Health Hub Heroines
/Abby Ashcraft and her mother, Bobbie Jo, facilitate medical supply donations for others in the disability community
By Tony Basso
photo by shane darby.
In the heart of the Ark-La-Tex is a mother-daughter duo working tirelessly to improve the lives of others. Bobbie Jo Ashcraft and her adult daughter, Abby, spend countless hours each week leading the Joy Project Network’s Health Hub. The JPN Health Hub provides medical supplies to families in need. The recipients are primarily disabled children, though anyone in need is eligible to receive supplies.
Bobbie Jo oversees the supply and delivery of medical equipment to parents across Texas and the nation. “I take in and pick up donations,” she said. “We have walkers, wheelchairs, tracheostomy supplies for people who are on a ventilator, feeding tube supplies [and more]. We just make sure that we can reach as many children as we can, and everything is, of course, at no cost to families.”
Abby Ashcraft hugs a Health Hub beneficiary. submitted photo.
While equipment is sometimes donated by organizations or parents with a surplus of goods, many donations to Joy Project Network come from bereaved parents who want to honor their children by donating the supplies they no longer need.
“Sometimes, when you lose a child, it hurts to just look at those things,” Bobbie Jo said. “You don’t want to throw them away because, as special-needs parents, you know the struggle and how hard it is to fight and get a piece of equipment. We just took in a really large donation from Marshall, Texas, from a parent who had just lost their child. We were able to bless another family literally the very same day with the equipment. It just fell into place so beautifully. They donated so many things, and I was able to immediately turn around and give them to another family, and it was wonderful.”
Bobbie Jo’s daughter, Abby, is 20 years old and disabled herself. Together, the two spend more than 20 hours per week running the Health Hub.
A Texarkana Health Hub recipient picking up supplies to care for a family member. submitted photo.
“This has been my way of teaching my daughter to pay it forward and to keep her busy,” Bobbie Jo said. “This really helps me not only to bless [other people’s] kids but my own daughter, too. She absolutely loves it. Sometimes I let her make the call to families when we receive a big-ticket item, something that might be a $40,000 piece of equipment. I’ll let her make the phone call and say, ‘Hi, this is Abby with Joy Project Network. Guess what? We have a piece of equipment for you!’ It’s really sweet.”
Bobbie Jo first became involved with the Joy Project Network after meeting and befriending Meagan Kirk, the organization’s founder.
“We couldn’t even do the program without Bobbie Jo and Abby. [They handle] the whole Health Hub program.”
“Meagan’s passion and my passion and our beliefs and our willingness to serve children, especially in the disabled community, is so aligned, and it just was meant to be,” Bobbie Jo explained. “We wanted to bless kids. If my daughter or another mama had extra supplies, we would bless other families. That’s just kind of how it happened.”
Meagan Kirk founded Joy Project Network in honor of her late son, Jordan. Here she is pictured with her family. submitted photo.
Many families with disabled children face financial hardships associated with purchasing the needed medical equipment for their children. Insurance guidelines become hurdles to cross, sometimes making it impossible for families to receive critical supplies. Bobbie Jo, Abby, and Joy Project Network are able to offer support to families facing these challenges, oftentimes meeting their exact needs.
This little one found a new level of independence with a walker from Texarkana Health Hub. Submitted photo.
Joy Project Network is new to Texarkana but has goals to reach those throughout Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Meagan said that this organization would not be possible without Bobbie Jo’s help.
Joy Project Network is a faith-based organization that encompasses more than the Health Hub. Here, volunteers are pictured outside of an orphanage in Mexico. submitted photo.
“We couldn’t even do the program without Bobbie Jo and Abby,” she said. “[They handle] the whole Health Hub program. Since July, just in the Texarkana area, they have served 428 individuals. When I call Bobbie Jo and say, ‘Look at what we’ve done,’ I can hear Abby in the background, giddy with excitement. Bobbie Jo and Abby both have a heart for helping others. [The Health Hub] literally would not run without them.”