Welcome to Cecelia “Ceal” Thompson’s world.
She has been associated with the Robert “Sonny” Hill Community Center in Middletown for 44 years, first as its secretary, then its executive director for 12 years until she retired a few years ago. Thompson, 69, will be honored later this month during the Dream Building Gala, an inaugural fundraiser for the Community Building Institute. All the proceeds will support programming at the center and a scholarship for after-school and summer programs will be established in Thompson’s honor.
She, of course, would rather fly under the radar. She’d rather the honor be given to “one of the big names” in the city.
When it comes to the opportunities the center provides, there are no bigger names than Cecelia Snow Thompson.
Thompson has seen thousands of youths walk into the center on Lafayette Avenue. Most are living productive lives. But some, those haunting losses, either are incarcerated or buried across the street at Woodside Cemetery.
While sitting in the center, Thompson, who now works at the Hope House Center for Women and Children, was asked how it impacts her when a child makes a poor choice, maybe a split-second decision that scars them for life.
Before she answered, she paused for several seconds as she fought tears.
“It’s sad because they have an opportunity to do good,” she said. “You don’t have to have riches to do good. So many of them…”
Her voice trailed off. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I told you not to make me cry,” she said.
Then she returned: “Every one of them I see can be successful. I see it, but sometimes they just instead of going this way, they want to go this way,” she said motioning with her fingers. “They want to take shortcuts and that’s not how it’s going to be. Life can’t be shortcuts, not at all.”
Verlena Stewart is one of the center’s many success stories. She was active in the center when Thompson was there and now serves as director of the center and Parent Resource Center.
She called Thompson “the heart and soul” of the center.
“When you think of this place, you think of her,” Stewart said while sitting in her office. “The two are connected.”
Spend most of your life in one place and you became more than an employee: You become part of the family. You’re seen as a familiar face, not a person behind a desk. Thompson and her husband, James, have three grown children — Titus, 49, Tenee, 39 and Tyran, 31 — and hundreds more who consider Cecelia their mother, grandmother or aunt.
“I tried to make them think that they were a part of me too,” she said. “That they were related to me. They will say, ‘That’s my aunt.’ I don’t mind that. My kids don’t like them to call me, ‘Momma.’ Other than that, it doesn’t matter to me. They felt a part of me like I felt a part of them. I appreciate being Aunt Ceal.”
That relationship extends beyond the community center walls. When children see Thompson out in the city — whether at a Middletown High School football game or the grocery store — they know it’s time to behave. Thompson loves the children, but that doesn’t stop her from disciplining them.
Karin Maney, executive director of the Community Building Institute, said every day someone approaches her about Thompson and the influence she had on their lives. Seeing a familiar face sometimes gave them confidence they didn’t receive at home, the children have said.
“They could come here and be safe and know that someone cared for them,” Maney said. “I’ve heard kids say, ‘I grew up in the center and Miss Ceal kept me on the straight and narrow.’ She meant and means a lot to the community. It wasn’t about her position. It was about her care and the love of the kids who walked through.”
Thompson applauds the efforts of the community, the parents, teachers and church leaders who impact the lives of young people.
“They helped in some way to get them to that point,” she said. “They may say, ‘I made it on my own.’ But no they didn’t. They had people that was rooting for them and people who were actually pushing them on.”
Someone pushing them to victory, and lifting them up after defeats.
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HOW TO GO
WHAT: Community Building Institute Gala
WHEN: 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. March 24
WHERE: Pendleton Arts Center, 1106 Central Ave., Middletown
COST: $50 before March 15; $75 after that date
TICKETS: www.qtego.net/qlink/CBI or
WHAT'S HAPPENING: Honoring Cecelia Thompson; guest emcee Dr. O'dell Owens and guest speaker Jonathan Mooney
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