“You need to live every day like it’s your last day and treat people like it’s the last time you’ll see them because you never know if it really will be the last time you see them,” advised Kim Dew.
Anyone who has ever met Kim knows that she lives her life focusing on the things that really matter and does everything she can to bless those she comes in contact with each day.
She grew up with her father, William Lee, in the Navy, but there is only one place outside of Clarke County that she can remember living.
“Maryland is really the only place I can remember living away from here,” stated Kim. “We moved back to this area, and Pop was able to get a job working on the base in Pensacola. Later on, there was a guy who lived in Pensacola who worked on the base in Meridian, and he and Pop switched places and were able to work closer to home.”
She was blessed to grow up in a house close to her grandparents, and she can clearly remember being able to play and walk different places carefree.
“All the neighborhood kids would just get together and play different games outside. I don’t remember us having to worry about very much about other people doing something to us,” recalled Kim. “I could walk from my house to Granny Ivey’s house without having to worry about other people.”
She frequently made trips to her granny’s house nearby and loved to learn from her.
“My big role model growing up was Granny Ivey,” remembered Kim. “If we were here, we would be in church when the doors were open. She was very conservative. She wouldn’t even get her ears pierced because she believed that if we were meant to have holes in our ears, then God would have put them there. She was my biggest role model because of her relationship with God and her Christian walk. She talked it, and she walked it. She was actually genuine in her faith.”
The example her Granny Ivey set had a major impact on Kim and helped mold her into the kind-hearted person she grew up to be. Every day, Kim strives to live out a genuine faith for others, especially her family.
One of the things that Kim learned from her family growing up was having a strong work ethic, and she has done everything possible to make sure that she teaches her own children just how important it is to work hard.
“One of the things I tried to instill in my kids is to have a good work ethic because that’s how Pop and Mimi raised us. They never called in just because of something minor being wrong,” explained Kim. “Now, Brooke is the Food Service Manager at Enterprise, is a personal trainer at Anderson’s, sells Herbalife, and cooks meals to sell. Tori teaches and coaches at Jones and works at a batting instructional facility. Brandon stays busy with the U.S. Air National Guard.”
Kim has always had a heart for children and felt called to work with kids. One of the ways she has always had an impact on children has been through ball.
“My heart has always been working with kids, even though I was working in business to start with. I started coaching in Stonewall when I was 20 and coached about eight years. Then, I got married and started playing co-ed,” stated Kim. “When we had children and they were old enough to play, we started coaching them. I thought I was retired from coaching when I quit that first time, but then we got started again.”
Kim did everything she could to support her children as they played ball all the way through high school and into college. Now that one of her children, Tori, coaches at Jones College, Kim still does everything she can to support her.
“I had worked full time for a while at a couple of banks and then the mill in Stonewall until it closed. When the mill closed, I didn’t want a full-time job again so that I could be there for my kids,” explained Kim. “I was a substitute teacher at Enterprise for a while so that I could both work and be able to go support my kids.”
She went to almost every game her children played, only unable to attend some games that were happening at the same time in different locations. She decided to start working full time again once her children were out of school and schedules had changed. Now, she has a job that is perfect for her to be able to both work and be there to help her family.
“After my kids were out of school and their sports schedules had changed, I had a friend call me and ask me if I wanted a full-time job at the Shepherd’s Staff. After thinking it over, I took it and worked there for several years,” said Kim. “Then, an opportunity came available at Enterprise as an assistant, and that was perfect because I don’t have the stress of being the teacher now. It was hard leaving the Shepherd’s Staff, but working with the school has given me more time off to be able to be with my parents since I have the summer and holidays off now.”
Just like with her own children, Kim loves the children she works with every day in the Kindergarten classroom. She cares about each child as her own and tries to set a positive example and provide the kids with just what they need when they are in the classroom.
“We never know what people are going through,” explained Kim. “I pray for my kids every morning. You never know when something is going on and someone may just need a hug or kind word, and you may be the only smile or hug they get that day. I pray that God will give me discernment and wisdom to see which kid may need extra special attention each day. I pray the same thing about my coworkers too, because you never know when they may be having a bad day.”
On the rare occasions that Kim isn’t spending time with her family or spoiling her nieces and nephews, she can be found looking at history.
“I like looking at genealogy and looking at the history of different things, like the history of houses or reading new things about history,” stated Kim. “If I have any extra time, that’s usually what I do.”
Whether she is piecing together the genealogy for her family, spending time with and encouraging every member of her family, or showing up to support the ball teams, everyone who meets Kim Dew can be guaranteed to walk away feeling blessed and encouraged.
