Reanna Singh is, for many people, the first person they met when they came to Hi-Hope. For the last 11 years she has been a constant here at Hi-Hope, starting as Alice's administrative assistant and later serving as Susan's executive assistant. Her days involve helping out at the front desk, answering phones, working in our database, putting together thank you letters, mentally storing our donor history and a plethora of other things that are needed to make the wheels turn. Over the years she has witnessed many changes, but feels like the individuals we support remain pretty constant. Tammy Chapman stands out for her because she seems to always be around when Reanna needs a big, bright, beautiful personality to turn her day around [authors note: Bobby Chapman is similarly skilled at making you feel good about yourself].
So what do we know about Reanna that isn't Hi-Hope? Well, she was born in southern Trinidad to a Hindu family. After she finished high school, she went to cosmetology school until one day her mom decided she wanted Reanna to live with her uncle in The Bronx, NY. And bold Reanna said, "OK, I'll go." She worked for one day in a store (where she met her future husband) before going back to further her studies. After completing business school, she accepted a job with the Board of Education, serving as an administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent. After 14 years in New York, she and her husband, a native of the South American country of Guyana, decided they wanted a change of pace and set out for Georgia. The move wasn't completely straight forward as they had to convince their daughter to relocate. In order to gain her willingness, they had to promise to get her a puppy in Georgia
This is where Scooby comes in to the picture. If you know Reanna, you know that she has a dog upon which she lavishes a good deal of attention. Scooby is her and her husband's "baby." Scobby wears outfits. Scooby has a seat at the dinner table and only eats chicken breasts. Scooby will NOT walk outside so he has to be carried. Scooby thinks he is a person and a pretty glamorous one at that. They got Scooby 12 years ago as a puppy at Petsmart and ever since this diminutive Maltese Shih Tzu has been her other child.
Reanna's daughter, Arianna, now goes to Gwinnett Tech and is an Assistant Manager at the Del Rio Mexican Grill in Dacula. She looks like her mom so if you ever stop there, definitely say "hi."
Other than that, Reanna is an avid traveler going to Trinidad to visit her brother and sister roughly every three years. She has also gone to Aruba, Turks and Caicos, The Bahamas, Canada, Guyana, Curacao, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. She loves to cook and makes a mean traditional Trinidadian Christmas cake that involves soaking dried fruit in rum for a full year, mixing it in with the cake batter, and then baking the mixture before dousing it in more rum [author's note: do not eat cake and drive].
That last things we can say about Reanna is that she genuinely loves her job and loves working with Susan and the Development team. She also loves her family and is a firm believer in prayers. She says this a lot. One of the first things she every told this author was that after 27 years, she and her husband are still madly in love and are always by each other's side. Perhaps that's why she fits in at Hi-Hope so well - because we are a big family here. We love her and she loves us. Not a bad fit at all.