Parents want to leave their children with someone they know they can trust to love and take care of their children. It is hard to find someone who loves taking care of children more than Tina Jasper. Since 1990, she has helped take care of and nurture children from around the county. In fact, she is living the life she has always wanted.
“I graduated from Quitman High School in 1987. I’m now doing what I said I wanted to do in the section of the yearbook where we were supposed to tell what we wanted to do in the future: working with children,” explained Tina. “I said that in seven years my future plans would be to own my own daycare center. I was giving myself seven years to go through school and get all my stuff established. In that seven year term, I became a parent at the age of 24 to a daughter, T’Mary Thigpen. Instead of opening up my own daycare center, I started working at Small World in 1990 with Mrs. Faye LaBoone.”
She may not have opened her own daycare center, but Ms. Tina did go to school and get her degree like she planned. She went to Jones County Junior College and received her Associate’s Degree in Childcare in 1989. She is also certified to help in case of an emergency.
“I am certified in CPR and first aid,” stated Tina. “I thank God that I’ve never had to use that training yet.”
Although she started working at Small World, she had to undergo a change in 2019 when Mrs. Faye LaBoone decided the time had come to retire.
“Now, I’m working with Mrs. Carla at Small Hands Academy,” said Tina. “I love my job.”
She has always enjoyed working with children and grew up with plenty of children around her.
“I’ve been around kids all my life,” stated Tina. “I’m the oldest in my biological family. There were 16 kids between my mom and my dad. I have one brother, and the rest are sisters. I lost my mom in 2017 and my dad in 2018. I also lost a sister in 2018, so now there are just 15 of us.”
Her job isn’t the only thing Tina loves and enjoys. She also loves going to church and being with her church family. In fact, she is very involved with the young people in her church.
“With my church family, I’m under the leadership of Reverend Advial McKenzie at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church,” said Tina. “I’ve been the youth director at my church for 20 years. With the kids, we usually sing, go to different churches and visit, and even take different trips to places like the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson and the MAXX Center in Meridian. We do different activities together. In the summer time, I usually take the youth to a youth conference we have in Heidelberg.”
Directing the youth group isn’t the only position Tina has taken in the church.
“I’m part of the Missionary Society at our church where I serve as the secretary. We deliver fruit baskets at Thanksgiving time to the elderly in our community. At Christmas time, we adopt two families and buy different stuff the kids need and some stuff for the adults. During the spring time, we deliver care packages to Lakeside,” explained Tina. “I also love singing in the choir and have been doing that since I was 12 years old. Now, I’m also the secretary of the choir at church.”
When she isn’t working or at church, Tina loves to be able to spend time with her family.
“My favorite past time is spending time with my family, whether it’s grilling, hanging out, or just relaxing,” said Tina.
In fact, Tina loves her family so much that she gave her daughter a special name.
“My daughter’s name is sentimental because she is named after my mother and me: T for Tina, and Mary was my mother’s name,” explained Tina. “T’Mary will always have a piece of Mom and me.”
Unfortunately, Tina has lost multiple people who have meant a lot to her over the years.
“There were some people I could go to for a ‘real’ conversation and wasn’t worried about hearing it again: my grandmother Flora Jasper who passed in July of 2012, my uncle Lee Jasper who passed in January of 2017, my mother Mary Jasper who passed in October of 2017, my dad A.C. Edwards who passed in October of 2018, and most recently my boss Faye LaBoone who passed in April of 2020,” stated Tina. “I was heartbroken to lose all of them.”
She may have faced some tragic losses, but Tina hasn’t allowed that to stop her from spreading love and joy to others.
“Rain, sleet, snow, or shine, you can catch me on Friday nights working the concession stands supporting the Big Blue Crew and QHS football.”
Tina does what she loves every day, and she plans to continue to help love and nurture children as long as she can.
If you’d like to nominate someone in Clarke County for Person of the Week, please send the name and contact information for the person to bmangum@clarkecountytrib.com.
