Amber’s Story

Amber Jones, 23, is not only an Operation Shoestring volunteer, she’s also a proud alumnus of our programs herself. She was in our elementary and some of our middle school afterschool and summer programs growing up, and says that she looks back at those years with appreciation for how they contributed to the place she is today.

Over the summer she led a music program for our 3rd graders, which she said was her way of giving back to kids whose shoes she was in not so long ago.

“My years at Operation Shoestring showed me that I didn’t have to be like my environment or everyone else I saw around me. I could be anything I decided to be,” she said.

“I’m forever grateful for my time here. I look back on those days with joy when I remember the love that I was surrounded with. Back then, of course I didn’t know or see it. But, now, I know that everything was in love. They believed in me when I couldn’t even understand who I was or who I would be. And that’s an amazing feeling.”

Now a teacher of music, she said that it was right here at Shoestring where she discovered her love for music and dance.

“There was a lady named Ms. Otis who would come to Shoestring from Jackson State to teach us dance during the summers, and even came sometimes during the school year, and she was my first dance teacher. You could say that’s where it all started.”

With a love for the performing arts and the belief that she could do anything she set her mind to, Amber headed to Jackson State herself when she finished high school. Today, she’s a college grad with a music degree under her belt… and a passion for sharing her expertise with the community.

And she’s a superstar in the eyes of the 3rd grade students she worked with here at Shoestring. Just ask anyone who was ever within a mile radius of the room where they gathered every day to sing, play drums, laugh and share in all the musical games and fun.

We’re grateful for Amber, the exemplary life of passion and service she lives today… and for people like you who make stories like hers – and those of the many children and families we serve – possible here in the heart of Jackson.

We all rise together.