A Servant’s Heart

Mary-Langston Willis Don’s passion for service to girls and young women has taken her from a small town in Upstate South Carolina to the halls of the United States Congress. And she’s just getting started. Don is the executive director of the Miriam Foundation, a nonprofit that helps provide resources to families in need of extra support and connects them to community resources. Because of her work with the Miriam Foundation, the Anderson University Office of Development nominated her for the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities’ (CCCU) annual Young Alumni Award.

Don has blended her work experience from Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. with her desire to serve others. She felt God’s calling into ministry from a young age and has worked with children pretty much ever since, including serving as a children’s director in church, as well as serving at a girls home in Honduras.  

After graduating from Anderson University, Don spent four and a half years working with then-Congressman Trey Gowdy in Washington. “When I was at Anderson University, I had a lot of opportunities to serve on mission trips, and I was also part of a business club. Through that business club we were able to work with a girls home in Honduras several years… I spent a summer there and I think Miriam kind of came from my lessons I learned there and the things that I experienced there learning from the missionaries and seeing how important it is to walk alongside girls and young women creating a sisterhood to lean on,” she said.

The foundation’s namesake comes from the pages of Exodus. Don holds up Miriam, the sister of Moses, as an example of leadership and serving others. “Miriam has provided opportunities to use her voice and strengthen her community for saving life for brother Moses. She was humble and courageous. She took the challenges that she had and eventually became a leader in the Bible,” Don said. “Everything we do with our girls is centered upon biblical principles and the teachings of Jesus. Even though we’re in schools, we can’t necessarily preach, but we teach characteristics that point to what Jesus did himself.”  

The Miriam Foundation provides resources and support to help girls reach their God-given potential by expanding opportunities to help them cultivate a life of significance. The foundation serves girls from
fourth grade to twelfth grade. The foundation provides weekly in-school programming, monthly after-school initiatives and extracurricular activities to renew, inspire, support and encourage girls and young women to overcome challenges, excel academically, socially and personally.   

“We are able to create a safe place of belonging for our girls—accountability, mentorship and a sisterhood,” she said. “We’re able to go where the girls are, which is in their schools, their environments, providing support and opportunities for our girls to dream and reach goals, and their full potential.”   

The Miriam Foundation operates under the guidance of a board of three women: Sheria Clarke, Hope Blackley and Terri Gowdy. Former Congressman Trey Gowdy has also been supportive of the foundation.

Don is grateful that God connected her with others who provided the wisdom she needed moving forward. “I went to Fountain Inn Elementary, the school that I’m serving now. I went to Bryson Middle School where I’m walking in every single week, and I went to Hillcrest High School where we serve, too—so there’s a special element to it that Jesus beautifully designed,” she said. “When I was in college, I struggled academically and never thought I would be doing what I’m doing now, but I’m so amazed at how God brings it all together. Another local nonprofit leader gave me the advice to do it in the community that I live in and make sure the community wasn’t already doing it, and if they weren’t doing it to go ahead and start and that’s what we did.”  

Don explains that there are many facets to the Miriam Foundation’s work. “We want our girls to have a place of belonging, a space where they can learn where they grow in their understanding of worth and value. We provide social emotional classes for our girls. We do leadership building. We do enrichment activities. We do service projects. Our fourth and fifth grade girls are doing a buddy program with the special needs class at their school once a month. We teach them business skills,” Don said. “We are currently doing a pottery project where the girls go to a pottery studio that is owned by another nonprofit, so we’re able to support another nonprofit as we’re also benefiting as well. The girls are creating pottery that they will sell around the holidays, so they’re learning different skills that they will hopefully be able to take with them the rest of their life.”  

“All of our girls are recommended by the school,” she said. “That’s how the girls are a part of what we’re doing, 
and then the family has to approve the girls that are a part of it.” Anderson University plays a large role as well.   

“The Anderson University Teaching Fellows are a large piece of what we do for our after-school program, which is enrichment focused and academic focused. The Teaching Fellows help tutor the girls one-on-one or in a group setting. Students from the College of Education who are Teaching Fellows go into the schools and tutor the fifth to seventh grade girls one-on-one or in a group setting,” she said.

Don is grateful also for a group of dedicated volunteers that make it possible for the Miriam Foundation to serve as many girls as possible. The Miriam Foundation hopes in the near future to establish a scholarship for girls who want to further their education, whether that’s going to college or skills training. Don points out that since many of the girls they serve are from single-parent households with limited resources, the scholarship would help them realize their academic and career goals.   

“We want to continue to help with the needs that are in the schools for girls, and I think what we’re doing now is exactly that, but we’re always open to whatever God has in store,” she said. While the Miriam Foundation appreciates those who have supported them financially, by volunteering and in other ways, Don especially appreciates those who will pray for the foundation and, importantly, the girls and young women they are serving.