Reach, Inc: An Investigation

On the morning of Saturday, September 12, I was entering my local Wal-Mart store and noticed an unmanned portable table adorned with a rudimentary sign requesting donations for “Child Abuse.” Certainly I had seen other community organizations operating at this location (Salvation Army, Boy & Girl Scouts, Local Civic Clubs, etc.) but this seemed different somehow. For starters, the sign was devoid of any contact information; there were no phone numbers, e-mail addresses, or websites. Glancing back at the sign I did notice the name “Reach, Inc.” at the bottom, which I assumed was the recipient charity. I made note of the name and continued into the store.

When I emerged an hour later, the table was now accompanied by a slender woman politely beseeching shoppers for donations to help child abuse. As I made my way to the car, it began to dawn on me that this was not the first time I had been asked for a donation for child abuse under the banner of “Reach, Inc.” outside this particular store. I decided that it merited further investigation…

Two days later, I began researching the charity on the Internet. First, I tried the United Way of West Tennessee which covers my county plus nine surrounding counties. It would certainly stand to reason that a legitimate charity operating within the city limits would be listed amongst the 97 cooperating agencies, but alas Reach, Inc. did not appear.

An general internet search for Reach, Inc returned several results: a charity based in Bozeman, Montana that provides support for adults with disabilities and an agency in Cherokee, North Carolina that provides services for abused women, but I could not locate any pages referring to an organization (charitable or otherwise) that dealt with child abuse and operated under the name “Reach, Inc.” Something was beginning to smell, and for once it was not my Ol’ Roy Cologne gift set…

Concerned that the shoppers of my local superstore were being mislead, I placed a call to the location in question, hoping that the manager would be able to shed some light on the situation. I offered a brief synopsis of my findings and asked if solicitors operating at the front doors were subjected to a screening process. She replied that the charities were screened locally by each individual store, and assured me that “Reach, Inc.” was indeed a legitimate charity. I thanked her for the information and requested a way to contact the organization, as I had been unable to locate any information on them and I assumed the store would have this type of data on file. She tersely replied that it was against policy to release the information in question. She suggested if I wanted to contact them I should try and catch them next time I was shopping.

Astounded that Wal- Mart was not allowed to divulge the website or contact information of an endorsed charity allowed to solicit donations from its own customers, I placed a call to the corporate offices and spoke to a customer service agent who verified the local screening process but was unaware of a privacy policy concerning the charities themselves. He suggested that I call the District Manager in order to bring the matter to a close.

On the morning of Wednesday, September 16, I placed a call to the office of Russell Steiner (my local district manager) and was informed by his assistant Debbie that he was on vacation for the rest of the week. She asked if she could be of assistance so I voiced my concerns about Reach, Inc. and the Wal-Mart screening process for charitable organizations. She promised to look into the matter and get back with me once she had gathered more information.

Less than an hour later, she called with a website provided by the organization: www.reachmission.com. I thanked her for the prompt response, and pulled up the address in question discovering that Reach Incorporated (a non-profit organization) was the brainchild of a man named Luke Edwards (a Pentecostal Bishop) and is based in Eutaw, Alabama. According to the website Reach Inc. was “formed to help underprivileged and abused children, misguided teens and young adults, court-appointed first offenders, unwed mothers, the homeless, and welfare recipients looking for a hand-up not just a hand out.” The site also referenced a religious compound called “Holyland.” Intrigued, I began my search for information about the Holyland compound of Alabama.

In 1997, the Seattle Times published an article on Bishop Luke Edwards and the commune he helms in Alabama. Bishop Edwards made a name for himself in the 1970’s by convincing his congregation that their dependence on the government for support was weakening them and that the true key to their freedom was self-sufficiency. The result, after almost two decades, was a multi-million dollar business empire consisting of restaurants, motels, truck-stops, slaughterhouses, and more than 2,800 acres of land.

The Bishop’s commune rests on 54 acres in Emelle, Alabama and consists of several non-descript buildings which house its residents. This is pertinent because the charitable arm of the Holyland is indeed Reach, Inc. and according to several residents this charitable division generates revenue through a complex network of panhandling known internally as “The Route.”

Gail Walker, a resident who defected in 1994, claims that residents were placed on buses and shuttled throughout the country for weeks at a time to ask for money outside retail stores. This solicitation was always done in the name of abused children because; according to Gail, “it gets their hearts.” This is ironic considering the organization has been cited for 129 child-labor violations by the state of Alabama Edwards responded that he was unaware of the law at the time.
Even assuming that Reach, Inc. has cleaned up its act in the past few years, I could not locate any services or programs they offered within 200 miles of the South Jackson Wal-Mart where they were soliciting donations. In fact, the official website does not list any services or programs at all; the curious are simply invited to call them or write to the given address for information.

To her credit, Debbie had apparently reached the same conclusion after navigating the site as she called me back to voice her concerns. I gave her a brief overview of what I had found and forwarded her the Seattle Times article which she promised to distribute to other area stores. Hopefully, Wal-Mart will increase oversight of their screening processes in the future so that the only pleas for charity come from the voices of those who truly need it.

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The Seattle Times article can be accessed here: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970810&slug=2554070