Geneva Bowlin of Conway likes to keep a low profile when promoting Project 3:27 Inc., which gives vehicles to people in need, but as important as she is to the organization, that’s hard to do.
The 83-year-old retired schoolteacher took up the slack when the founder, her grandson-in-law Jeremy Smith, moved out of state.
“He didn’t get very far until I got involved with it,” she said.
Smith and his wife, Shanna, have a son, Sawyer, who has spina bifida.
Bowlin said the couple took Sawyer to Pediatrics Plus Therapy Services in Conway and realized “there were people there in so much worse shape.”
One woman who utilized the clinic had two special-needs children and no wheelchair-accessible van, and Smith wanted to help her. Bowlin said she and Smith contacted church friends and reached out on Facebook to ask for a vehicle to be donated or sold cheaply.
“Someone gave us a van,” she said. Bowlin said that in addition to the van, volunteers donated toys, a Bible, gift cards and more.
It was given to the woman as a surprise.
“It was a crying situation,” Bowlin said.
Smith stayed anonymous at first, but the woman found out who he was.
The program attained its nonprofit status in 2013, after an 18-month wait, and Bowlin filled out most of the paperwork.
The name of the program comes from Proverbs 3:27: “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it is in your power to help them.”
This year, four cars have been given away.
One vehicle was given to Anita Wright, who lived in the Black Oak Ranch Estates near Vilonia. Her home and vehicle were destroyed by the April tornado. “She’d lost everything. She had a job and couldn’t get to it, and her husband had a stroke,”
Bowlin said.
Other vehicles were presented to Jacob Hendrickson of Mayflower, who said he planned to go to school to get his license to drive an 18-wheeler, but his truck broke down; Paul Bruich, a resident and mentor at Renewal Ranch in Houston, 10 miles west of Conway in Perry County, who needed a vehicle to get a job outside of the ranch; and Susan Shatzer, a woman in Perry County who had been involved in a hit-and-run wreck.
“She was so grateful,” Bowlin said.
“It was a blessing from God,” Shatzer said.
The 48-year-old Houston resident said she was driving her 1996 Buick Skylark in June when she was hit head-on by another driver. “I died on the side of the road until they brought me back to life,” she said.
Shatzer has undergone surgery on her foot and was scheduled to have surgery on her arm this week, she said.
“I did not know how this worked; I’d never heard of this before,” she said. Shatzer said she was trying to figure out a way to come up with the money to get “a $400 car.”
“I was broke; I didn’t have any way of making any money; I could barely walk,” she said.
Shatzer also said she had just spent $1,500 on car repairs.
Then a friend told Shatzer that she’d nominated her for a vehicle.
Shatzer said the 1992 Buick Park Avenue she received from Project 3:27 Inc. is the nicest vehicle she’s ever had.
“It is an awesome car. It was detailed inside and out. Everything works; it even has air conditioning,” she said.
Bowlin said people may nominate an individual, and that nominee is asked to write information about themselves. A five-member board then makes the decision.
“You feel like you’re making judgments on somebody, and you really have to — the Scripture says those who are worthy,” Bowlin said.
She said care is taken to ask enough questions to be reasonably certain that the person isn’t going to turn around and sell the vehicle for drugs, or another purpose.
Transportation is a crucial need in Arkansas, she said, because it is so rural.
“We don’t have buses; we don’t have trams,” she said.
Bowlin said the organization needs help, though, meeting the needs.
“We’re out of cars right now,” she said.
Donations can be cars, trucks, motorcycles, money — “it could even be a tractor,” she said.
Bowlin said the latest acquisition is a motor home, which probably will be sold “to serve more people.”
Bowlin said she has started talking to groups with senior citizens who might be ready to give up driving.
“It doesn’t have to be a car that runs — I’d like for it to be. It cost $500 on the last one to get it running,” she said.
Project 3:27 board member Hugh Austin, who owns Austin Brothers Tires in Conway, helps get the cars ready, she said.
Austin said his isn’t the only shop working to help the organization.
“If there’s a car that comes in that I can fix quickly and inexpensively, we do that. If it’s going to be more in-depth, we’ve got another shop that we use,” he said.
“I’m in this program because Mrs. Geneva Bowlin came in and asked me,” Austin said.
“She was not my teacher. I’m not from here, but she’s an icon in our community,” he said.
Austin said that when Bowlin told him the organization was based on the Scripture from Proverbs, he was hooked.
“I said, ‘Well, you know what, that’s one of my favorite verses.’ I didn’t have to think about it or pray about it,” he said.
Austin said when someone looks up “servant’s heart” in the dictionary, “that woman, that’s her picture.”
“It’s one of the most rewarding things we are involved in,” he said, referring to his wife and himself.
“When you can actually change somebody’s life in our community by giving them something they can’t afford to purchase right at this moment for themselves that will get them to work, or enhance their families or enhance their lives, that’s rewarding,” Austin said.
“There’s not a shortage of people to give them to; there’s a shortage of vehicles. We just don’t have enough people giving them to us,” he said.
It’s a tax deduction, Austin said, and people don’t have to worry about strangers coming to their homes when they sell their vehicles.
Project 3:27 sponsored the first Celebrity Spelling Bee fundraiser in July, which raised about $5,000, she said.
“I organized it, every part of it,” Bowlin said.
It included “celebrity” spellers and a “pester bee,” who for a $5 donation would bother spellers; and a mulligan for $75 to let eliminated spellers back in the game. The event also included a silent auction.
“Everybody’s been real nice to me; doors just opened,” she said. “Jerry [Borden, a board member], and Hugh think it’s my white hair,” she said, laughing.
Bowlin isn’t new to community service — she’s been active through Second Baptist Church. This was the first time she had organized an event of that magnitude, however, she said.
“It was just fun,” she said,
She plans to have the event again, possibly on another night besides Friday, based on the feedback.
“I always try to evaluate what I’ve done and see what I can do better,” she said.
Bowlin said that about two weeks after Bruich received his car, several men from Renewal Ranch made a presentation at her church.
“When Paul saw me, I got the biggest old bear hug,” she said. “Those kind of things make you feel good.”
For more information on Project 3:27, call Bowlin at (501) 329-3415, or email her at host@project327Inc.com.
To make a donation, mail it to Project 3:27 Inc., P.O. Box 801, Conway, AR, 72033.
The group’s website is www.project327inc.com.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.