Pictured, left to right, are Founder and Director of Red Bell Run Mary Adams, SWHF President Carol Browning, and new SWHF inductee, Barbara Wilder.

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GREEN CREEK—The Sanctuary at Red Bell Run recently nominated Barbara Wilder for induction into the Second Wind Hall of Fame, and the SWHF Board accepted the nomination. Barbara was officially inducted at a gathering of staff, volunteers, and board members on Thursday, July 11.

Barbara is a Hee Haw Hideaway barn volunteer at Red Bell Run and has logged over 1,000 hours to date since starting as a volunteer in 2022. She has volunteered after hurricanes, during events related to the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind, and at local music and social events. She is involved with the local trap-neuter-spay program and cares for several semi-feral kitties. Barbara was also involved with working on the Invision Landrum Comprehensive Plan and served on the Landrum Planning Commission for a short while.

She was born in Berlin, Germany, and raised in Maryland. She graduated from Western Maryland College, including a semester at Gallaudet University, the only liberal arts university for Deaf students in the country. With a social work degree and later a national certification as an American Sign Language interpreter, she spent most of her professional life providing services to the Deaf community and working as an interpreter. In 2000, she began working in the airline industry.

After graduating from college, she moved further south, living a short time in Savannah, Georgia, and 30 years in Spartanburg. In 2012, she moved to Landrum. Barbara is married to Rob Wilder, and they have three adult children. Her hobbies include jewelry making, hiking/camping/backpacking, hitting thrift stores for the ultimate find, mushroom foraging, and sailing.

Barbara wrote an alcohol and drug abuse prevention program specifically for Deaf students that was highlighted in USA Today, and she created an annual event “Breaking the Barriers,” which brought local employers to the South Caroline School for the Deaf and the Blind to experience the barriers people with disabilities face in the workplace. It also introduced employers to the many skills that workers with disabilities have.

She is most proud of raising children who care about the world and the people in it. She would like to be remembered as a person who acknowledges her imperfections but is willing to keep learning new things and working toward being a better person.  

The mission of Second Wind is to identify outstanding volunteers who contribute to the community and to provide recognition of retirees sixty years and over who had a productive life continuing beyond retirement, while others paused to rest. They caught a ‘second wind’ and began a new career of service.

Second Wind Hall of Fame is a 501(c)(3) organization and welcomes nominations for induction.  Requests for nomination forms may be sent to carolbrowning72@gmail.com.

 

Submitted by Carol Browning