A Safe Place to Land

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County podcast, our guests are Susan Price and Crystal Fry of Her Haven of Light Resource Center in Clayton, North Carolina.

We talk to them a little bit about why they started this non-profit to provide resources to people in the Clayton community, the people they serve, which is anybody with an unexpected need, some of their focus areas, which includes domestic violence. They have trauma classes, resources for people that are pregnant unexpectedly or just need help.

They also provide financial literacy and many other services to the citizens of Johnston County. So if you’re interested in a brand-new resource center, at least to me, they’ve been in business for five years, listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether [00:01:00] it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Best of Johnston County podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode, we have Susan Price and Crystal Fry of Her Haven of Light Resource Center in Clayton, North Carolina. We’re gonna talk a little bit about why they started this resource center to help all types of people, men, women, domestic violence victims, unexpected pregnancies, or really anything unexpected that happens in your life, they’re a resource for you in your community.

Talk a little bit about why they started it, the services they provide, their vision for the future, how they can help you, and how you can help them continue to make an impact in this community. They’ve been doing it for five years, and they have no plans to stop. But before we get to that, we’d like to like, ask you to like, follow, subscribe to this podcast [00:02:00] wherever you see it, whether on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, or any of the other social media channels of the Best of Johnston County podcast.

The Best of Johnston County podcast comes out every single Monday and has now for three years. We started this in November of ’23 to tell the positive story of all of the great people of Johnston County, and I believe we have done that, and we’re gonna continue to do it. So if you care about Johnston County, if you wanna know what’s great about your community, continue to listen in.

Go back and listen to some of our previous episodes. We’ve had almost probably 150 of them by now. We’ve had the vast majority of the county commissioners. We’ve had congressmen. We’ve had legislators. We’ve had small business owners. We’ve had Just Dog People. We had Michael Soler talking about dog training.

If you are interested in services in Johnston County, we’ve had just about every single type of service in Johnston County. We even had the head of the hospital on a few years ago, a few weeks ago, Tommy Wiggins. So anyway, please keep listening in. Like, follow, subscribe. Tell your friends. Welcome to the [00:03:00] podcast.

Crystal Fry: Thank you.

Jonathan Breeden: I always have to get that in because I don’t know how long people are gonna listen, but I want people to like, follow, and subscribe because I need listeners because that’s how we get more guests

Susan Price: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: and more people learn about all the greatness of Johnston County, which is what I’m trying to do.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So anyway, so tell me who you are and what y’all do.

Susan Price: Okay. So I’m Susan.

Crystal Fry: I’m Crystal.

Susan Price: And we are with Her Haven of Light, and it is a 501[c][3] nonprofit. It was established in February of 2021. Right there after COVID, we started dreaming big about starting a nonprofit to be able to help women and children in need was the main focus at the time.

We didn’t realize that we were also gonna start helping men. And so the goal was to offer something that our community was lacking, which was a resource center to connect them to all the resources that already existed, but also offer additional resources to them that didn’t exist in the community.

And so, based off of our own backgrounds of what we went through and our testimonies, we did a lot of talking, and we really wanted to be able to just help people in the community that had a need. And so personally, my background in [00:04:00] high school I was raped by someone I thought was a friend, someone I thought I could trust, and it turned out to not be the case.

It was something I did not talk about. I didn’t work through it. I didn’t seek help. And then I honestly turned to drinking a lot of alcohol to try to numb the pain and not feel it at all. And so, I also was a teen mom at 18, and that was something else that I was not quite prepared for and didn’t know how to really face that in life.

And so it was just, like, a bunch of different events that took place that I was really struggling with. And had I had resources at that time in my life, I feel like I would’ve potentially reached out if they offered a safe place to come and accept me as I was, and really just be there to help me through the process.

And so that was something that was lacking and that we really wanted to be able to offer, and I’ll let Crystal share her testimony.

Crystal Fry: For me, I grew up in domestic violence. I was raised in it my entire life. My mom finally got out when I was 16. She struggled financially to try and find a way out ’cause she was sick a lot while we were younger.

I then followed the same patterns. I married [00:05:00] into domestic violence, and it takes up to seven times before a woman will leave. And so, I found myself in that same routine of just struggling. I was a teen mom. I had my daughter was, when I was a senior in high school. And so it wasn’t until that I got out did I really see that there was a bigger need in the community, that there was something that was needed just with women in general.

We’ve seen men that have been struggling and going through the same things that we have been through. And just wanting to come alongside of them, wanting them, like Susan said, to have a safe place to come into if they’re not ready to leave a certain situation, if they’re not ready to admit things that have happened in their life, to be vulnerable enough to say, “This has actually been something that has occurred for me.”

But that they could just come and talk to us, and if they’re not ready to make that motion, then we’re just there to listen.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. All right. That sounds great. That sounds great. And unfortunately, I see this pattern with domestic violence. I’ve been doing family law for [00:06:00] 26 years, and you do see it.

And, you know, I see it. I mean, look I interviewed an attorney not that long ago that was trying to get out of a domestic violence situation, and her mother had been in a domestic violence situation.

Crystal Fry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: So it doesn’t matter how much education you have. It doesn’t matter what race you are.

It doesn’t matter what religion you are. I mean, I’ve represented people from all over the world, and truly, people that are in these situations, like, abusers are raised.

Crystal Fry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Right? A Victims are raised and abusers are raised. And you know, I’ve seen it for so many years and, you know, you try to talk to people, and I know how hard it is for people to get out.

And, you know, I’ve had clients killed. I’ve had clients be the killer. Mm-hmm. I, I, You know what I’m saying? You know, I’ve seen children murdered. I mean, it’s just a lot of stuff here. You know, what I mean? So I’m glad there’s another resource in our community to help people that might be going through that.

So let’s talk about some of the different things, ’cause y’all do a lot. I mean, a whole lot. Let’s start with what do you do. You’re not Harbor. You work with [00:07:00] Harbor. You do not provide a shelter or any kind of transitional.

Crystal Fry: No.

Jonathan Breeden: Housing currently.

Crystal Fry: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: So what do you do for people that are victims of domestic violence?

Crystal Fry: So what happens is a client will fill out an intake form on our website. We have some questions, very brief questions that they will answer. We’ll schedule an appointment with them. They’ll come in. We sit down and go through all of those questions, and we form a plan of action. We can do counseling referrals.

We can set up support groups in our own office. We actually are able to supply them with diapers, wipes for their kids, clothing for their kids, clothing for themselves, shoes. We actually can set up referrals to other locations that do offer. So we can set up a referral to Harbor, or we can give them their information.

We can actually reach out to lawyers for them. We can do some of the behind-the-scenes work too because a lot of times when someone is coming into the office that is going through any kind of unforeseen circumstance, they have a hard time just figuring out where to start. So that [00:08:00] is really how we help.

We say, “This is your first step. This is your first plan of action that you need to do and you need to focus on,” whether or not we can do that or come alongside them and help them do that, or it’s something that they have to do and then we can say, “Okay, this is next. This is what we’ll do.” We can help them find housing or try to find affordable housing for them.

If they need help paying a bill, we have resources in the community that we can send referrals to or reach out to that will help in that area. We have also helped in that area, depending. But our whole thing is we want to give them a safe place to land, a hand of hope, a hand out, not a hand. You know, a hand up, not a handout.

We don’t want to enable the situation that they’re in. We want to come alongside of them so that we’re helping set them up for success in the future.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And I think you told me that y’all have a 12-week course.

Crystal Fry: We do.

Jonathan Breeden: A trauma course or something. So what is that?

Crystal Fry: So we have a abuse support group and a trauma support group. We actually have written up a grief support group as well. Our clients are [00:09:00] able to come in. It’s a 12-week program that they do a worksheet. We do all kinds of just inner work to help them walk through the trauma or the abuse that they have gone through so that we’ve found out, you know, you have to walk through these things.

You have to be vulnerable enough to share. When you get these things out, it really takes you to the next step of healing, and that’s what we ultimately want for everybody that comes into the office.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well, and, you know, you talk about the stages of grief, and any time you’re going through any separation or your relationship’s falling apart you know, you’re gonna go through those stages of grief similar to a death, because the relationship has died and, you know, it’s kind of thing.

And you’re not gonna go through those five or six stages, and I’m not a counselor, whatever they are, you’re not gonna go through them in a linear fashion. And you may have, be experiencing two or three different stages in the same day.

Susan Price: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: You know what I mean? But you do need to have a plan, and you do need to be able to get to where you can sort of, I used to call it the over [00:10:00] it stage. And about a year ago, we had one of the hospice house people that runs the hospice house come, and she was on our podcast.

And she said, “No, you learn to carry it.”

Susan Price: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: You learn to carry the grief on your back, and you’ve sort of processed it. You know, and you’re gonna try to help people get there, but they’ve also gotta get out or they’re never gonna be able to completely process it, because they’re gonna keep being re-victimized if they stay in it.

Crystal Fry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: So how do you talk to people in that situation?

Susan Price: We also have financial assist or financial classes. So they go through a course of financial classes that helps them look at their budget, helps them look at their income, helps them look at what they have outgoing.

They assess all that, and they’re able to go through that and tell them what they need to remove from it. ‘Cause there’s, sometimes there’s things in their account that they don’t realize they could do without. And so they help them process through that to figure out how to best help in that way. And then they have the money that’s going out that helps them say, “Okay, I’m able to take care of this bill and this bill because I’ve let this go.”

And so they do a really good job at going through that with them. [00:11:00] And then we also help with building job resumes. If they don’t have one, we’re able to build it for them. If they do have one, we’re able to go through it and just make sure everything looks okay and edit it a little bit and send it back to them.

We can help them with job placement. We work with the workforce in Clayton, and so we’re able to get information over to them about the client so that they can help them find a job that might best work for them with their hours, if they have kids. What we see a lot of, though, in the domestic violence situations is there’s a lot of financial abuse, and so they’ve been having to be stay-at-home moms, so they don’t really have an a- opportunity to get out the house.

And so for them, a lot of times the first step is like, “How do we get you out of this house? Get you to safety, get you in shelter where you feel comfortable and safe, and now we can get you a job.”

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well, that sounds good. All right, so I know you help people with domestic violence. You also help people with unexpected pregnancies.

What do you do for them?

Susan Price: So we have diapers, wipes, formula, any baby necessities that they need in our office, clothing. So depending on where [00:12:00] they’re at in their pregnancy, sometimes they come into us and, or come into our office and they’re in need of a doctor. Some of them have been pregnant for a while, and they haven’t gotten the help that they need because they don’t have insurance.

So we do work with resources in the community like I Choose Pregnancy Center, and we allow them to help with the areas that they can because they offer a lot more than we do. But we help with the basic immediate needs, so clothing, shoes for the babies if they are toddlers, but also diapers, wipes, formula, clothing, bath items, lotion, things like that.

But we’ve also thrown baby showers for clients in the past who didn’t have a family to support them or surround them during that time, and we were able to shower her with items that she was in need of. And it was just a wonderful time to be able to love on her and her family. And so the pregnancy rates that we’ve seen a lot of are more of women who are single women women who may have other children.

So those are really the ways that we’re able to surround them and love them during that time, but also give them resources that can help in a bigger capacity than we can as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. Well, that’s good. And [00:13:00] that’s any unplanned pregnancy. It doesn’t have to be teen pregnancy.

Susan Price: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: You can help with any unplanned pregnancy.

Susan Price: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So, now these financial literacy classes, you don’t have to be a domestic violence victim for those, right? You anybody in the community that would like financial literacy, you can help with them too, correct?

Crystal Fry: We would just have them come in as a client to figure out what they need, what kind of assistance they’re looking for, and we have someone that works directly with us that we send a referral over.

They go onto her calendar, sign up for the class directly, and then they do a class online together.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: Do you help people get in touch with JCC for working on Johnston Community College, working on [00:14:00] GEDs or some of the short-term workforce training they have there, whether it be

Crystal Fry: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: their culinary and some of the more short-term programs they have at JCC.

Do y’all, y’all work with them some?

Crystal Fry: We can. So we haven’t seen anybody actually so far, which is in the five years, come in that is looking for schooling.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Crystal Fry: But that is something that we do have connections with that we can also resource out, or just help assist them to try and figure out, how do I start?

Where do I go? Who do I speak to? We can do some of the legwork if they need that for us, to reach out to these people, call them, see who the next contact is for them, if that’s something that is in that plan of action and we think that would be beneficial for the, you know, for us to help them with to get that next step.

Susan Price: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So

Crystal Fry: yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I know y’all do you have the trauma support group, but you also have resources to help people get counseling too,

Susan Price: Mm-hmm

Jonathan Breeden: correct? Tell me a little bit about that.

Susan Price: Yeah. So depending on their insurance, so some clients actually do have insurance, and [00:15:00] we can just give them a referral to any counseling office but we have a relationship with 180 Counseling, and so we refer to them. But also for the clients who don’t have insurance, we’re able to refer them to 180’s internship program. It’s $10, and so we are able to take care of payment for that up to a certain number of sessions, depending on each case by case situation.

So we have that worked out with them. We just put in the referral, they call them, they set up the appointment. We take care of the cost. They contact us directly. We have other clients who do have Medicaid, and so there’s somewhere else that we refer for them because it’s covered at no charge. And so they’re able to get the help that they need through them because we do believe that counseling is important for these people to start walking through their pain, their hurt, their trauma, anything that they may be walking through that they haven’t dealt with yet, and it’s so important for them to take that step as well.

And so we wanna make sure that their money’s not an issue for them that’s keeping them from that. And so we offer support groups in the office, but we also refer out for the counseling because most of our clients are in need of licensed professional counseling due to the extensive trauma they’ve been through.

Jonathan Breeden: I can [00:16:00] understand that.

Crystal Fry: We also have a doctor that we work hand-in-hand with, very close to us, personal relationship, that we’ve been able to refer to, like with the pregnancy or with if they need some other kind of medical work. And he is in connection with other more extensive doctors that he can reach out to as well.

But that we’ve had a diabetic patient that was needing medication, and he helped with that. So it’s just a lot of different things. But with counseling as well, you know, it might be medication, and so a psychiatrist, he’s had someone we refer to that has been able to help with psychiatrist level to do medication and things like that too.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well, that’s cool. All right. So we’ve talked about pregnancy, we’ve talked about domestic violence, we’ve talked about the trauma support group, we’ve talked about counseling. You have an office full of supplies.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: What supplies are in that office?

Susan Price: We have a little bit of everything. So we have anywhere, we have men’s clothing, women’s clothing, children’s clothing. We have shoes, we have coats, we have laundry detergent, any toiletry item that you can think of. Then we also [00:17:00] have some basic necessities for the home. We’re not able to keep house furnishings in there just because due to lack of space, but we do have some things like towels and wash rags and things like that.

Some baby items like a car seat or a stroller a baby seat, a toy box, things like that, that they’re able to come in and get. And so we keep all that in the back in our Connie Shop, and they are able to go back there and shop for the items that they need at no charge. They can just get the items they need without the stress of the financial burden that they carry every day.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. Well, that’s cool. So where are y’all located? You were out here at 4042, but I know you’re not here now.

Crystal Fry: We’re downtown Clayton on Main Street, so 545 Main Street, East Main Street. We’re right beside City Florist, kind of diagonal from the post office. We have a little white house with a blue door.

So that is where we have been for about four years now.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Crystal Fry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Not far from Chefella’s.

Crystal Fry: No. Yeah. Not far at all.

Jonathan Breeden: That place is so good. She’s so good.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Like, Chefella’s is really good. Like, some of the best catering there is. Unbelievable.

Crystal Fry: She’s sweet.

Jonathan Breeden: So, yeah. And a tremendous [00:18:00] community support too.

Crystal Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So, are there other services? Those are the big ones I’ve talked about. Are there other services that I missed that you also provide you wanna talk about?

Susan Price: Go ahead.

Crystal Fry: Yeah. We also do outreach. So we do quarterly outreach. We do Loads of Love for moms or anybody that comes into the laundromat. We usually go to the Selma laundromat, and we wash their clothes for free. We do blessing bags to the homeless. So we take out blessing bags and give those out on Valentine’s Day to the homeless. We pass out to the first responders on 9/11 croissants and coffee, so we take that out and do that in the community.

A Christmas, we do a blessing tree. So all of our clients, we send out an email, we actually just sent that out the other day where they can send us back what their kids need, their clothing size, and then we have their families adopted out. And we have this huge party for them right before Christmas where they can come and pick up the wrapped presents and put them under the tree at their house so that their kids have Christmas on Christmas morning.

And then we also do Coats and Cocoa in the near [00:19:00] fall, wintertime, where people can come to our office. We’ll have everything set up outside where they can come get free coats and cocoa.

Susan Price: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Man, That’s a lot. That’s a lot. So who are some of the people, I mean, clearly this takes a lot.

Like, who are some of the people that have been good sponsors of y’all that, which businesses have really worked with y’all and that also y’all use as resources?

Susan Price: Yeah, so Prestige Pools has been a huge help and a huge sponsor for us. We also have Eastern Carolina Medical Center out of Benson.

Crystal Fry: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah.

Susan Price: Dr. P.K. Vyas. He is a huge supporter of ours since almost day one. Like, he is probably our main supporter. He definitely.

Crystal Fry: He’s awesome.

Susan Price: Is our main supporter, yeah. He’s great.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, he is great.

Susan Price: Not just for the financial aspect, but his connections, his support. Like, he checks in with us.

Crystal Fry: Yeah.

Susan Price: And so we’ve been very appreciative of him. Generation Church in Clayton has always been a good supporter of ours as well. And then there’s, like, smaller businesses along the way that do some things here and there in other ways. Maybe not financial, but they call and they’re like, “Hey, could you use this item that we have

Crystal Fry: Mm-hmm

Susan Price: extra stock in?” Isaiah House, like, they literally dropped off a bunch [00:20:00] of diapers for us because they had so many overflowing.

So they were like, “Can we bring these to you?”

Crystal Fry: Yeah.

Susan Price: And I know that they’re another 501[c][3]

Jonathan Breeden: Yep.

Susan Price: But, so we just work together with other nonprofits and help each other out how we can too.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well, Isaiah 117 House, they were on the podcast about a year ago, right? When they were getting ready to build the house.

Susan Price: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: Now the house is open. I probably should have her come back. you know, I’ve been a supporter of that and- … what they do, which is a place, it’s a home in Selma where people, children go while they’re awaiting placement in a foster home, and it, and they get toys and, and, and a shower

Crystal Fry: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: and new clothes

Susan Price: Right

Jonathan Breeden: while they’re, they’re waiting to find a foster home when they’re coming into foster care. That’s a tremendous tremendous as well. Other great resources in Clayton, we talked about this earlier, with Love From Jesus right there next to Clayton High School providing clothes and some food

Susan Price: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: I believe, on a regular basis on the weekends. I know my children have been involved in that, my church has been involved with that.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Clayton Area Ministries

Susan Price: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: it still has their food bank

Susan Price: Uh-huh

Jonathan Breeden: type [00:21:00] thing that opens a couple days a week.

Susan Price: One Compassion

Jonathan Breeden: One Compassion. Absolutely. I know they help pay bills and they have the big music festival in Clayton every year.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And they’re connected to River Wild.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And all the, all the great things that development do, Reed Smith and his family. I mean, there’s a tremendous amount of, I mean, there’s, there’s, there’s Serve the Need.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, I know by the time this runs, their big steak fundraiser, October 19th on a run at the Clayton Steakhouse. But you know, th- they’re always building ramps for people and providing, they’re paying some bills as well.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, it’s a lot of, lot of great Coach Fred, he was on the podcast, with feeding thousand people at Thanksgiving and providing counseling to juveniles that are in trouble. I mean, there’s just a tremendous amount of support in the community, particularly around Clayton. Probably more in Clayton than maybe some rest of parts

Susan Price: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: of the county. And you work with all of these people, and all these people work with you, and I think that is what people need to understand.

Crystal Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Reach out to any one of these groups.

Susan Price: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: If you need help or know somebody, [00:22:00] and they all know each other, and they’re gonna get you the help, right? I mean, that’s why I like the concept of what you’re doing here. You’re a resource center. Like, basically when I sat down and said, “What do you do?”

They’re like, “We help anybody that has an unexpected need.”

Crystal Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And I think that’s what I want people to take out of this podcast today. Anybody with an unexpected need, you can help.

Susan Price: That’s right. And we meet with all of those nonprofits quarterly. It’s called Better Together. We always have a meeting and a breakfast, and we sit down and we talk with each other about how we are able to help the community and best assist them together. So it keeps us working together instead of working against each other so that we can serve our community in the best way.

Crystal Fry: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: So when are you open? I guess that’s the first question.

Crystal Fry: Yeah, so we’re open Monday through Thursday. We see clients from 9:00 to 2:00. And then we, our phones are always available, so we’re able to check phones, emails and then they can leave messages as well if it’s, you know, an emergency and we have to call back.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. And what’s your website?

Crystal Fry: Yeah, [00:23:00] herhavenoflight.com so just www.herhavenoflight.com

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s easy.

Crystal Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: herhavenoflight.com.

Crystal Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. And you’re on social media?

Susan Price: Yes, and those are always Her Haven of Light.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, so.

Susan Price: When you look ’em up on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and then LinkedIn as well.

Crystal Fry: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well, that’s great. That’s great. And if people wanted. I guess the question is, do you take donations of these items that are in this office? The diapers, the clothes, you know, are there donation times? Are there certain types of donations you’re looking for?

Crystal Fry: Yeah. So we do take donations. Right now everybody actually, you know, wants to donate clothes.

Jonathan Breeden: Correct.

Crystal Fry: They’re going through their clothing items. We only have enough storage space to take certain items. So normally, if it’s clothing-wise and we’re in need of certain sizes, we post it on our social media so that people know, like, these are the sizes we’re looking for, so that we don’t get too swamped with things, ’cause we don’t have a lot of storage.

We’re always partnering with churches and other places to bring in, they do [00:24:00] huge laundry detergent drops for us, or body wash or shampoo. So we’re always in need of certain things like that. Toilet paper, paper towels diapers, wipes certain things. So a lot of people do drops for us to bring that stuff in as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s cool. And then how could people, I mean, help as well? They can help with bringing the clothes you need the detergent drives, stuff like that. Other, how are other ways people can help? They can help financially.

Crystal Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: How can people contribute?

Susan Price: Yeah, so on our website, we have a giving link for donations on there. They can do Venmo as well. It’s just @herhavenoflight.

PayPal’s @herhavenoflight. They can also write checks and send it to 545 East Main Street in Clayton. But also, yes, the drives are amazing because we’re always in need of things. And so if they have something or they’re interested in a drive, they can always contact us by phone or by email info@herhavenoflight.com or 919-978-7707, and we’ll just set up a time, just because we’re also seeing clients, and it’s just Crystal and myself.

Crystal Fry: Mm-hmm.

Susan Price: So when we’re seeing clients, we like to keep everything confidential, so we try to schedule the [00:25:00] drop-off times when nobody’s in the office. So just call to make sure it’s something that we’re in need of. And then we’re also in need of volunteers. So on our website, under the Get Involved tab, there is a form they can fill out.

It’s like a application. So then once they fill that out, we call them in and we just get an opportunity to get to know more about them and share more about Her Haven and the heart behind it and the vision and mission, and give them a tour of the office and see where they best feel like they would like to get involved at, ’cause there’s so many ways to be involved.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. That’s great. That’s great. So the last question we ask everybody is, what do you love most about Johnston County?

Susan Price: I grew up here. It feels like community. It feels like family. I know with the growth it, it has lost a little bit of that, but it still feels very connected. It feels like people still love one another.

They’re here to help one another, especially when times of need come up. If there’s sickness, I feel like people really rally around to support people in the best way that they can, and that’s what I feel like I love most about this community.

Crystal Fry: For me, I would say the closeness, the tight-knit. We- I’ve actually recently just had a friend whose son, it, [00:26:00] was diagnosed with cancer, and to see our baseball community, just the community in general rally around that family to raise funds, to be beside them, to bring meals to just pray, be a helping hand, has just been absolutely amazing, and I think that is just a blessing to be able to see.

And it’s not just with their family, it’s with so many families, and I, I truly love that about the community.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. That’s great. And then most people say the people, the community, you know. I mean, you think about it, like, I just rattled off seven or eight nonprofits around the Clayton area, including yours, everybody working together, everybody helping.

There’s such a need. I think a lot of people, you know, I see it. I, I do family law, you know, I, I work with DSS, I work with people in foster care so I know what’s out there. And I think a lot of people, when you’re just driving to Raleigh every day and you’re driving back, it’s there, but you have to look for it, right? Yeah. We have homeless people here, 40, 42.

Susan Price: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, yeah, you know what I mean? Like it’s, it’s there, y- you know, and, and, and if you wanna help, there’s, there’s, there’s help. And if you [00:27:00] need help

Crystal Fry: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: there’s help.

Susan Price: That’s right.

Jonathan Breeden: But, but you gotta, you gotta look, you gotta reach out whether it’s Her Haven of Light or any of the other groups that are doing stuff.

A- and I’m glad that there are people doing that in the community. We try to do our part here at the Breeden Law Office as well, and part of that with the podcast and everything else. So I think it’s really good what y’all are trying to do and you know, we need more of it. We need, we need

Susan Price: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: you know, we need more of what you’re doing. We need more groups. We need more groups like you in other parts of the county as well- and stuff like that. So I think that’s great. Well, anyway, we’d like to thank Her Haven of Light for being our guests on this week’s episode of the Best of Johnston County Podcast.

As we mentioned earlier, please like, follow, subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, or any of the other social media channels of the Best of Johnston County Podcast. Reach out to them, herhavenoflight.com or any of their social media channels.

If you heard something here today and you think you can help them, whether it’s with money or resources or things in the community, please reach out. If you need help, please reach out to them. They are in touch with [00:28:00] almost anybody and everybody that can help you in the greater Johnston County community, and they can help you if you’ll just give them a call.

Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.