A Reign of 20 Years- Celebrating Queen Ida

September means something different for everyone. Many people begin to celebrate the end of a hot summer, college football, and pumpkin spice. For The Tree House, it means that we get to celebrate the first employee to ever reach 20 years of service, Ida Segars! What a huge accomplishment for Ida and we are so lucky to have such a hard-working and dedicated individual at our organization!

To understand how special Ida is, let’s take a look at who she is outside of The Tree House! For most who see her on a regular basis you’ll notice her shirts, décor, and stickers that say “Mimi”. That is because, if you ask her, her favorite job in the world is actually being “Mimi” to her six grandchildren with one more on the way. Family is everything to Ida and she’ll happily tell you about her children, grandbabies, nieces and nephews, whenever she can. Ida and her husband have built a beautiful family together and will be celebrating their 34th wedding anniversary next month. Together, they have raised five wonderful children. As if they weren’t busy enough, Ida and her husband were also foster parents for eight years in Barrow County, fostering over 20 children. How amazing is that? Talk about making a huge impact and being a great example in our community!

As The Tree House’s longest standing employee, Ida has seen our organization grow and change throughout the years and is really quite the historian of all things Tree House related. Ida started with The Tree House September 21, 2001, just five years after The Tree House was founded, as a Family Support Worker under the Healthy Families Grant. As a Family Support Worker Ida worked with first time moms and dads. She went into this position thinking about how much she would teach them, and left thanking them for how much they had taught her throughout her time in this position. Over the years Ida has worked in many different programs at our organization. Going from Family Support Worker to Family Support Lead, Supervised Visitation Program Manager, to her current position as our Director of Family Services. She stated “each role helped me understand more about working with families and understanding challenges that parents face”. Today, Ida serves on the senior leadership team and oversees the entire Family Services program. The many years of direct service in various roles has helped her to make the Family Services program the highly sought out and successful program it is today.

In talking with Ida she expressed that 20 years at this organization and becoming the Director of Family Services, she can proudly say that she loves what she does. She stated that over the years it has been very rewarding seeing the difference The Tree House makes with the children and families we work with. Throughout all the changes she has endured while at The Tree House over the years and all the challenges of her day to day responsibilities, Ida never loses sight of what is important...the families we serve. Ida states, “I think my heart has always been set on working with families to help them grow and make sure they have every opportunity to make this a safe place for their children to be able to grow up healthy and happy”.

If you ever come by The Tree House and see Ida’s office, you’ll notice lots of items that say “Queen”. That is because to us, as a show of respect to her, Ida is our “Queen Ida”. Her kindness to clients, volunteers, and co-workers is contagious. Ida is a wonderful example of a leader and we all, like so many before us, are fortunate to learn so much from her. Our organization is very lucky to have Ida working with us for 20 years! It is because of people like Ida that we get to make a difference in the lives of the children and families we serve. #GreatChildhoodsBeginWithAllOfUs