NEW LEADERSHIP-David Carpenter (right) was recently named director of the Solid Rock Food Closet and Daren Bottomley was named director of volunteers. Photo by Laura Thornburg

Solid Rock Food Closet announces new employees

David Carpenter was recently appointed as the new director at Solid Food Closet, and Daren Bottomley was recently named the director of volunteers.

Carpenter succeeds LeAnn Gambill, who held the position of director, which included volunteer director, for a year-and-a-half before stepping down.

The second position, that of volunteer director, was suggested by Gambill during a meeting with the Solid Rock Food Closet board.

Carpenter stated he has spent a number of years with different organizations in the county, including Dr. Grabow and Carolina Narrow.

"The need for organizations like the food closet in Alleghany County are very obvious, with the amount of unemployment we have and so forth as a native of Alleghany County. I have always been very interested in the people. When I heard that LeAnn was leaving to spend more time with her family and so forth, I had, I guess it was a feeling, that this might be something that I would be able to contribute something to and something I could make a contribution to, that's why I decided to apply for the job."

Carpenter added he was pleased "the board saw fit to give me the opportunity" to work at Solid Rock Food Closet as the director.

When asked what drew him to the position, Carpenter replied, "there comes a time that you have to be able to put your priorities in order, that you can't do everything that you want to do; but you try to place your priorities on things that you feel are the most important and where you can do the most good."

Of the director's position Carpenter added, "With this new assignment, the director is going to be responsible to work closely with all the churches, with the food drives, with the organizations that bring the food in. It is the assignment of the director to try to expand and grow the program to be able to reach more and more people and do more and more with the program. I certainly take it as a serious obligation of what I would like to do."

After holding the position for about two weeks, Carpenter remarked he has no new goals for the food closet at this time, expressing thanks to Gambill and former director DeAnne Warren for their work that has made the nonprofit organization a success thus far.

He commented, "LeAnn has done such a tremendous job and following DeAnne who was the lady who helped start it, I certainly have some awfully big shoes to fill. It's going to take me a while to get my feet on the ground and comprehend all that was going on and all that they were doing. Our goal is that we can expand and continue to grow the programs. We're still going to have the support of LeAnn and DeAnne, they've both volunteered to help us out in certain programs; we're just looking forward to going from here."