Founder
Evelyn Weil Browne
Big Changes Start Small®, It’s Spooky To Be Hungry®, and
Hope Soap were founded by Evelyn Weil Browne, Ph.D.
Evelyn grew up on Long Island, in Westbury, NY, and graduated
from Yale University in 1978. In 1985, she completed her doctorate
in clinical psychology at Adelphi University. After several
years in the Army Reserves and as US Army psychologist, Evelyn
worked as a clinical psychologist in a variety of settings,
specializing in adult psychotherapy. She is married to physician
William T. Browne and has a daughter, Chloë.
Evelyn first organized a neighborhood It’s Spooky To Be Hungry®
food drive in 1992, while living in Rochester, Minnesota.
In 1995, after moving to Augusta, Georgia, and with help from
friends, Evelyn began Spooky in Columbia County, GA. Her volunteer
commitment to this small project grew as the project itself
grew. By 2001, Evelyn worked nearly full time on Spooky and
related community projects. She began the Hope Soap project
in 2001, helping develop a network of donation sites for personal
care items to be distributed through local agencies serving
needy populations.
In 2002, Evelyn was awarded the National Grand Prize in “Dannon
Families Feeding America”, resulting in an $11,000 donation
to the regional food bank (Golden Harvest). In 2004, when
It’s Spooky To Be Hungry® was recognized nationally as one
of the top Make A Difference Day projects, Evelyn was invited
to appear on “The Wayne Brady Show”. She has spoken to civic
organizations around the US, and was an invited speaker in
Maizuru, Japan. She was also named regional winner of the
“Cool Women” award for community service, by the WE cable
network.
Evelyn has authored a workshop: “How to Recruit for Excellence:
Successful Recruiting of Quality Volunteers”, which she has
taught in many small group settings. She served on the Blue
Ribbon Committee on Race Relations in Augusta, Georgia, and
on the Friends of African American Art Executive Board at
the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia.
She lives in Minneapolis, MN and is active in Big Changes
Start Small, Inc.® , It’s Spooky To Be Hungry®, and Hope Soap,
serving as National Director of the projects, and President
of the corporation.
Evelyn’s vision and dedication provided the core inspiration
and leadership for these endeavors, but it is through the
continuing commitment of many hundreds of volunteers that
these community-changing projects have grown and flourished.
Two volunteers, in particular, have been invaluable in their
commitment in helping Spooky grow. For the first several years
of Spooky in Georgia, Laura Bachinski served as Co-Chair of
the project. Her enthusiastic encouragement, organizational
skills, commitment, and sense of humor helped Spooky take
root and flourish in the community. When Laura moved out of
the area, Deborah Johnson, stepped in as Co-Chair. With an
unparalleled level of commitment and professionalism, Debbie’s
work background enabled her to take an increasingly unruly
project and bring it into organizational focus. She has worked
in virtually every capacity throughout the Spooky organization
and most recently spearheaded a major revision of our website,
working countless hours to bring it to fruition. Preferring
to work in the background, Debbie’s unique contributions are
evident to anyone who has worked with Spooky staff or BCSS®
Board, but are not always sufficiently recognized in the public
arena. Simply stated, Debbie has made a priceless and selfless
contribution to It’s Spooky To Be Hungry®, to Big Changes
Start Small, Inc.®, and to her community.
For further information about the founders and roots of It’s
Spooky To Be Hungry®, please see these links to media
coverage:
Laura Bachinski:
Laura Bachinski resides in Greenwood, South Carolina, where
the first Spooky Chapter outside of Augusta was established.
Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Wheelock
College in Boston. She has been an Early Childhood Educator
for the past 25 years, currently serving as Lower School Director
and Director of Admissions at Cambridge Academy. While living
as Army families in Tacoma, Washington, Laura and Evelyn became
fast friends. When the military brought them together again
in Augusta, Georgia, Laura eagerly welcomed the opportunity
to work with Evelyn on a “small community project.” When another
career move brought Laura, her husband Matt and their two
boys to South Carolina, Laura began the Greenwood Spooky chapter.
Spooky continues to thrive in Greenwood and is now one of
the top volunteer programs in the area. Recently, Spooky has
been adopted by the Greenwood Medical Alliance as one of their
community outreach programs. The GMA organizes and implements
the program encouraging volunteers from various neighborhoods
to join the Alliance for a day of community volunteerism.
Deborah Johnson:
Deborah Johnson is a native of Oxford, MS. After graduating
from the University of Mississippi with a B.S. of Chemical
Engineering in 1989, she worked for seven years in petrochemical
manufacturing in Mississippi and Louisiana. In 1995, Debbie
moved to Augusta, GA to work for The NutraSweet Company in
their aspartame manufacturing plant as an engineer and manager,
"retiring” in 2002 after the birth of her son, Zach.
She is married to fellow engineer Daniel E. Johnson and resides
in Evans,GA.
Debbie began her Spooky career as a neighborhood volunteer
in 1995. Energized by the simplicity of the neighbor-to-neighbor
concept and the ease at which people could fit this good work
into a hectic schedule, she became a committed volunteer and
Spooky advocate. She filled various roles - neighborhood Captain,
neighborhood Coordinator, and Training Coordinator - as the
project grew to require more organized support. In early 2003,
Debbie became the project's Co-Chair, working primarily in
a chief operational role. Her focus on Spooky's organizational
structure, staffing and manpower, and procedural and technological
challenges allowed her, with Evelyn's vision, to help Spooky
stay "easy and fun" for those neighborhood volunteers,
even as the number of volunteers grew into the thousands.
Debbie serves on the Big Changes Start Small, Inc.® Board
of Directors (Vice-President '03-'06) and is an original member.
It’s Spooky To Be Hungry® allows Debbie to fulfill a desire
to give diverse people an easy, meaningful way to do good
in their community, from the child volunteer to a staff leadership
role.
