22 | September/October 2019
G I V I N G
O
n a recent Sunday morning, the dining
room of the two-story building at the
corner of South Cool Spring Street and
Campbell Avenue had the feel of a coffee
shop.
An ever-growing crowd sipped coffee, picked up at a
window cut in the wall of the kitchen, and enjoyed pastries
divvied up between the tables scattered around the room.
It was mostly quiet with the occasional bubble of laughter
as friends caught up on conversations.
But this is not the scene of a local coffee shop. It's the home
base of Seth's Wish, a Fayetteville non-profit focused on
feeding the homeless and hungry.
Kenneth Puckett found housing through a friend about
two weeks ago, but the 55-year-old still stopped into Seth's
Wish for a cup of coffee before he headed to church.
e reason is simple.
"Well, this is home really," Puckett said.
Seth's Wish had a humble start almost five years ago when
founder Lindsey Wofford's son, Seth, then a third-grader at
Capitol Encore Academy, struck up an acquaintance with
Steve, a homeless man living behind the school.
"We would see Steve behind the school and just chill out
with him for a few minutes and chat," said Wofford, who was
working in the school's cafeteria then. "Him and Seth had
a little bit of a bond, and Seth just had a really big heart. He
would ask me why Steve was back there, where does he sleep,
and you could tell he was always dwelling on it."
When Seth saw a commercial for a "Wish for Others"
campaign sponsored by credit card company Capital One, he
submitted a wish to help Steve.
Seth received $1,000 from Capital One to help Steve and
A wish to help others
comes true
BY JACLYN SHAMBAUGH | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY
