Yuman honored for efforts to combat poverty
Carol Cuming one of 12 across state to get Heart in Hand award
Carol Cuming, a recently retired secretary for the Yuma office of the Western Arizona Council of Governments, was recognized by the Arizona Community Action Association with one of 12 Heart in Hand awards at its annual conference at the end of last month.
She said she was told she’d been nominated by her colleagues two days before she left her job, and her response was “Me?” she said, laughing. “I couldn’t believe it, because to me that should really go to someone who is out in the field and spreading this and that, and everything. And she said yeah and went into a couple complimentary things that will stay between me and her,” she said, with another laugh.
The annual awards laud the winners’ “individual and collective efforts in the battle against poverty,” according to the ACAA. The organization works with the state’s community action alliances to develop solutions to poverty.
Cuming worked at WACOG’s front desk for much of her tenure, so she was about as close to being “in the field” as she could be without leaving the office. She was “most identified
as key to their positive experience at WACOG,” according to her nomination form.
Cuming had lots of administrative work to do as well, but she said, “What it boils down to is you may have piles of work on the right-hand side of your desk, but you gotta take the time and extend a hand. That’s the way I feel. If you don’t give them advice, how are they going to find out, if nobody tells them?”
Brian Babiars, executive director of WACOG, said Cuming was invaluable as the first point of contact for clients who felt like their lives were falling apart and no one cared.
“The impressive part, I guess, is we had a lot of people in crisis, and the thing about it is she had a unique ability to make them feel better, even if they didn’t get any help from us or anybody else. They still felt like she cared and was willing to help them in some way,” he said.
Cuming said this talent probably arose from being helped by other people, as she worked to get the training and jobs necessary to raise four children as a single mother.
“So many people have helped me that I felt I can pay it forward,” she said. “That’s how I felt. And a lot of people, they need direction, but they need the direction also for their kids, who are brought in through their door. They’re not their friends, they’re their parents. So if you can kill two birds with one stone, go for it.”
She grew up in Brooklyn in a family with nine brothers, then met and married a farmer and ended up coming out west, settling in Yuma. After she became a single mom, she sought out training on successive computer systems and software, as she was laid off and had to update her skills.
Before coming to WACOG she worked in the office for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutritional program, so she had spent additional time in the social services field.
Babiars said, “That’s where her years of service helped her. She would be aware of things that perhaps other people wouldn’t be, because she kind of knew what other agencies offered and the kind of programs they’d be eligible, those kind of things.”
WACOG offers several programs, including assistance for the elderly and disabled, short-term rental and utility assistance, job search assistance, as well as Head Start classes for children up to age 5. Cuming often sees people in the office, or runs into them around town, who remember her from WACOG, and are excited to tell her about how things have turned around.
“My favorite place was Smart & Final, because that was a place you could run in and out. I would hit Fry’s sometimes and people would come up and hug me, but at Smart & Final they would yell at me from across the store,” she said, laughing. “They’d say ‘Carol!’ and I’d think oh my gosh, who is this one? And everyone else would look and think ‘who’s Carol?’”
She said her empathetic nature and her job turned out to be an ideal match, “because WACOG is one terrific organization. It’s there to help people, and that’s why I was there so long.”
She’s done a little bit of traveling since her retirement began, but now is settling into her recently purchased home in Yuma, looking forward to unpacking the last boxes and getting back into cooking, one of her favorite hobbies.
Her four children are now grown and have families and businesses of their own, so she doesn’t expect trouble finding stuff to do: “I won’t run out of things, because my kids have plans for me.” She also has eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Babiars said WACOG is moving on and training new people to take on Cuming’s tasks, but she will be greatly missed by her colleagues, as well as the public. “She would listen to their stories as much as she would listen to our clients’ stories. We always used to kid her about being ‘Dr. Carol,’” he said.