Mains made helping kids her mission for nearly 30 years

When Hurricane Hugo rocked the Carolina coast in September of 1989, it didn’t take long for Barb Mains to realize her calling.

She left the coast when she realized her Garden City home was safe, and she and her sister headed further inland in Horry County to find third-world living conditions.

“There was a lot being done with where I was, but we met up with a health nurse,” Mains said. “She told us that out in the county didn’t have anything, they didn’t have any help and they couldn’t get help because they we so far out with no cars, so that’s where we started.

“The first time I ever went on this cul-de-sac, they had a Port-A-John in the middle of the street… and there were all these children. I’ll never forget looking at all those children. And I thought, ‘Oh my goodness.’ And we just started from there.”

And 27 years later, the founder and leader of Help4Kids hasn’t stopped.

Mains, with the help of hundreds of volunteers that span nearly three decades, has developed the Help 4 Kids program that identifies and aids children who most lack basic success-nourishing help, such as food, and clothing for school-aged children.

Mains credits her mother, which she said “never had spoken a hard word about anybody,” as the person who taught her the importance of giving.

“My mother was a wonderful person,” Mains said. “She would give you her everything.”

Mains said the image of the children after the hurricane remind her of the organization’s purpose.

“It was just seeing children doing without, which should not happen,” Mains said. “Children should not to live the way some children do.”

Help4Kids administers the Backpack Buddies program, which gives food to children of low-income families. Backpack Buddies feeds 3,000 kids per week in 32 schools throughout Horry County.

Help4Kids also provides book bags, new shoes, and new clothes to children.

“Kids don’t deserve to live that way. It’s not right,” Mains said of children from low-income families. “If they had a choice before they were born and say, ‘Would you want to go and live here in this old trailer that’s like 30 years old with the holes and the bugs and everything, and your momma will work every day but she won’t have enough money to buy you anything new, or would you like to go like with Beaver Cleaver and his family?’ What are they going to pick? The Cleavers, of course.

“We try to do everything in our power that these kids go to school looking better and have the things that they need so they don’t go side beside other children with designer clothes and they have nothing. It’s just not right.”

Gary Newman, who helped write Mains’ nominating letter for Horry’s Angels, said Mains is humble when it comes to what she has accomplished.

“Barb’s not interested in acclaim for herself,” Newman said. “Rather, she focuses entirely, quietly and even unnoticed, on pursuing her dedication to doing all she can, directly and hands-on, to help disadvantaged Grand Strand children -- our neighbors -- to achieve a better life.”

Mains is driven by knowing the program made a difference.

“Knowing that I could keep a kid from being hungry and I can make them look better when they go to school so they’re not embarrassed, and to make their lives better,” she said. “We tell them, ‘You go to school, you get good grades and you go to college and we’ll help you all the way. And we do.”

In fact, her help stretches into high school and all the way into college.

“When I first started out, the girls wouldn’t go to the prom because they didn’t have anything to wear,” Mains said. “So we make it a point to make sure every senior that we know, we make sure they have shoes and a dress and get the picture and everything.

“I have children now where I helped their mothers when they were little.”

Mains recalls a woman who went to Coastal Carolina University for four years, but did not have a meal plan. So, every Saturday, there were two families who would bring her groceries. She graduated with honors.

She said there are children who were impacted by her program who come back and show their appreciation. Mains said there was a woman who gave her child up to another woman. The woman died and the boy went with a distant relative.

“We just grieved over him because we just didn’t know what happened to him,” Mains said. “One day, about three or four years ago, I opened my Facebook and there was a message that said, ‘Miss Barbara. This is Jesse. Do you remember me?’ And I said, ‘Oh my God yes I remember you. We grieved over you.’ And he said, ‘I just want you to know that I went to college and I’m going to be a social worker just like you ladies.’ And that was the best one we ever got.”

Mains said it’s stories like that one and seeing children in better situations because of her programs that give her the drive to continue her work.

“I’m 68 years old, although I don’t feel it,” Mains said. “I love every minute of the day, and I love every morning that I can get up and go do it again.”

This story was originally published December 19, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Mains made helping kids her mission for nearly 30 years."