Update: As of August 5, 2023, SAKS Of Love has relocated to Hope’s Tenaha Clinic, 164 Wall Street, Tenaha, Texas 75974.
March 8, 2022 - A ribbon cutting was held Saturday, March 5, 2022 in Tenaha at the SAKS Of Love newly opened location at 193 North George Bowers Drive. Attending to celebrate with SAKS Of Love founders Lorenzo and Christina Leary were Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, representatives with the City of Tenaha, and community members.
Christina Leary, Executive Director, spoke first, “Hello everybody, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate you coming out and sacrificing your time [on a Saturday]… thank God, God bless y’all, thank you.” Emotions began getting to Leary as she spoke, “I’m just thankful for all the people that I love for being here today. Thank you for my board being here.”
From left: Lashalla McCollister, Board Chairperson; Vicky Amy, Representative of Families; Pamela Cleaver, volunteer; Christina Leary; Executive Director and co-founder; Lorenzo Leary, co-founder; Frejaie Dimery-Tate, Board Vice-Chairperson; Ariel Higginbotham, Board Secretary/Treasurer; and Jared Higginbotham, volunteer.
Vice-Chairperson, Frejaie Dimery-Tate, then gave an invocation, “I’m gonna ask that you focus on Him, God is doing something amazing through SAKS Of Love and just through this building. And we’re super excited about what God is going to do but I also want God to also bless each of you for showing up and sacrificing your time, for giving in any way that you do and so I’m not only praying for the success of SAKS Of Love but I’m also praying for the good Godly success of each and every single one of you that are in the building today.” Frejaie then prayed for all and for the success of the organization and gave thanks to God for the building, all the donations, and all the sacrifices.
Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Ambassador Stephanie Elswick then spoke on behalf of the Chamber, “We are very proud of you, proud of you both. The Chamber is proud of you and we welcome you with all of our hearts and we are here for you whenever and however.” She then invited Christina Leary to speak about the mission of the organization.
Leary spoke about the beginning, “It’s been five years, I never thought that we would get this far or even just to have a building. We started out with two dollars, trying to coupon, and just trying to bless an elderly person that didn’t have anything. Going and doing wellness checks, and then God just continued to grow it to what it is today. So, I’m just so grateful to be able to pay it forward.” Leary spoke about her childhood growing up poor in the city of Tenaha and how the help received from the community helped plant a seed in her and then God was able to blossom the seed of giving and caring to be able to accomplish what the organization does. She continued to give God the glory for everything.
SAKS of Love (Sending A Kingdom Sacrifice Of Love) was founded in 2017. It is a non-profit organization originally founded on the awareness of our senior citizens needing support and love. With a mission of “Serving the community one neighbor at a time,” it has grown to provide help and spread love through giving in five counties: Shelby, Angelina, Panola, Nacogdoches, and Smith. It assists with a homeless ministry in Tyler on the 2nd Saturday of every month; gives recognition to others with ‘Pillar Award’ and ‘Inspiring Youth Award’ presentations in their Inspired by You campaign; raises funds for scholarships for youth; assists with Christmas gifts for elderly and for kids; blesses 7 to 10 families each month with household needs; and now manages a location in Tenaha.
SAKS Of Love’s location at 193 North George Bowers Drive, Tenaha, Texas 75954 is open the 1st Saturday of the month from 9am until 12noon (Hours open updated 9/30/2022). Emergency situations can be submitted through the website SAKSofLove.org or by phone 936-800-8323.
