Rollins ready to hit open road: Rebuilding Macon director looking forward to retirement

In three months, she will drop the top on her “sexy” Lexus convertible — the one with 228,000 miles on the odometer — and let the wind rush through her hair from the Great Lakes of Minnesota and Wisconsin to the tumbleweeds of Texas. 

She plans to sell her house at Lake Tobesofkee, pack a sleeping bag and tent in her trunk and stuff an inflatable kayak in the back seat.

She hasn’t decided, but she may take her dog with her.

Rollins will be looking for adventure above the fruited plains and across purple mountain majesties. She has an itinerary, but no calendar. She expects the 9,125-mile trip will take almost a year, maybe longer depending on how many times her curiosity wanders off the highway. If the seasons cooperate, the temperature will be about 70 degrees every time she gets behind the wheel.

Debra Rollins is about to become a rambling woman … a free spirit out on the open road.

After 26 years of repairing leaky sinks, painting porches and hammering shingles on sloped roofs, Rollins is retiring as the  executive director of Rebuilding Macon. 

She is 67 years old and convinced she still has plenty of tread on her tires. For her trip, she plans to purchase a senior “lifetime” pass to visit all the national parks. 

As with any passage of life, there is a bittersweetness to saying goodbye. She has poured her time and talents into this local, non-profit organization with its mission to “rehabilitate the houses of low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly and disabled, so that they may live in warmth, safety, and independence.’’

Rebuilding Macon takes on about 250 projects every year and has rebuilt an estimated 5,000-6,000 homes under Rollins’ leadership over the past quarter century.

“We touch so many lives and build so many bridges,’’ she said. “Yes, we are doing 250 projects a year, but we not only are touching the lives of our homeowners but also our volunteers.’’

Those 250 annual projects help about 400 citizens, she said. The organization typically budgets between $500 and $1,500 per project. When the organization was formed in 1992, it took 14 years to fix the first 1,000 homes. Now, it only takes about four years to do that many with volunteer work crews that go out three days a week.

 It’s not anything like “Extreme Makeover” or any of those over-the-top TV reality shows.

“It could be a roof, a wheelchair ramp or structural issues,’’ Rollins said. “We say we fix houses for little old ladies … because 98% are done for little old ladies.’’

The blessings come when that “little old lady” who bought her home while working a minimum wage job is being helped by a doctor or bank president who have volunteered to climb up on a ladder and repair her sheetrock, Rollins said. 

Funding comes from local foundations, federal community block grants and good, old-fashioned fundraising. Rebuilding Macon holds an annual “Macon’s Cookin’’ event and has published two cookbooks with recipes from local celebrities and restaurant chefs. Every fall, a playhouse built by students at Jones County High School is raffled off for the charity.

A dedicated group of volunteers called the “Good Samaritans” gather every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the office on Lake Street and head out to work on homes. Students from Mount de Sales, Covenant Academy and First Presbyterian Day School participate as part of the curriculum and service projects for their schools. The Future Farmers of America annually provides volunteers, and college students from Boston, Chicago and Michigan regularly partner to come to Macon and volunteer on their spring breaks. 

Local people and businesses donate materials and supplies. The staff at Rebuilding Macon has also helped start similar programs in other places.

In many ways, Rollins was groomed for this job. She just didn’t know it at the time. Her father, the late Alton Elroy Waller, built homes and sold real estate in Warner Robins. As a child, he would take her with him to his construction sites.

“I joke that I was potty trained on empty paint cans,’’ she said, laughing. “I thought all little girls had white circles on their butts.’’

For her 12th birthday, she went with her dad to a house he was working on, where he demonstrated the inner workings of plumbing.

Alton Waller died the summer after Rollins graduated from the University of Georgia in 1979. In the years that followed, she went through a divorce and sold the two Dunkin’ Donuts franchises she owned in Macon.

As part of her self-prescribed therapy, she began doing volunteer work. She tutored for Goodwill. She helped at Habitat for Humanity. She worked the phones at Crisis Line. She became a master gardener.

She also got involved with the local chapter of Christmas in April, a national nonprofit that later changed its name to Rebuilding Together to be more inclusive.

 Twenty years ago – in 2004 – the local chapter split from the national organization and became known as Rebuilding Macon.

Rollins was hired as the first full-time executive director in June 1998. The irony was that this group that worked on housing was homeless. 

She and Bruce Gerwig, of the Macon Housing Authority, hit the streets and found space for an office at the Dempsey Apartments downtown. After a grant from the Peyton Anderson Foundation and others, they were able to acquire the building on Lake Street.

Rollins’ official last day with Rebuilding Macon is Dec. 27. She said she is leaving the program in superb hands. Derek Thomas, who has been serving as the project inspector, will take over as executive director. Katie Durden will return as program manager, with the responsibility of writing grants and raising money.

While Rollins is excited about the opportunity to travel, she is grateful for the support and opportunity to help so many in the community. 

Folks feel a greater sense of self-worth when you can restore pride in where they live.