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Bringing someone in to help the organization with its fundraising is a major goal. “We are looking for someone who will work with us in a major fundraising activity like Sickle Cell or March of Dimes,” McClendon said. “We want to be able to match some of the dollars coming in, and we need to bring someone to help us do that. Staff is doing the day to day operations and may not have the expertise in looking for the mega bucks. We’re not looking for a little bit of money, OK!”

Also, look for increased activity among fully-informed board members. “We need to look at our leadership and make sure the right people are on the right buses heading in the right direction,” McClendon said. Expect experts in contracts, construction, fiscal management and others with knowledge applicable to NOAH’s mission to be added to the board. McClendon wants members who are willing to drive out to the Glades when necessary and learn about the area and be just as educated about its needs and programs as the president and executive director.

The amped-up fundraising and more diverse board will be used to push NOAH toward its ultimate goal of increased single-family housing for its clients. Members are pleased with the organization’s performance. With 545 units and special housing for seniors, the organization has met its goals. There also are 21 single family homes under NOAH’s umbrella, and it is working on a project with Belle Glade where more than 100 lots will be used to construct single family homes throughout the city.

Single family homes are the ultimate goal because “you've got to be able to have food, clothing and a roof over your head before you can move to that next level,” McClendon said. It is a well publicized concept to which she offers personal testimony.

Her father was killed when she was young. "With the little settlement my mom got, she bought a house." Tragically, her mother also died while McClendon was young, leaving her and her siblings without an adult in the home. McClendon credits that house on Southwest 12th Street in Belle Glade, bought for $11,000 in the early 1960s, with the eventual success found by her and each of her five brothers and two sisters, none of whom ever became a ward of the state.

“We were able to, because of that house, stay in Belle Glade and go to school without any adult in the house. Had she not bought that house, where would we be? That house was the cornerstone of our survival.”

For the assistant principal at Roosevelt Middle School who has been an educator for more than 30 years, it is not difficult for McClendon to apply algebraic philosophy to her scenario. One home equaled eight success stories. With NOAH solving for an X here and a Y there, hundreds of homes can yield thousands of success stories.

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