Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ike Reighard. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Ike, thanks for joining us today. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

When I was 11 years old in the spring of 1962, my mother and I went to a department store near downtown Atlanta. When we went into the store that day my mother went off to do her shopping and I found myself naturally walking toward the toy department. I had no idea, but I was about to fall in love for the first time as an 11 year old… in front of my eyes, there appeared a magical bicycle called a Schwinn Tiger. It was love at first sight… I ran my hand over the handlebars and over the seat, and immediately began to try and figure out how I could make this bike mine!

I hurriedly ran and found my mother and told her that I had found something so magnificent that she would have to see it with her own eyes to understand it. Before my mom had arrived, I made sure to twist the cord that held the price tag with the cost of the bicycle in a direction that wouldn’t allow her to see the price before making her decision. Of course, the first thing my mother did was twist the cord and look at the price and immediately make the declaration that “I could get this bike out of my mind because my father did not make the type of money” that would allow them to purchase the bike for me… then I began my apologetic of my desire for the bicycle. I pointed out that it was spring time and I really wanted to bike for my Christmas present in December. I even negotiated that I wouldn’t get a birthday present
( note my birthday is December 12th and I always got ripped off anyway) or eat until December 24th. I was a child on a mission. There wasn’t a day that passed that I did not talk about getting the bicycle nor was there a day when my mother ever gave me a glimmer of hope that somehow I might receive that bicycle as my ultimate Christmas gift,

December 24 rolled around and about 2 o’clock in the afternoon I announce with great fanfare that I was going to be going down to Knight Park where I would join my buddies and we would play football until it was time to come home and open up Christmas presents which was a tradition for my family on Christmas Eve , I can remember vividly walking in the front door of my house with full belief that I would see the Schwinn tiger bicycle parked underneath the most beautiful Christmas tree you’ve ever seen… It was made of silver tinsel, had a light wheel at the bottom with four major colors and the tree stand itself was like a music box that would rotate the tree… You could pretty much have a seizure in the corner of my living room with that much activity going on! But to my shock and dismay, there was no Schwinn tiger bicycle under our tree… a quick appraisal by me realized even if the bicycle was disassembled, there would be some major parts missing. Thus, I settled into the harsh reality that I would not get the coveted bicycle for my Christmas present. I had received several gifts, but none of them were satisfying to me underneath my exterior I was seething with anger and questioning why in the world my parents couldn’t have gotten this one request, right!

After we finished opening presents, we then went into our little kitchen where we would share a Christmas meal. My mother decided to push the situation with me by having the audacity to ask how much I liked my gifts. I very icily replied to her that they were all “just great” , which really wasn’t the truth and I was hoping that she would pick up on that fact. My mother then decided to drop the straw that broke the camels back by asking me to go across the street to Mrs. Miller’s house where I would pick up a cake that she had baked for us for the Christmas meal. When my mother made this request I heard my 12-year-old mouth say “if you want the cake so bad why don’t you go get it your self!” This also would turn out to be my first near death experience, I did see the bright light at the end of the tunnel, and was pretty sure Jesus was covering his eyes at the other end, knowing the damage my mother could do to me. Suddenly my father jumped up, grabbed me by the arm and said “when your mother ask you to do something you do it” and sent me on my way to Mrs.Miller’s house. I can still remember my red hot emotions as I slammed the front door and I said out loud, “I hope to God I am adopted because I do not want to think that genetically I could’ve sprung from two people who couldn’t get something as simple as one present right!” I stormed across the street, went through the gate between the hedges to Miss Miller,’s stomping up on her porch, swung back the screen door with great force and boldly banged on her door to pick up the cake Mrs. Miller had made. She came to the door, flipped on the porch light, and there to my right was a Schwinn tiger bicycle. Now I’m not the brightest person in the world, and what may be occurring to you right now was not occurring to me… in that moment my first thought was “isn’t this the way that life goes old Mrs. Miller got a Schwinn tiger bicycle and that was the one thing I wanted for Christmas this year!” Then I heard commotion across the street on my front porch… it was my mother’s voice saying “hey Ikey that’s the right one right one isn’t it?” And it was my brother and sisters saying I bet you’re so excited you got what you wanted… and yet I was filled with a dread that I had never experienced before, nor have I ever experienced after.

My first thought was how wet my face felt and hot… I never remember the tears being in my eyes I just remember them running down my cheeks The next thing in my mind that I remember was hearing my mothers voice saying “your dad doesn’t make that much money son,” my dad worked in a rock quarry and he worked hard every day of his life. The sound I always remember growing up was his work boots hitting the floor furnace outside of my bedroom as he would knock on the door and wake me up each morning. My thought was how many times did his boots have to hit that furnace to get what I wanted and demanded?
This moment was a defining moment for me because it was the first time that I ever remember praying, and my prayer was short and simple. My family didn’t attend church, so it wasn’t like I was raised around any type of religious thought, so my prayer went something like this, “Lord, please don’t ever let me feel like this again please make me a giver and not a taker”… I truly believe that God answered that prayer for me that evening on Mrs Miller’s front porch.

Many years later on Christmas Eve at about 1130 at night there was a knock on our front door. I told my wife that she needed to go answer the door and see what was up and that it was strange for someone to be knocking on the door at 11:30. She quickly pointed out that I was the one who needed to go to the front door and open it up at 11:30 at night, and I did so . There on my front porch was a 1962 Schwinn Tiger bicycle with a huge red bow that my wife had found on eBay and bought for me! It was a reminder of how much better it is to give than to receive and plus you will sleep better on Christmas Eve and every other night of the year!

So today at my Must Ministries office, where we help people in poverty, hangs the Schwinn Tiger bicycle. It’s a constant reminder to me, how much better you feel about life when you have a spirit of generosity versus a spirit of greed. It’s about asking God to make you an abundance, personality rather than a scarcity mentality person. The scarcity mentality believes that everything in life is limited and if somehow you don’t get exactly what you wanted that you got cheated. Abundance mentality believes in sharing with others, especially those in need.
I love living the abundant life and the Schwinn Tiger reminds me everyday to give my best!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Must Ministries served over 70,000 unique individuals last year A new homeless shelter provides 172 beds.
Workforce Development helped 827 people get jobs bringing 26.7 million dollars back into the economy.
550,000 Summer Lunches for children.
Over 100 public schools served through imbedded pantries.
4.5 tons of food given away each day.
Medical clinic
A Charity Navigator scoring a 98% rating.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

During Covid Must Ministries had to pivot in a variety of ways. In 2019 we had over 17,000 volunteers who helped us to carry out our mission and during Covid we suddenly Lost those volunteers due to the outbreak. We had to develop a brand new distribution system for getting food out to those in need plus so many people were being evicted during this time that we went from taking care of 300 people a night with everything that MUST does to over 1500 people a night… This was a major pivot for us.

Over the three years the only thing that exceeded the level of need in our community was the level of generosity in our community. We were so blessed that we were able to keep our doors open , and end up tripling the amount of people we were serving during the three years of pandemic

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A great principal I live by, is to live your story now the way you want to be able to tell the story later, without having to change a thing for 13 years. This simply means that you truly begin with the end in mind and ask yourself at the beginning of any great challenge how do you want to be telling that story later what would you do now that would make your story so impactful when you’ve gone through a crisis.?

Contact Info:

• Website: Mustministries.org
• Instagram: Ikereighard
• Facebook: Must Ministries
• Linkedin: Ikereighard
• Twitter: Ikereighard