Today we’d like to introduce you to Georgia Morris.
Hi Georgia, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I was born and raised in Dermott, Arkansas. My mother and father separated when I was only 2 years old. At the time that my parents separated, my 6 siblings ranged from 1 year old to 13 years old. My father was a single parent but we were well raised and all finished high school. After High School, I attended college for a couple of years.
In Monticello AR and then moved to Little Rock to stay with my brother and sister-in-law. Eventually, I was hired at Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. I worked there in Customer Service for 41 years and retired in 2017. I am the proud mother of one child who graduated from Clark Atlanta University with a degree in Economics and went back to school to become an RN. In 2016, he obtained his Nursing Degree at UAMS College of Nursing. Throughout the pandemic, he worked in the ICU in New York City and dealt directly with COVID patients. He is currently working as a traveling nurse.
My love and compassion to help others, that are less fortunate than herself, started shortly after my child started attending daycare at Hoover United Methodist Church. At that time my son was 4 years old and I was 36. It was there that I first became involved in the church ministry. I fell in love with outreach ministry, as Hoover was the first church that I had ever attended that had a visible outreach ministry.
Doing my time as an active member of Hoover UMC serving in many capacities. my heart went out to the children. I loved organizing the yearly VBS (Vacation Bible School) for the children. I initiated a scholarship fund for high school graduates to assist them in furthering their education and also initiated and oversaw the Church School for Children.
I also served several years in many roles on the Board of the church non-profit, Better Community Developers (BCD) Inc. whose mission is to improve the quality of life for low-income, underserved, disadvantaged, and at-risk children, youth, and families in Little Rock, Arkansas. I was well known for my ability to solicit volunteers from inside and outside of the church for the many projects that Hoover Church and BCD would have gone on.
After my Pastor, Rev. William Robinson Jr retired, I had the idea to start a children’s ministry that would be close to home and also within walking distance of a church. While still contemplating the children’s ministry, I met the then 7-time Arkansas State Chess champion, National Master Tony Davis and he introduced me to the game of chess. He talked about the benefits of kids learning the game of chess. After researching information about chess, I learned that the game of chess is a great benefit to children. It specifically makes children better thinkers, planners, and problem solvers as well as keeps children more focused, being respectful of others, and helps them to become more confident in themselves. I immediately decided that I wanted to start a community children’s chess club. I knew God had given me a vision
I continued her research and found that there was no such club in Little Rock (other than the chess clubs in Public Schools that mostly catered to the gifted and talented kids as those clubs were part of the gifted and talented program). I wanted to start a community chess club that would be open to all kids. located a church and started attending a pilot chess club there. However, there were not enough children visible around the neighborhood.
After visiting Mosaic Church one day in 2012 getting invoked with their children’s outreach ministry, and volunteering to help with a reading program for approximately five little kids who lived in an income-based apartment a couple blocks from the church, I decided to ask one of the Mosaic church pastors about starting a club there. And to my surprise, they said yes! Mosaic is a church that is open to its members being able to use the gifts that God has given them, to build up the Kingdom. They allowed me to start the chess club there, even before I became a member, and even before I knew how to play the game.
In addition to chess master Tony Davis, God has blessed me throughout the years with awesome volunteers who love the game and were grateful for the opportunity and a platform to teach the game to other kids. Ironically, when I was growing up, my father taught each of his 8 kids how to play checkers. They played the game with him regularly. All the while, he played the game, shared stories with them about his life, as well as teaching the kids about life in general. It had always been my intention to use the chess club as a mentoring tool for children.
We started with 6 kids but we have now taught chess, throughout the years, to hundreds of kids. Before the pandemic, more than 50 kids were coming consistently to the club every Tuesday along with several volunteers. All workers at the chess club are volunteers. They come from all walks of life, from different professions, teaching the children chess or just playing the game with them. The one-on-one time, while a child competes against an adult (such as a doctor, policeman, lawyer, engineer, etc.) is PRICELESS!! Not only did the volunteers play chess with our kids, some came as motivational speakers. It has always been a part of the club’s vision to have motivational speakers come in, once a month, to talk to the kids.
The chess club is approved to participate in the LRSD tournaments. They have won many team trophies and the kids have received many individual medals and trophies. The club has received several awards including the MLK Community Service Award and, the KARK Pay-it-4Ward Award, and has been highlighted in the news on several occasions and featured in the Arkansas Democrat Newspaper in February 2020. Recently, the coach and the coordinator of the chess club in Pine Bluff received the MLK Community Service Award and I was surprised with the MLK Lifetime Achievement Award.
When the COVID pandemic hit, the club was able to continue chess lessons and tournaments virtually and welcomed new children to the club (some came from out of the state as well as throughout Arkansas). Our tournaments consisted of competition against chess players in several States and abroad. Our virtual volunteer chess instructor was a National Master Chess Player and the 3rd highest-ranked chess player In Tennessee. He not only taught weekly chess lessons to our kids, but he also set up several free tournaments throughout the kids for the kids to compete.
He also initiated week-long, virtual chess camps. In 2021, the chess club kids got the opportunity to compete in an international tournament sponsored by a club in California. They won the overall 1st-place trophy. The chess club was the only club participating from the USA. 8 other countries were participating with a total of 30 clubs within those countries. In 2022, one of the chess club students, 17-year-old William Donham, became the 2022-2023 Arkansas state Chess Champion, beating out adults more than twice his age. He has been a member of our club since he was 11 years old. This was big for Chess in Arkansas.
From 2013 to this date, we have taught over 500 children the game of chess and have introduced hundreds of other kids to this game of life. We have partnered with community centers, libraries, and other organizations to make sure that children get all the benefits that chess has to offer them. By learning the game of chess, they may be better in school and throughout their life. We want them to be champions in life.
Benjamin Franklin who was a chess player and an advocate of chess said it best.
“Chess teaches foresight, by having to plan; vigilance, by having to keep watch over the whole chessboard; caution, by having to restrain ourselves from making hasty moves; and finally, we learn from chess the greatest maxim in life – that even when everything seems to be going badly for us, we should not lose heart, but always hoping for a change for the better, steadfastly continue searching for the solutions to our problems.” -Benjamin Franklin
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been relatively smooth sailing ever since God gave me the vision for the chess club and to use it as a mentoring program, I have seen that He has provided everyone and everything I need to run it.
We have had people from as far as California reaching out to help and donate chess supplies. be volunteer chess coaches, etc. The parents are very helpful and supportive. Our church leadership staff are available to provide any support we need.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am retiring from Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield after working there for 41 years. I took up bowling when I retired in 2017. I love the game and fellowship although I am not as great as the others but manage to sometimes get a few games over 170. The highest game was 226.
I think the thing that sets me apart from others is how I manage to get volunteers to help with any project that I am passionate about. I love to listen to people I love to hear their stories as everyone has a story. Listening helps build relationships I will ask people to help or volunteer but I don’t mind them saying they can’t, it does not hurt my feelings because I feel God is going to send who He wants to send.
My job is to ask.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Most people don’t know that when I started the chess club, I knew nothing about chess and as of now I only know the bare basics of chess I have had many 6-year-olds beat me in the game.
And kids that have been playing for a couple of years, I have no chance at all in beating them as I am still trying to learn strategies and tactics and to think more than 2 moves ahead.
Pricing:
- There is no fee for kids to be a member of our chess club.
- When we host chess tournaments, the fee per child is only $10.00
- We provide all the supplies they need at our club. They do not have to purchase anything.
Contact Info:
