Board and Leadership

Staff

Kristin deKoster

Kristin deKoster Operations Manager

Kristin is a beautiful soul with a giving heart. She grew up here in Florence and is a graduate of Francis Marion University. She has been with the Foster Care Clothing Closet since 2016. She gives freely of her time, working around the clock and always on call and scheduling distributions etc, but as the only paid “employee”, she’s only submitting for under 15 hours each week. The closet would never process donations, handle distributions, or serve so many children here in our community without her. She is mom to a beautiful 6 year old daughter and valued by all of us greatly.

Board of Directors

The board at the Foster Care Clothing Closet was carefully put together with a team of POWERHOUSE volunteers that come together bringing a variety of gifts and talents to serve these children and desire that they grow up knowing and feeling the love of a Community that Cares!

Jennifer Gray

Jennifer Gray Co-Founder and Child Advocate

Jennifer Gray is a critical care flight nurse with Air Reach Helicopter. She is also a mom to 6 beautiful children, 5 girls and 1 boy. She has fostered a number of children over the last 4 years and adopted 3 of them when the opportunity arose. She saw the need for the Foster Care Clothing Closet with her very first placement as she received the call on him within 24 hours of being a licensed foster parent. He came with next to nothing and was an infant that would clearly need much more than that. Thinking there had to be something to support foster families and help to ease some of the immediate critical needs for a new child coming into care with NOTHING, she and Joy founded the closet. Her heart is for these children. She desires to see them all have loving homes, and is a voice for them receiving the care and services they need and to be entered into sports and other activities etc to help them thrive.

Joy McKnight

Joy McKnight Co-Founder, Children Aging Out and Events

Joy is a mother of 3 precious girls, Eden age 7, and 5 year old twins, Hattie and Kenzi. She is a cosmetologist by trade and a stay at home mom currently. She has been married for 12 years to Jonathan. She was excited at the opportunity to start the Closet and support so many children in our community that are in need of love. She feels a special pull to the children that are aging out of foster care because so many of them are homeless immediately and incarcerated quickly. Many of these kids never had a chance and Joy wants to change their story!

Nicole Griggs

Nicole Griggs Board Chair

Nicole was raised and resides in Florence, SC with her husband Tim, and her three daughters, Tori, Haley, and Maddie and they fellowship at Cornerstone Baptist Church. She graduated from Truman State University, Kirksville, MO where she met Tim. Nicole is a Regional Manager with Everest Payment Solutions, the Coordinator for the SC Pecan Festival, and an Independent Director with Thirty-One Gifts. She loves to encourage people “to go for it”, to hit their goals, and to use their God given talents to help others! She serves on the Board with the Foster Care Clothing Closet and is very passionate about meeting the needs of children entering the system and providing them with love, encouragement, and helping them to experience a community that cares that they will want to be a part of as well!

Julie Jebaily

Julie Jebaily Vice Chair

Born and raised in Florence, South Carolina, Julie, a local REALTOR, has a passion to share her love of the local community with others. A recent Leadership Florence graduate, she is heavily involved in the betterment of Florence for citizens and visitors alike. In addition to a wide variety of hobbies and interests, Julie has a profound love for travel. She has been extremely blessed to travel all over the world and is always looking for a new destination to explore and believes that cruising is the ultimate way to travel. She enjoys being on the greeting team at her church, being a member of the Miss Pee Dee Scholarship Organization Committee, Membership committee for Florence County Progress and holds various positions in several other organizations. She has obtained 3 college degrees, her favorite being her degree in Automotive Technology. Julie treasures the time that she is able to spend with her parents, her brother, sister in law, and their 3 beautiful children.

Mary Neale Fowler

Mary Neale Fowler Public Relations and Events

Mary Neale Fowler is the Customer Loyalty Specialist at First Reliance Bank in Florence, SC. She has been employed with FRB since its inception in 1999. Mary Neale has had many various positions at the bank but is in her wheelhouse working with customers and making their experience with the bank a Wow moment andcthis is where she finds her inspiration. She was born in Florence and is very active in the community. She has volunteered with numerous organizations and has worked tirelessly with children and in particular with Delmae Elementary where she has served on numerous boards. Mary Neale is married to her husband Brett and they have two wonderful children Will and Kate and 4 furry family members. She believes if there is a child in need it is the responsibility for an adult to step forward to meet the need of that child. Every child is a child of God and very important.

Leigh Newby

Leigh Newby Planning and Grant Writing

Leigh Newby is a paralegal at Aiken Bridges and also serves on the Junior League Board.

Joel Shearon

Joel Shearon Fundraising Chair

Follower of Jesus Christ and member of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Husband, dad of two, and grandad of two.
Retired Manager of LifeWay Christian Store in Florence, SC
Originally from Fayetteville, then lived in southside Virginia and am enjoying retirement in Florence.
Volunteer for Missions on the Go, Goods News Club, Cooks for Christ, and Men’s Bible Study and strong supporter of the Foster Care Clothing Closet.

James H. Sheehy, CPA

James H. Sheehy, CPA Treasurer/Secretary

James is a Partner with the local accounting firm Burch, Oxner, Seale Co. CPA’s. He received his undergraduate degree in accounting from Clemson University and a master’s degree in taxation from Villanova University. James is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the state of South Carolina. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the South Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants (SCACPA). James services a diverse client base that includes high-net worth individuals, closely held business entities, not-for profit organizations and local governments. Having served Foster Care Clothing Closet as its external accountant for the last several years he recently joined the board to utilize his skill set to further assist the foster children in our community.

Mike Wibe

Mike Wibe Controller

Michael Wibe is the owner of Live Oak Bookkeeping LLC in Florence SC. He handles financial administration for small businesses, focusing on dental practices. Michael serves on the board of directors for Thread and Compass, a global mission oriented non-profit. He came on the board with The Foster Care Clothing Closet because he has seen the need for this organization when his best friend fostered children and used the services of the FCCC. He attends the Church at Sandhurst with his wife and 3 children, where he serves as a leader in AWANA and works with the youth group. Michael’s mottos are “Luck favors the prepared mind” – Pasteur, and “To God Be the Glory.”