(GARDEN HOME) — Tanya Hawkins has spent the past 15 years helping people, including veterans, through her Gung Ho Ministries’ GHM Boutique in Beaverton.
Sales of used clothing and other items go directly to veterans who have been assigned to her via Veterans Affairs. She has raised more than $100,000 each of the past two years, which goes directly to veterans.
Hawkins, who lives in the Garden Home neighborhood, had a solid career before the 2008e housing collaps.
“I lost my job” as an escrow officer, a position that came after Hawkins had been in property management for many years. “I couldn’t find another job.”
So, she found herself under the Burnside Bridge — not living as a homeless person, as she had once been, but going in another direction with her life. Working with friend Linda Eaton, she started an outreach program that delivers coffee and sandwiches to homeless folks and established the 501c3 nonprofit Gung Ho Ministries.
In 2011, their work to fund the coffee/sandwich giving through garage sales became the first GHM Boutique in the Bridlemile Neighborhood in Southwest Portland.
Rent kept rising, and Hawkins eventually moved GHM Boutique to an old 1880s-era house at 4775 S.W. Main Ave. in Beaverton. From there, clothing sales funded giving to veterans, and Hawkins’ mission continues. She purchased the building seven years ago.
How does it work?
“We are a financial resource for the VA. The case workers let me know if a veteran can’t pay their rent or electricity bill or deposit — what their financial need is — then I pay that bill directly,” she said. “The VA doesn’t get our money, (the veterans) get it directly.”
She said GHM Boutique gave $106,000 last year and $123,000 in 2022. Hawkins has about 20 volunteers helping.
“It’s a Christian nonprofit, and we help everybody,” said Hawkins, 51.
Neighbor Toni Curry met Hawkins during the garage sale/coffee and sandwich era. Curry was the founder of Raleigh Hills Business Association, and Hawkins was once a member with her original GHM Boutique location.
“She’s a very generous person,” said Curry, who remembers Hawkins giving a neighborhood woman a voucher for clothing after the neighbor had lost belongings in a fire.
“She’ll hear of somebody in need who’s not a veteran, particularly women in difficult situations, and she’ll put out word in her network. She’s a kind soul. The beautiful thing about her, knowing her difficult life, is that she’s very empowered to help others.”
Originally from Illinois, Hawkins had some issues as a young adult, saying she had a drug habit and “overdosed three times” while living “on the streets” at times. She had a boyfriend at the time. They were borderline homeless.
“My grandparents bailed us out,” she said. “We didn’t know it at the time, but God was protecting us. No way I should be alive.
“When people go through it, and you come through the other end, you have more compassion about people dealing with addiction.”
She met her husband, who “brought me back to the Lord.” Unfortunately, her husband would later become very sick while needing a kidney transplant during the COVID-19 pandemic (a transplant that he received).
In establishing GHM Boutique, her passion was working to help homeless people. Then-partner Eaton had a passion for helping veterans. Hawkins said GHM Boutique helps more than 10 veterans a month.
“It’s so rewarding when I get to meet the veterans in person,” she said. “They’ll come in and pick up the check. They are beyond themselves, humble, and tear up, and I’ll hug them. I’m thankful for their service.”
Said Curry: “She has forged so many amazing relationships. She understands the importance of creating community.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0