Sharon Carey Retires from ROC

After this Friday, a familiar face will be, if not absent, not seen as often in the halls of the ROC facility downtown. Sharon Carey is retiring after 36 years with ROC. She noted she started work for the School of Hope as an outreach worker. “The apartments were being built at the time I came on board” said Carey. She continued “at that time we had no clients in there and so I got the enjoyment of, you know, putting people in, admitting them in…going all over the state to find out what that position did”. These were the first independent living apartments in Hope for developmentally disabled people in Hope. Prior to the apartments there were only group homes. She called the experience “a real adventure!”.
Carey eventually went to the ROC center on Laurel Street and worked as coordinator. Following this experience she wrote “plans” for individuals at all sites. After that, Carey came to the “workshop”, the downtown ROC facility. She said at that point she went to area high schools in several different counties and recruited seniors to come to work for ROC. She also did some more plan writing and teaching classes. When recycling came along Carey said “I volunteered” and she’s overseen that program for the last several years.
Carey is quite an advocate for working for Rainbow of Challenges. “Oh yes, I would say that this type work is so rewarding…you get to actually change people’s lives and what a great feeling that is…when you teach someone something and you watch them, they’re doing it, they’re living it…it’s such a great feeling!”.
What lies in store for Carey in retirement? She says one of her main focuses will be her grandchildren and helping her husband Chris with his company. Carey says she plans to work some part-time at Herndon-Fuqua Funeral Home and also plans to do birthday parties each month at ROC Enterprises. She also plans some crappie fishing with her husband.
Carey says simply that working at ROC has “been a privalege.”