It takes a pretty special person to dedicate their life to serving others, especially when that dedication runs as deeply as David and Leeann Beatty’s. The couple began
Joe and Shirley’s Place in 2004 to help men and women with addictions to drugs and alcohol. The organization recently received a much needed, $12,000 grant from the Lansing Chapter of 100 Women Who Care.
“I just love addicts and alcoholics,” says David Beatty. “I’m a recovering person myself, and somebody helped me a long time ago to get on my feet. I’m kind of paying it forward.”
The Beatty’s received a donation of three houses when they first started the organization and filled them immediately with homeless individuals and those recently released from prison or treatment centers.
“A lot of people come with nothing,” says Beatty. “We help them the get IDs, social security cards, personal hygiene products – whatever they need. Where a person is when we meet them, if they’re ready to receive help, or if they’re just passing through.”
Beatty quit his job to work fulltime for Joe and Shirley’s Place. The nonprofit is run entirely by himself and his wife, along with their board. Beatty says the 100 Women Who Care Grant will be used to pay taxes and utility bills and keep the organization running.
“We’re not getting rich,” he says, “But we’re helping people. We’ll go anywhere day or night who is using and take them where they need to go to get treatment or whatever they need. We get lots of people reaching out and not knowing what to do.”
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