Pastor helps teach Harlem's youngest residents
When the Rev. Melvin Adams walks into the Harlem Neighbor-hood Development Authority Day Care Academy, children's faces light up.
The Rev. Melvin Adams, pastor of New Holt Baptist Church, plays with children at the low-cost day care. He is president of the Harlem Neighborhood Development Corp. which runs the Harlem Neighborhood Development Authority Day Care Academy.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
"They really love him," center volunteer Gwen Bouthry said while watching the children huddle around Adams. "And he loves them, too."
Adams usually opens the center at 6 a.m. and closes it at 6 p.m. daily. He spends much of the day handling business in his office at the day care or checking on the progress of the 19 daytime children, whether it be during their play or learning time. On an average day, six more children arrive for the after-school program. He said the children keep him going with a positive mind set.
"I wake up with them (the children) on my mind, and they put me to sleep at night," Adams said of the day care that opened in July 2001. "It's a labor of love, what happens here. We truly believe that we're impacting the lives of children, and (also) their parents, in a positive way."
Adams founded the Harlem Neighborhood Development Corp. in 1996 and remains its president. The nonprofit organization implements programs, including the low-cost day care, that Adams hopes will shape young people by giving them a strong positive influence and role models.
Adams said his parents were his role models. He believes that inheriting his father's work ethic and his mother's discipline prepared him to make a difference in his community and to be a role model for future generations.
"If someone would ask me what is the strongest attribute I bring to our neighborhood development, it is a positive attitude and a determined will," Adams said.
"We look to build bridges of community networking. We try to be a part of the fabric that makes Harlem what it is. What I love about (Harlem) is they are sensitive to the needs of people. It's not just building buildings and having programs. But it is programs that are oriented to meet the needs of the people."
Adams has been pastor of New Holt Baptist Church for more than 11 years and commuted to Harlem from Atlanta for the church and development corporation until he moved to Hephzibah with his wife, Peggy, and 10-year-old son, Samuel Melvin III, in December 2003.
Harlem Mayor Scott Dean said Adams gets his congregation involved in community-strengthening events such as the city's annual Sonfest and the gospel sing.
"Melvin is an active and vital part of our community, no doubt about it," Dean said. "And he's a good role model for those kids."
Adams also is the 10th district president of the General Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia and on the school council at Harlem Middle and North Harlem Elementary schools.
"I'm just a ball of energy," Adams said of how he keeps up with his busy schedule running the church and all the corporation programs, including summer camp, after-school programs and the computer lab. "And I love to watch it in motion as it reaches and touches different people in different ways."
Adams never lets the smile fade from his face in front of the children, but he admits running a nonprofit organization funded completely from donations and grants is not easy. Still, he says all the work is certainly worth it.
"One of the beauties of this whole thing is we have been able to watch the children make their first step, utter their first word and to teach them their first lesson. That is worth it all by ten. That is the part of all this here that is priceless.''
Donations can be mailed to: Harlem Neighborhood Development Authority Day Care Academy, P.O. Box 1001, Harlem, GA 30814. For more information, call the center at 556-0209 or the corporation's headquarters at 556-0655.