For over 40 years, Edith Campbell has dedicated her free time to helping dogs in need throughout the City of Flint. “It really started at Christmas in 1967,” she remembers. “I worked at Buick and driving to and from work, I would see dogs that looked starved. I felt I had to do something about it.” She began to tell co-workers about her plans and they began donating food and pet supplies. “I started using Christmas as an excuse – I asked the owners of the suffering animals if I could give their pets a Christmas present.”

At Fenton Center of Hope, the vision is “to serve our neighbors who are hungry and in need of resources resulting in a better quality of life.” The founders, Bob and Jennifer Strygulec, previously ran a Food Pantry and Baby Closet at the Freedom Center Church in Fenton. The couple founded Center of Hope as a non-profit in 2016. The husband/wife team eventually gave up their respective careers in finance and interior design to further their work in addressing the needs of the less fortunate and to provide even more services. “We knew we needed to be here full time,” Jennifer reports. “We see so many of the same people, generations of the same family reaching out for help. Bob had a heart to really do something to change people’s lives and to look at the underlying causes.” Bob adds, “Our thought was: What could we do to help people make a long-term, substantial change?”