Life does get overwhelming at times, however Tabitha Caplinger still feels like there is more that she can and will do for her community. Tabitha currently works as an office manager for A Woman’s Touch Tree Care LLC. She takes care of all the office duties including customer service. During Tabitha’s free time, she volunteers to feed the homeless. She gathers up some friends and family and takes the equipment needed and sets-up on the side of the street. Tabitha goes into a neighborhood that has an overabundance of homeless men, women, and children and passes out the food they have cooked to them.
Tabitha has had to overcome many obstacles in life to get where she is today. “I was forced to drop out of high school in the eleventh grade. My dad went to prison and my mom was too overwhelmed to care for my baby sister who was two years old at the time. So I began sacrificing my education to care for my little sister. I became a mother at the age of twenty and from that point in my life my main goal was to make sure my daughter had everything that I never did and that she never needed anything. I worked low-paying jobs because I gave up my education to do what was most important at that time. There were lots of things throughout my life that I had always dreamt of doing but I was on a limited income so I had to sacrifice myself as a whole for the sake of others. With the encouragement of my wife and the grace of God I have recently gotten my GED and will begin taking college courses.”
The best advice to others that Tabitha would like to give is to live for today. She says you only get one life so make sure you don’t sit around thinking that “you’re dying for things to happen for you and suddenly realize when it’s too late that you forgot to live.”
Tabitha is trying to open a non-profit organization called “A Shoulder to Lean on Ministries” which would be a facility to provide the services of food, warmth, and clothing to less-fortunate people. She is working on finding a good location and trying to raise funding for the project.
In the end, Tabitha is a woman whose happiness comes from helping others. “I just sleep better at night knowing that I have done what I can do to make everyone I come in contact with feel important in some way. To make that person feel loved and hopeful. Even if it is at my expense, my daily goal is to provide smiles for someone who needs it.”