EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: Retired non-profit founder continues to build connections, and community

Former lawyer Jimmy Pierce retires from Kids Making It, after teaching entrepreneurship to youth through woodworking

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)  —   On most afternoons at Kids Making It, you’ll hear the buzz of busy kids, learning woodworking skills in a nondescript building on a quiet section of Castle Street near downtown Wilmington, NC.

Former lawyer Jimmy Pierce started the nonprofit more than two decades ago, and has built it into a thriving, valuable resource in the community.

Most kids have zero experience with woodworking before they take their first class.

“They’ve never touched a tool, ” Pierce explained. “Often they don’t know anything, and the first day they’re cutting wood.  And in a couple of days, they’ve completed a project.”

Pierce started the non-profit in 2000, with a $35,000 grant.  He claims he would have accepted a $35 grant, just to get it off the ground!

Over the next 22 years, he learned how to network and fundraise for supplies and expenses, growing the business to serve more than 500 students a year, at no cost for the classes.

He finally decided to step down this year, sensing it was time to retire, but Pierce is never more than a phone call away from the students who have learned much more than woodworking skills from him.

Former students like Tyrell Brockington, known as “Pops” back in the day, like to return and help mentor the young ones, just starting out in their classes.

“It gives me joy in my heart that what I put in, and Jimmy put in, and everybody else put in, it pays off,” Pops said.  “Seeing kids change, going to college, doing stuff…it’s making the world a better place.”

Jimmy Pierce built the program to last, using woodworking to teach business and life skills to low income, at-risk or disadvantaged kids and adults.

The products they make are sold in the shop’s storefront, open most days of the week, and the kids keep the profits when their handmade item sells.

The new executive director, Kevin Blackburn, at least 30 years Jimmy’s junior, is happy to still have close contact with his predecessor.

“We want to make sure kids are building character, their self-worth and an entrepreneurial spirit,” he said, echoing Jimmy’s philosophy. “I see that always being a part of everything we do, every program.”

Now retired, Pierce is surfing, running, fishing and helping his master-gardener wife Phyllis with their thriving vegetable and fruit garden.

He is skilled at taking something young and green, and helping it grow to its full potential.

“It’s a tough world growing up today,” Pierce said.   “I feel kids need every possible opportunity to succeed in life and to have reasons to feel good about themselves and feel proud about what they do.”

He’s built a legacy to make sure his former students do just that.

And for that reason, Jimmy Pierce is one of the Extraordinary People in the Cape Fear.

To nominate someone you think deserves recognition, click here  or send an email to extraordinary@wwaytv3.com .