Wooden It Be Lovely— if all women had hope? That's the mission of one local nonprofit providing hope, transitional housing, and employment for women in recovery through furniture restoration and other creative work. Wooden It Be Lovely's executive director and founder Margaret Ann Jessup and staff supervisor and lead designer Megan Murray join Community Voices to discuss the organization’s mission, its exciting new location, and upcoming events. One of the events includes a big celebration involving a ribbon cutting, open houses, a food truck, and more to celebrate the recent move. They also share details about the organization’s holiday sale happening Nov. 12 and ways the community can get involved.
Melissa Snider:
Welcome to Community Voices, a production of NPR Illinois. I'm your co-host, Melissa Snider, in the studio with Margaret Ann Jessup, the executive director and founder of Wooden It Be Lovely here in Springfield. Also in the studio is Megan Murray. Megan is the staff supervisor and lead designer of the organization. How are we doing today, ladies?
Megan Murray:
Very good.
Margaret Ann Jessup:
Thank you for having us.
Melissa Snider:
Hey, thank you for coming in. So that is Wooden It Be Lovely. Tell us about the name of the organization and how that plays into what you do.
Margaret Ann Jessup:
So when we first came up with the idea to start a social enterprise for women, trying to think of a name, we knew that we were going to refurbish wooden furniture. And then it just came to us that Wooden It Be Lovely is a clever name, but it really means wouldn't it be lovely if all women had hope. So our tagline is if all women had hope, because primarily what we're doing is offering women hope. We go by Wooden It Be Lovely. And lately we've been using just more Be Lovely, shortening our name a little bit because we do a lot more than just wooden furniture. But it all started with wooden furniture.
Melissa Snider:
And it kind of plays into the rebuilding.
Margaret Ann Jessup:
Correct.
Melissa Snider:
Tell me a little bit about what you do there. You help women healing from poverty, addiction, abuse, is that right?
Margaret Ann Jessup:
Correct.
Megan Murray:
Yes, so we provide transitional employment and housing for women in recovery. Our women are in recovery from addiction, but poverty, abuse kind of ties in. They're hired to work at our studio. Most of the girls do furniture, refinishing wooden furniture, but there's also candle making. We have a boutique, so we have a lot of hand-painted home decor items. We also have a couple girls that are sewers that sew pillows and patches on jackets and that kind of thing. So we have a few different products that we sell. And so that's what the women are hired to do. We also have a house where up to four women can live there at a time, and they can stay there for up to two years. We don't charge them rent. Their job is just to go to work, go to meetings, and just continue to like heal, gain sobriety time, and figure out what they want to do next. So all of it is transitional. We want to meet them to the next step of whatever it is they want to do. So some of them, we help guide them to get their GED. Some go back to college. Some go to hair school. It's just like whatever it is that they want to do with their life, we try and transition them out. Most of the women that we hire are usually, not all, but usually, out of rehab or jail. We hire women on drug court or probation, like that kind of thing. I like to think it's like an aftercare program, like past the point of you do 30 days in rehab or you get out of jail or whatever, and then it's like, then what? That's kind of the time where you get lost and you don't have a resume, you don't know where to go to work, you don't have any friends that are clean or sober. It's just really hard to navigate the world when you are 30 days clean off the streets. So we are kind of like that haven. We try and get people transitioned out after two years, but that's not always a cut and dry cookie cutter plan for everybody. Sometimes it takes that long, sometimes it takes longer, but that's the premise of our program.
Melissa Snider:
That's really incredible. You know, you're giving them essential skills, finding that next step, finding a starting point really.
Megan Murray:
Yeah. And a lot of women haven't worked in years or like one of our women, she was like in her 40s and never had a job ever. So it's like getting used setting your alarm clock, getting dressed, getting to work on time, performing your job, being productive, just like an honest hard day's work that some people just aren't accustomed to. It's learning life skills, job skills, that kind of thing.
Melissa Snider:
When you think about the women who come through Wooden It Be Lovely, where they are when they arrive compared to when they leave, what do you hope people understand about the organization?
Margaret Ann Jessup:
When you meet someone for the first time, they're unsettled, they don't know what the future holds. And then in time we see them kind of unfold and bloom into what it is they want to do. We are an organization that just provides hope to women. We are really big proponents of education. We try to get the women to either get their GED if they don't have one or if they have not been to college or they want to see how that would go. We have lots of women that start at Lincoln Land, maybe just one class, two class. A couple semesters ago we had seven of our women taking college for the first time. We try to support that any way we can, mentor them. We just try to find what it is that makes the person's soul happy and kind of lead them in that direction. Like what is it that they would like to do for the rest of their life?
Melissa Snider:
So I'm curious, how did you two get into this?
Margaret Ann Jessup:
Okay, I'll go first. I am an oncology nurse by my profession for 25 years. And then I went to seminary in my mid-40s. And when I was in seminary, I ran across a program in Nashville, Tennessee called And there's where I learned the concept of a social enterprise, which is a business for a mission that you could train women that were struggling, that had lived on the streets to do work and employ them. And in my role at Douglas Avenue United Methodist Church at that time, I would find women that would come into the church and asked if we could help pay their light bill or could we help buy their something for their children. And I realized really quickly that we could do that, but it didn't really help solve their problem because next month they had the same problem. So I combined my knowledge from my seminary with my lived experience at the church and knew that I wanted to do something in Springfield to help that population of people. I'm not personally a recovering addict. A lot of people in this work are. I always laugh and say I got other issues, but that's not one of them. So that's how I got into it. We just started with an idea and knew that there was a great need in our population. It started in 2016 as a ministry of Douglas Avenue United Methodist Church and then in 2021 we became a separate 501c3. We're 10 years since we started but our 501c3 was in 21. So we're separate now from Douglas Avenue. I know Megan talked a lot about what we do like we make pillows, candles, furniture. I always like to say what I hope we do first is we empower women and we let them know that they're beloved, that they are worth our time and talent in all that we put into them because a lot of women when they come into the program they're hopeless, they haven't been loved in a long time the way we believe they deserve to be loved and that's why we do everything lovely. We go overboard on beauty and color and happy things because we know that some of them have lived in prison cells or they lived on the streets and so we want them to come into our work environment or our housing program and just see beauty or see lovely is what we like to call it. So that's how I got into it. And then Megan was one of the first women that we hired back in 2016. And then she can tell you her story.
Megan Murray:
So yeah, I had battled drug addiction for many years and I had wound up having a baby in 2016. I was clean at that point. I got clean. I had my baby, but I had been just living in my car through my pregnancy and just been in chaos. I didn't have any job. I had no money. It was just really rough. So I was just on Facebook one day and saw an ad about painting furniture. And I thought that looked cool because I'm kind of an artist at heart. I am an artist at heart. And so I just thought, oh, I would love to paint furniture and get paid for it. So I didn't know there was more to it than that. So I went in and I talked to Margaret Ann. She kind of interviewed me and I told her my story and where I was at in my life. It ended up being like a program that was tailor made for me and what I needed at that time. So I started there and then I just stuck with the program. I've moved my way up to now supervising.
Melissa Snider:
So if somebody listening right now could benefit from this program, but they maybe aren't sure if they're ready or if they belong, what would you want them to know?
Megan Murray:
I just feel like if I got clean, I feel like anybody could. I genuinely feel that. When you're in addiction, it's like a really hopeless spot to be. It feels like you can't ever dig your way back out of it. And I always remember being like, well, if anybody ever is able to quit drugs and stay off drugs, they were never addicted in the 1st place because it's just impossible to get back off of them. Like I remember feeling that and believing that in my soul. And that's just not true. There are ways to break the cycles, break the addictions. I've been to rehab 10 times. And when I went to my first rehab in like 2005/2006, there was such little, they just throw you in a room and make you sweat it out, withdraw. You didn't get an Advil, you didn't get anything, like throw you in the room and let you rot until you can maybe figure it out. Recovery has progressed since then. There's more treatment centers, medical card pays for rehabs. There's MAT, which is like Suboxone, methadone, Subutex. There's so many medications that assist in a recovery that there never was years ago. So there's just more help out there now than I feel like there ever has been in rehabs, detoxes, and just ways to stay clean. And you've got to have a support system. And that's why I think we're so great because, I mean, it takes a village, you know what I mean? Like it takes a village to just surround somebody and always, if you have a breath in your body, there's a chance you can get clean.
Melissa Snider:
Absolutely. For somebody who wants to get involved or help out the mission, do you take volunteers or how could somebody get involved?
Megan Murray:
Yes, absolutely. So we have on Tuesdays volunteer shifts. So from 1 to 3, we have a volunteer hours. Also Tuesday, 5:30 to 7:30. You can just show up. We'll give you paperwork, have you fill out a form just with your information and safety stuff. And I always say wear paint clothes because Sometimes we'll have you paint or get dirty or sand something. So wear an apron or something that you don't mind maybe getting paint on. Anyone is welcome.
Melissa Snider:
People can donate furniture, bring furniture by?
Megan Murray:
Yeah, we always need wooden furniture. We do have things that we don't take. We don't take like sofas or TVs or mattresses, headboards, footboards, big entertainment centers, or anything that's broken. We don't do furniture repairs. As long as it's wooden and in good shape, the drawers work fine, dressers, desks, chairs. We do pickups. We prefer if you drop off, but if you can't drop things off, we do have a truck and we can come pick up furniture. So if you guys have anything, call our number, 217-414-0565. If you're not sure on if it's something that we can take or not, you can always text us a picture and we can let you know if it's something we can use.
Melissa Snider:
Awesome. What are your hours?
Megan Murray:
Monday through Friday, 9 to 4, and we are there till 7:30 on Tuesdays, 1140 West Governor Street. Yes.
Melissa Snider:
To know more information, what is your website?
Megan Murray:
It is www.woodenitbelovely.love, not dot-com, dot-love.
Melissa Snider:
Awesome. And do you have a Black Dress Gala?
Margaret Ann Jessup:
Yes, we just had it on August 25th and next year it's August 26th if anyone wants to put that on their calendar. It is our biggest fundraiser. It is a beautiful thing to look in a room and see 600 women all together just supporting other women. So the women in our program, some give a testimony. We like to show how far we've come. So it's a beautiful gala, but yeah, we just had it. It was very successful. So thank you all you sponsors out there. So yeah.
Melissa Snider:
And then you have a fall sale coming up.
Margaret Ann Jessup:
Correct.
Melissa Snider:
So when is that fall sale?
Margaret Ann Jessup:
We anticipate it's tentatively October 17th. We're a little bit behind in our production because of our big move and we've had a lot of other things that we had to tend to. So hope to have it October 17th. But we do know for sure that we're going to have our holiday sale on November 12th.
Megan Murray:
Our holiday sale is the most anticipated sale I feel like of the year. I feel like the most people come to that sale. Everybody loves it. We just have hand-painted everything that's Christmas. This year we'll have hand-painted nutcrackers and door art that you can hang on your front door. Wooden Christmas trees that are all hand-painted, painted canvases, apparel, clothes, just unique gifts that you could buy as Christmas gifts. It's great. People line up around the block for that sale.
Margaret Ann Jessup:
That sale is the 12th, but then the next week we open up our holiday boutique where we sell things until Christmas. If you like to give gifts that give twice, bring your Christmas list to our boutique and it's on South Grand, 801 South Grand West, and it's in the bottom half of the residential house. It's a beautiful space and that's where we sell unique gifts, inspirational gifts, as well as some hand-painted items. So come to us for your Christmas gifts.
Megan Murray:
Yes.
Margaret Ann Jessup:
And really the sale of all of our items is probably 20 to 25% of our budget. So a lot of times people think that's how we make it. It's helpful. A lot of nonprofits don't have any income stream. We have to have work for the women. Luckily we get to sell it and it does help our budget. It all balances out.
Melissa Snider:
So you recently moved to a new location.
Margaret Ann Jessup:
Correct.
Melissa Snider:
What prompted that move? Tell me a little bit about that.
Margaret Ann Jessup:
We've been at Douglas Avenue since 2016 and we were upstairs. We had a large space The church was very gracious and let us use the space for free, but we just outgrew it. We had every square inch that we could use. It was upstairs. We needed a place that would be more efficient, that we could spread out and work harder, and we could hire more women with more space. So that has given us our own identity. For a while, people kind of confused, are we part of the church, which was a lovely thing, but we did want our own space and our own identity as we grow and are able to hire more women hopefully open a second residential program next year. We knew for some time that we had to move. We just couldn't afford it until just recently. And the only reason that we could afford it this time is we were blessed with a trust from Chief Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Miller. His money from his trust allowed us to buy the building. The building that we bought was the previous Temple Israel, which was a beautiful building. And so we have taken that beautiful building and turned it into what we call our beautiful, happy building. The sanctuary looks the same, but the rest of the building looks happy. It's beautiful. It's colorful. Again, we want women to come into the workspace and just have a sense that they're worth this pretty, lovely building.
Melissa Snider:
So we have some celebrations in the books for that?
Margaret Ann Jessup:
Correct, yeah. So we cannot wait. We're really excited. We have a ribbon cutting for our new building scheduled for September 25th at noon with the Chamber of Commerce. The public is invited to that. And then following that, we have open house from 1 to 3. We'll do tours of our new building. And I'm telling you, it's spectacular. And then on the following day, we will have public open houses and tours. We're gonna have a party in the parking lot and in the grass. We have some items for sale. We'll have a food truck. We'll have balloons. We'll have all kinds of celebration things out in the yard. We'll have ways that people can help in the community, different booths that they can come to. We just wanted people to understand that we did move. And our saying is kind of like, it's not just a move. It is a movement. And it's a movement to tell our community, to tell the world that with love and care, people can and do recover from really, really hard lives. It just takes the support of a community. So that's kind of our philosophy. We have shirts that say it's not just a move, it's a movement. So we just know that substance abuse disorder is such a terrible disease in our society, and we just want to be that beacon of hope. There is hope. There are many ways to do it, but the way that we do it is effective for many people. So we want to celebrate. So We are just really, really happy that we have this opportunity to show the community our new building and to learn more about what we do.
Melissa Snider:
Awesome. Well, thank you ladies so much for coming in today.
Megan Murray:
Thank you for having us.
Melissa Snider:
Once again, Margaret Ann Jessup and Megan Murray of Wooden It Be Lovely here in Springfield.
Community Voices is events you might have missed and conversations with neighbors, artists, and area businesspeople. Get to know your neighbors with Community Voices weekdays at noon and 10 p.m., Saturdays at 5, and on demand at nprillinois.org
