For Clothes to Kids director, job satisfaction comes in helping others

TAMPA, Fla. - Jennifer Jacobs says there is no greater mission than helping children. As a Florida native, Jacobs learned a lot from her small-town upbringing in Perry, Florida. Now she is dedicated to the children and families of her community.

"It's definitely a wonderful, wonderful place to be from," Jacobs told FOX 13 News. "Spending my summers, with my friends. We would get on our bikes and we would ride all over downtown Perry."

She graduated high school and went to college at Florida State University, graduating with a degree in child and consumer sciences. 

"I wanted to work with a real estate and investment trust," she explained.

Jacobs got an internship at a large real estate company in Birmingham, Alabama.

"I realized very quickly that was not the track that I wanted to go," she recalled.

So she called a college professor who suggested that she try working at a non-profit. She applied for a job at Habitat for Humanity.

She worked there for a few years before coming to Tampa to work for the non-profit Clothes to Kids. They provide free clothing for kids in need. 

"If I could go home and lay my head down on my pillow and think, 'Wow, I helped a kid with underwear today. What a blessing,'" Jacobs reflected. "I think that I will always be called and drawn to non-profit work."

Now she is the executive director of Clothes to Kids. It's the call that brings her happiness.

"It is about the joy, you know, and what brings you joy and this is what brings me joy," she said. "It's really important work."

Jacobs believes that working for a non-profit offers a kind of satisfaction that is hard to find.

LINK: Learn more at https://clothestokids.org/.