Living My Life on Purpose
I am an agent for change.
I am here to have a positive impact on lives
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
In 2015, I had a fire at my home that resulted in a major loss. It wasn’t a kitchen fire or a one room fire. The entire house was destroyed. I had a decision to stay or leave and chose to rebuild. My house was completely gutted from the ground to the roof. Now, there is a fire station at the top of my street. I pass it everyday coming home. It’s about 1/5th of a mile from my house, walking distance. For my fire, this station did not come to my house. It’s a Clayton County fire station. I had to wait for Riverdale to send a fire truck to me.
Last year, 2024, was my first full year of retirement from Corporate America and ohhhh what a year it was. After 15 years at SunTrust/Truist Bank (25 years in the IT industry,) I officially retired as a Software Engineering Director in December 2023. I then made a commitment to start living my life with intention and purpose, to pursue my God Given dream of entrepreneurship with findeREC Inc. and fulfill my civic duties as a Servant Leader (Councilwoman for the City of Riverdale, GA) with passion and perseverance.
In 2025, I’m continuing this journey to see these purpose driven goals come to full fruition. This year will set the foundation for me to save lives, change the world for the better and create my legacy.
Servant Leadership
I am a spirit filled, faith-based woman. However, I admit there’s always been just one fear I’ve had as a single parent:
“If something happened to me, what would happen to my child.”
As a result, I’ve taken extra precautions to be prepared for emergencies. The enthusiasm for emergency preparedness became a passion, which ultimately become my purpose. It’s resulted in my creating a business that utilizes my technical skills to provide a public service. It also become a platform for me as an elected official, public safety.
Public Service – Riverdale (GA) City Council Woman
I am here to help and to serve
Mary as an
Entrepreneur/Start-up Founder
As an elected official, it is my duty to represent citizens to the best of my abilities. To make decisions, sometimes very hard decisions, that will impact and better the lives of members of my community. I take this role seriously. I’m not here to get future votes; I work to make a difference today. And I also represent the people that don’t show up for every vote (honestly speaking, I didn’t); as they need representation too.
Mary as an
Elected Official/City Councilwoman
What ended up being the most controversial decision since I’ve been in office resulted in a full week of news coverage. We were on every major news network, every hour and ½ hour that the news was on, from morning thru late nights for an entire week. The controversy was over our plan to merge our City’s Fire Department with the County’s Fire department.
Float Like a Boat
I love the water. I’m a pool owner. My son was raised to swim; my mother taught him. But a disheartening truth is that many of my community don’t know how to swim. Drowning is preventable It was quite natural for me to come up with a clever way to educate our community on water safety.
The purpose of Float Like a Boat is to increase the awareness of the technique to save yourself in water-based emergencies, by floating. We teach emergency preparedness:
- If you’re on fire: Stop, drop and roll
- If a tornado is coming: Get in the hallway and cover your head
- And now, be prepared for an active shooter.
Yet, every year, we and/or our children get in water and have not been taught what to do if there’s an emergency or if your kids friends throw them in them pool.
Float Like a Boat is here now and teaches children (and adults) how to float when they are in water. The City of Riverdale implemented a program that accomplished the following
- Increases the awareness of floating as a live saving technique to save lives
- Provides in-water floating lessons to our community
- Provides downloadable materials to aid in teaching how to float like a boat outside of water
2025 Float Like a Boat Goals
- Continue the campaign to spread the message that floating is a way to save your life. This should be the first thing we remember when in water, just like we know what to do if we’re on fire.
- Encourage this message to be taught in schools at the same time other emergency preparedness is being taught, such as fire and tornado drills.
Float Like a Boat
SAVES LIVES