Shellie O’Quinn is eating popcorn and drinking orange juice for lunch, which happens to be 3:30 on a Tuesday afternoon — several hours before she’ll leave the Melton Cotton City Event Center in Greenbrier.
Her dedication to programs at the center, for which she has been director since it opened, is just one reason O’Quinn was named Citizen of the Year by the Greenbrier Chamber of Commerce.
“I think they need a recount,” she said, laughing.
Audreya Cole, president of the chamber, doesn’t think so.
“Shellie is such an asset to Greenbrier,” Cole said. “She is a big-picture thinker and always coming up with new projects and programs to keep the community active and healthy. I’ve been privileged to work with her on many events, but I’m even more blessed to call her a friend.”
O’Quinn, 44, is a cheerleader for her hometown — but she’s a Conway resident. She and her husband
of almost 17 years, both Greenbrier High School graduates, live on Beaverfork Lake.
“I grew up in Greenbrier — kindergarten through 12th grade — and I’m very proud of that,” O’Quinn said.
“I’m such a big fan of our schools.”
Cole said it’s not the first time someone who doesn’t live in the city limits has been chosen for the award.
“Good citizenship encompasses more than just a mailing address,” Cole said.
O’Quinn’s parents, Betty and Shelby Sawrie, live in Greenbrier, as does O’Quinn’s father-in-law, Jim O’Quinn. Her mother-in-law, Judy, died of cancer in 2006. Shellie and her husband, Devo, lived in Greenbrier and wanted to build a home, but it didn’t work out. They still own property there, however.
Shellie said she prayed for two years, and the perfect home became available in 2010 on Beaverfork Lake — one similar to house plans she had drawn. It was “a God thing,” she said.
Their home is often full of the young people they mentor and host.
She holds small-group meetings for college-age students from Greenbrier Church of the Nazarene — it was a ministry that she, Debra Snuggs and Keith Rooney started, she said.
O’Quinn leads the choir and the Wednesday-night teen praise band, and plays bass and keyboard in the Sunday-morning praise band.
“I grew up singing. I learned to read music when I learned to read,” she said.
O’Quinn and her husband host students through International Friendship Outreach at the University of Central Arkansas.
A framed photo on O’Quinn’s desk at the event center shows her with a mixture of people she considers family — her husband, parents, a former high school exchange student from Norway who lived with them, and UCA students from Rwanda and The Gambia.
The couple have hosted students from China, all over Africa, India, Jamaica, Malaysia and other places.
O’Quinn said although youths seemed to be drawn to her and her husband, she insists the two are a “boring” couple.
“We sit around the fire on the deck. We just do life. If one [of the students] needs to go to the emergency room, we go to the emergency room. We’re kind of their parents away from home,” she said.
The couple also take the kids sailing on Beaverfork Lake, which she said the international students really enjoy.
One day when O’Quinn and her husband were taking Edouard, a Rwandan student, somewhere, she commented to the student that it must be so hard for him to be away from home for so long.
“He said, ‘Imagine that — how that feels – then imagine someone like you takes you in their home and does what you’ve done for me.’ I teared up there in the car,” she said, getting teary-eyed again.
The O’Quinns serve as extended family for a girl from Soaring Wings Ranch. O’Quinn said the girl is a good fit for their family, and they have her stay with them every weekend they can.
“We’ve had multiple, not at one time, but we have served as an extended family for seven different kids from Soaring Wings,” she said.
The O’Quinns don’t have biological children, but O’Quinn said she feels like she can be a mother figure for the students who pass through their lives.
“Family doesn’t have to be blood, and you don’t even have to be the same skin color,” she said.
A normally upbeat person, O’Quinn said she got down one Mother’s Day and asked God, “Why didn’t you pick me?” She said she felt that God was telling her, “I picked you for something else — for the kids who don’t have a mom, or don’t have a good relationship with their mom.”
O’Quinn’s desire to make a difference in the world was the catalyst that caused her to change careers, leaving a job after 10 years at the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department to become director of the Melton Cotton City Event Center in 2005, when it opened as the Greenbrier City Event Center.
O’Quinn was in the UCA Honors College and attending school on a scholarship when she decided to transfer to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville to study landscape architecture.
“I’ve never felt so lost in my life,” she said. O’Quinn hadn’t taken all the prerequisites she needed, but she worked hard and quickly caught up.
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture, but for three months afterward, she worked with her mother doing alterations at the former Frank Rivers Men’s Store in Conway until landing the job as a park planner with the city of Little Rock.
O’Quinn got to do community-park designs and manage multimillion-dollar construction projects. One of her favorite projects was working on the River Trail project.
“That was fun,” she said.
“I did love doing parks, but I felt like I wasn’t really helping anybody. I didn’t feel the bulk of my time was spent making a difference,” she said.
O’Quinn was named Professional of the Year by the Arkansas Parks and Recreation Association in 2005 after taking the job in Greenbrier.
“I prayed for two or three years for a job closer to home,” she said. One day, her mother-in-law called her and read an ad for the Greenbrier event-center director.
“I got chills all over,” O’Quinn said. It was an opportunity to “make one-on-one connections,” she said, “and just be able to make a difference.”
One project she’s done for the schools is to donate her expertise in landscape architecture by drawing the design for a proposed courtyard at Greenbrier High School, for which funds are being raised.
O’Quinn was so sure the event-center job was meant to be that she didn’t even ask former Mayor Melton Cotton about the salary during their interview.
“We never discussed salary. The first day, I said, ‘I guess I’m getting paid?’” she said, laughing.
With the support of the mayor and the City Council, she said, the center added programs and equipment. One of the first things she did was write a grant for the Cool Kidzs Camp, which was free for kids 8-12. It’s no longer held because of demands on the facility’s schedule, but it was great while it lasted, she said.
“Oh, I loved it,” she said. O’Quinn spent months planning the camps, from writing the grant to finding experts to come teach crafts or demonstrate skills. One of her favorite memories is one with a native Arkansas theme. She had someone who spun wool; an artist dyed it and showed the kids how. Her husband built a trading post (which prompted her to say, ‘He deserves this award as much as I do”), and campers earned beads for good behavior, which they could trade for prizes.
“We got kids to try some weird foods just by giving them beads,” she said.
O’Quinn said she doesn’t profess to be a health nut, but she’s interested in healthy living and has worked to get the Greenbrier community onboard.
The Arkansas Department of Health asked Greenbrier to be the first city in the state to join its Web-based healthy-lifestyle program, and O’Quinn coordinated Greenbrier Gets Fit, starting in 2013, as well as the mayor’s 100-mile challenge, which has evolved into the 107-mile challenge.
The event center has benefited from grants from state agencies and the Arkansas Community Foundation/Faulkner County for programs such as the summer camp. O’Quinn is a member of the foundation’s board.
“It’s one of the best organizations I have ever been associated with,” she said.
“We’re so proud of her,” said Gloria Cheshier, the foundation’s executive director. “She’s an excellent member of our board; always contributes. She knows the community well and is a true asset. She has a real heart for giving. She’s on a venture task force for basic needs, and she’s just an excellent team member.”
Greenbrier Mayor Sammy Hartwick, a former Citizen of the Year, said O’Quinn is more than worthy of the award.
“She deserves it — she probably will say she doesn’t, but she does, and that’s another reason she’s got it. She’s so organized, and nothing bad has ever come from Shellie O’Quinn. Everything she does is just wonderful, and we are very lucky to have her on staff.”
O’Quinn will receive her award at the Greenbrier Chamber of Commerce banquet at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Greenbrier Junior High School cafeteria. After hugs and congratulations from community members and friends, she’ll take her award and drive with her husband to their home in Conway.
But, that’s OK.
Where she rests her head doesn’t matter; her heart is in Greenbrier.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.