Meet Carolyn Tarver of Project Smile in Fort Bend County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn Tarver.

Carolyn, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Project SMILE is a community outreach in memory of my son, Stan Engelke, who died at the age of seventeen in a freakish accident on May 9, 1983. The intense pain of losing a child is almost unbearable! Even after 36 years, there is never a day that I do not love him and miss him.

I unofficially began Project SMILE (Stan’s Memory Includes Loving Everyone) in December of 1983 by taking gifts to twelve children at a youth center in Richmond, Texas. These were hurting children who would be away from their families over the holidays. I found it very heartwarming to reach out to them in their need and in my grief. Sometime after this event, I decided if I was going to live, I was going to do everything I could to make the world around me a little bit better place because my son LIVED!

In 1984, I began going door to door in the neighborhoods where our Project SMILE children live. We now have volunteers living in the various neighborhoods who help keep our records updated. In our database, we have each family’s name and address, along with each child’s name and birth date. Through the years Project SMILE has been supported primarily by service clubs, a local church, different organizations, businesses, and individuals. Every year, with tremendous community support, we are able to furnish school supplies to more than 1500 children. Through the Santa’s Exchange Christmas outreach program, as well as families served from Bethel Ministry, we furnish gifts to approximately 2500 Project SMILE children at Christmas. Our families are approved through personal contact in the neighborhoods where they live and they are sent a letter of invitation to come and “shop” for their children, selecting three gifts each for the younger children and a gift card and/or gifts for the older children. Our outreach also includes approximately 75 senior citizens. At age 81, I am older than a lot of our senior citizens!

No one is paid a salary at Project SMILE or at Bethel Ministry, which Joe and Becky Torres and I officially organized in 1998 so that we would have a place from which to do our outreach work.

My son Stan was my only child and the joy of my life. While I will never forget the horror of his death, I will always remember the blessing of his birth. Through my son, I learned the meaning of love so intense that it is almost sacred – love that can be exceeded only by God’s love for all humanity. For the love and happiness he brought into my life, even if I knew I would lose him, I would run the risk again. I am so grateful that I was blessed to have Stan for 17 years – time to make a lot of beautiful memories. I look forward to seeing him in heaven when God calls me home. What a glorious day that will be!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The greatest challenge that I have had to try to overcome these past 36 years has been having to deal with the death of my son. I loved him more than words can express and the pain of losing him never goes away. Only by God’s sustaining grace have I been able to survive and function without him.

Although Project SMILE is a lot of work, it has not presented too many challenges because of wonderful and caring volunteers and tremendous support from a generous community.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
My determination to keep my son Stan’s memory alive in a positive way by sharing God’s love, along with material blessings to children and their families.

Contact Info:

• Address: 838 Bel Mar Street
• Email: carolyntarver37@live.com

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