As a 14-year-old growing up in Sweden, Maria Lee experienced a crisis of faith. When her stepfather died of a heart attack, her mother plunged into a deep depression. The church her family attended — an unusual practice at the time in Sweden — never reached out to Lee. Years later, she asked why no one ever came for her. “They said, ‘We didn’t know you were there,’” Lee said.
Lee would eventually journey back to faith, but she never forgot how she felt as a teen. “I was completely invisible,” said Lee, 45, of Smyrna. “I want these kids to know they are loved.”
The kids she is referring to are participants of the Echo Effect, a volunteer group Lee founded three years ago in Smyrna. Twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two hours, children from the area meet at Cumberland Community Church for homework help, mentoring and a hot meal. Lee’s volunteer work and selfless dedication to the children made her an AJC Holiday Hero for 2011.
The full-time state employee and divorced mother of one said the Echo Effect just happened. A few years ago, her son, Johan, 14, began playing for Smyrna Soccer Club and the team needed more players. On a stroll through Jonquil Park in Smyrna, Lee and Johan spied a group of 11-year-olds on the soccer field.
“They were more into wrestling, but they joined our team,” Lee said of Ronaldo, Eric and Xavier, founding members of the Echo Effect. While traveling for away games, Lee spent more time with the kids and something clicked. “I just thought, ‘This doesn’t cost anything, it just requires time,’” Lee said. “It started to unfold in my head what we could accomplish.”
She reached out to a few people for help and less than a year after that meeting on the soccer field, the Echo Effect was born. The organization serves 60 children from the second to 12th grades from a range of family backgrounds. Lee depends heavily on about 20 volunteers and donations such as food for the Tuesday meal and computers.
“She has done a great job of networking with other people in the community and other organizations to become more efficient and figure out what is going to help the kids the most,” said Rebecca Segrest, 42, of Atlanta who attends church with Lee. Watching Lee’s passion for the children moved Segrest to volunteer once a week. “She feels other people’s feelings very deeply and she is very much able to see people the way God sees them,” Segrest said.
The Echo Effect had its share of growing pains. “There were times when I was by myself with 30 middle and high school kids,” said Lee, recalling the days before there were regular volunteers. And there were cultural barriers to overcome. “When I first got to know Ronaldo, he would duck [in the car] when we left the apartment complex because he didn’t want anyone to know he was leaving with a white person,” Lee said.
Lee didn’t realize how many children in the area came from families struggling with gangs, drugs or parents living apart from their children. “The children are victims of circumstance ... and not only Latino children,” Lee said. “They are living in fear, there is no certainty in their lives.” The Echo Effect helps them see that someone outside of their family cares for them, she said. It has been a refuge, a way to keep them on track in school, and a method to integrate them into the community.
Lee, who came to this country as an au pair, got married and stayed after her divorce, said the Echo Effect has provided her with a family in the United States.
“It has changed my life for the better. They are great kids and they are fun to hang around,” she said. “It is really part of my life now.”
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