Monticello Live

Donna White is a special person.  April 1st will be Donna’s 4 year anniversary working at the Drew County Development Disabilities Adult Center. 

She began there working in The Other Way, their thrift store, and has since been serving as an instructor there, working with the organization’s clients, “not only in a classroom setting, but also with life-skills such as cooking, general housekeeping, basic money management, and picking out daily clothes,” Donna explained.  She continued, “We also spend time teaching them “people skills”, such as shaking hands, and not hugging people when you meet them in public.”

Donna explained, “Our students are normal people, just like everyone else, it’s just that some things take more time.  They desire love and attention, just like we do.  It really makes me appreciate what I do, when I see someone’s face light up, when they’ve achieved a goal, or accomplished a task that they’ve been working on.”

Mrs. White was born and raised in the Lacey area.  She graduated from Drew Central High School.

Her husband of 7 years, Tony White, works in the field of poultry farming. Her son, Antonio Owens, age 22, has attended ITT Tech, and her daughter, TLisa Owens, age 20, has attended UCA at Conway, and is currently in the National Guard, nearing graduation from Basic Training.

Donna is a member of the Holy Devine Spiritual Church, at Lacey, where Rev. Foster is pastor.  She is president of the choir, helps with worship programs (like this week’s Easter program), and basically does “whatever needs to be taken care of.”

Donna used to play baseball as member of the T.J. Tigers, where Tommy Daniels, her brother, was also the team’s coach.  At Drew Central, she played basketball and ran track.

Donna’s hobbies include singing and making crafts.

Donna’s favorites include:

Restaurant-Popeye’s

TV Show-C.S.I. & Law & Order, all of them

Phrase-”Oh Lord.”

Actor-Eddie Murphy

Movie-Dr. Doolittle 

Book-The Little Train That Could

Music-Gospel and Blues

Song or hymn-”Jesus You Held On”

In closing, Donna wanted to compliment her “mentor” at work, Mrs Debra Banks.

Donna was nominated for One Monticello Life, by Donna Francis, our County Extension Agent, e-mailed MonticelloLive, “I do programs monthly at The Other Way for the clients of the Drew County Adult Developmental Disability Council.  Donna has worked there for years and does an excellent job.  She has a beautiful smile and is so kind and encouraging to the clients she works with.  I just thought she would be an excellent choice for the One Monticello Life column.  ”

Thanks, Donna White, for all you do, and for sharing your One Monticello Life. 

Follow this link to a history of “One Monticello Life“.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Feature: OML. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.