In some of the toughest economic times ever to face Renton, Terry Masango has helped make sure that people didn’t go hungry.
In doing so, he firmly established himself as a community leader and an advocate for those in need. Now, he’s saying goodbye.
His five years in Renton, he says, have been humbling and a blessing.
“I was part of Renton,” he says. “I am grateful for that.”
Five years ago, Masango and his wife Rutendo arrived in Renton as the new captains of the Renton Corps of the Salvation Army. Working together, they have grown their Salvation Army Church and seen their outreach to the hungry and under-served expand.
Their personal story is compelling and touched hearts in Renton.
Terry Masango grew up in poverty in the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare, in southern Africa. The Salvation Army was there for him when he needed support in times of crisis. He worked at a bank for six years, before he and Rutendo moved to Australia.
They enrolled in the Salvation Army School for Youth Leadership in New South Wales. They were on track to become leaders in their church.
The Salvation Army Renton Rotary Food Bank was relatively new when they arrived in 2006, the year the Masangos were commissioned as captains in California. The Great Recession was still a year away.
They followed in the footsteps of equally popular Renton corps captains, Christine and Chris Giffey-Brohaugh.
The Salvation Army will post Chris and Lisa Aird as the new captains in Renton later this month. They now are assigned to Roseville, Calif., northeast of Sacramento, Calif.
“I believe they will fit in well,” said Masango. On Saturday, the Masangos will visit their new post, El Cajon, a California city of about 100,000 people in San Diego County.
The impact of the Masangos on Renton is measured in numbers, superlatives and relationships they developed with others in the community that hastened their mission work.
• In 2006, the food bank was serving about 650 families a month; today, that number is about 1,500 families.
• Also in 2006, food bank opened on Saturdays when the Renton Rotary Club’s RotaCare Clinic is open at the food bank and community service center on Tobin Street. It was part of a strategy to provide services at one location.
• Three years ago, a dental van began visits twice month.
• Masango serves as co-chair of REACH, a group of churches in Renton that meets regularly and runs the ARISE shelter for men.
• He serves on the Renton Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. He said he “loves” representing the chamber. It’s also a chance, he said, to do “a lot of networking.”
• He’s co-chair of RANU, or Renton Area Nonprofits Unite, an economic-development group for non-profit organizations in Renton. He’s enjoyed working with the group.
• Masango professed first that he didn’t have any money, leading a non-profit, but he became a founding member of The Next Curve. It’s an organization of young professionals in Renton working to improve life in the city and distribute money to worthy organizations. He said he’s “proud” of the work of the group’s young leaders.
• He served on the Valley Medical Center President’s Advisory Council that looked at the effects of health-care reform.
And, “last but not least,” he said, is the Renton Rotary Club. He makes sure there are no scheduling conflicts with the club’s Thursday meetings.
There’s a reason why the name Rotary is in the food bank’s name, he said. The club was a key contributor to the capital drive to build the food bank and service center. And, Rotarians continue their involvement, through the RotaCare clinic, food drives and other activities.
“Their continuing support is very vital to what we do,” he said.
That support has been mightily needed from the Rotary Club and other service organizations and the community at large, in time of recession.
The call went out and the community responded with meat to fill an empty freezer. The food bank’s “wall of shame,” empty racks where food usually was stored, was quickly filled.
When more needed to be done to help the hungry, the Salvation Army and the rest of Renton’s faith community joined to offer a Community Supper at the Salvation Army Church. It, too, has grown, in numbers of days that dinner is served and in how many are served. In April about 1,100 meals were served.
The Community Supper could grow yet again, thanks to a roughly $500,000 gift from the Helen Dyrdal Fund, part of the Renton Community Foundation. The Renton Corps will use the money to expand the church physically, allowing it to enlarge children’s programs and make room for another night for dinner.
The Masangos have two daughters, Fiela, 9, and Tanaka, 4.
The church has grown, too, under the Masangos tenure, from about 20 members to about 110 today.
The Masangos’ goodbye could have come sooner. Typically, captains don’t stay in one city for as long as five years.
A year ago almost to today, Bill Taylor, CEO of the Renton Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter to Lt. Col. Doug O’Brien, in the Salvation Army’s Divisional Headquarters in Seattle.
He joined Mayor Denis Law and Rev. Kirby Unti in encouraging O’Brien to extend the Masangos’ stay to Renton for as long as possible. The Masangos and Renton have a “special chemistry,” he wrote.
What has “transpired between between Renton and the Salvation Army during his time has been as the result of a unique and very special chemistry that developed between our community and Captain Terry and his family,” Taylor wrote.
Need Knows No Season
The Salvation Army Renton Corps annual dinner fundraiser, “Need Knows No Season,” is June 22 at the Renton Senior Activity Center.
The event begins at 5:30 p.m., with a social hour. The program will including testimonials from those served by corps programs.
Attendees can sponsor a table by calling the corps at 425-255-5974, ext. 15. To RSVP for the event, also call that number. The dinner is free, but a donation is asked from those who attend.
ABOUT THE MASANGOS
Terry and Rutendo have been very effective ambassadors for the Salvation Army. They quickly earned the respect and love of this community, and their ability to build and nurture relationships led the Renton Salvation Army to new levels, which enabled them to serve many people in need. They will be missed.
– Mayor Denis Law
Terry and Rutendo Masango have been a great gift to the community because they “get community.” They know that community is about inviting everybody to the dinner table, including the poor. Their leadership has allowed them to build even stronger bridges between the stakeholders in the community, while adding a rich mixture of non-profits and the faith community participants. All of this has been accomplished by being truly genuine, down to earth, and authentic people who still have the dirt of Africa under their fingernails. There is a saying in the Bible that captures the entire Masango family. “And you will know them by their love.” The love the Masangos have shared with our Renton community has been great glue. Renton is stronger because of the Masangos.
– Rev. Kirby Unti
