EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: Building Today for Tomorrow

SUNSET BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Picture this: A Brunswick County couple is in the Philippines when they cross paths with a 12-year-old with clubfoot. The husband helps build the child a wheelchair out of PVC pipe.  The girl is now ecstatic and rolling all over the place with the new homemade transportation. Then the couple pays for her surgery to straighten her legs. True story. It’s one of many that makes the duo, Clarice and Ronnie Holden, our Extraordinary Person(s) of the Week.

Clarice and Ronnie Holden have toured the world to do everything from helping to build schools in 3rd world countries to building water wells so those same areas can have clean drinking water.

“My husband looked at me,” Clarice said of their act of kindness in Guatemala, “and I looked at him. He said, we’re going to build this school.”

Clarice and Ronnie Holden are no strangers to donations. They raise money for all kinds of charities both here in the United States and overseas. But this one, ohhhhh, this one is something so very special.

Clarice and Ronnie Holden in Philippines
Photo: Clarice Holden

“My husband and I were sitting in the airport there when we were leaving the 1st time in Guatamala and he said this is something we’ve been looking for our whole life,” Clarice said. “It just changed us right there.”

When they returned for the dedication ceremony, they found children all decked out in celebration outfits and parading down the street in Guatemala.

“I tell you,” Clarice said, “it was like a holiday, they brought out their best for us, they were so thankful.”

The Holdens helped fund that school in Guatemala. It’s a school for children with special needs and now a school that can feed the dozens of children who were starving of much of what we take for granted everyday.

“I think that people think they can’t do enough, to do something major, but you gotta do something,” Clarice said. “It doesn’t matter, whatever you can do, do it, and when you do it like that it will change your heart. It will make you want to give more and do more.”

Clarice and Ronnie Holden in China
Photo: Clarice Holden

And the fact that we don’t have enough time to share how many other places they’ve made a difference, like Ukraine, the Philippines, South Africa, Mongolia and China to name a few. Well….that is proof that these two are the definition of extraordinary! They’ve also provided clean water by helping fund water wells in numerous countries. The list goes on and on and that’s just wonderful!

The Holdens work with two non-profits routinely.
They are Orphan’s Promise and Widow’s Mite.