members, Soroptimist International is the world's largest service organization for executive and professional women. Its members are dedicated to "helping women, children and our community through service and charitable donations."

Since joining the organization in 1978, Hunnicutt has served in every position at the all-volunteer local chapter -- including three one-year terms as president. She's also served as governor of the six-state South Atlantic Region, and was the first Greenville chapter member to serve as a board member for Soroptimist International of the Americas (representing North America and South America).

"We don't all speak the same language, but we're all there for the same reason," says Hunnicutt, who attended a conference in Glagow, Scotland, in early August.

The international events give Hunnicutt a first-hand glimpse of the individual benefits that Soroptimist provides.

Last week, she met a recipient of the Women's Opportunity Award, a cash prize to a single mother who is attending college.

"She couldn't believe that a group of women who didn't know her would give money so she could go back to school," says Hunnicutt. "When you see what these women go through ... it's very humbling."

Of the Women's Opportunity Awards, Hunnicutt says "it's not the amount of money the women are getting that makes the difference -- it's the fact that someone believes in them and wants them to succeed."

The local chapter learned in June that it was on the receiving end of a gift from Soroptimist International -- a $7,000 grant that will be used to equip the Rosewood House of Recovery with four computer stations.

"Now we get to go shopping," says Hunnicutt, whose group plans to purchase a system that will help Rosewood clients build resumes, improve writing skills and prepare for GED exams.

Hunnicutt, who was volunteering when she met husband Steven, a vice-president at the Bank of Travelers Rest, sees the Rosewood House as another place volunteers "are making a difference."

"They were addressing domestic violence long before (acquitted celebrity) O.J. (Simpson) put it on the front page," says Hunnicutt.

In addition to her 28 years of Soroptimist volunteer work, Hunnicutt has worked 20 years with the Children's Miracle Network Telethon and was an Old 96 Council Girl Scout leader for 13 years. She's also a member of the chimes choir at Fourth Presbyterian Church.

"If we each do a little bit, there's so much that can be accomplished," says Hunnicutt. "I get irritated at people who say they don't have the time -- a lot of things can be done from home.

"You can make an impact in someone's life just by telling them you have confidence in them."

Soroptimist Members
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