Tara Grinstead Still Missing, Why a community Finds her so Special
The Macon Telegraph article in the Sunday edition, ‘An open wound’: Community desperate to find missing teacher, tells all the reasons why a community loves her so and the reasons for their desperation in finding Tara.
From Tara’s selfless acts of helping others like Kenyatta McDonald when her house burned down and lost everything to the purchasing of student’s prom dresses who could not afford them; Tara Grinstead saw fit that they had them. It is no wonder that this caring school teacher was so adored by so many and why her community cares to deeply in her return.
When Kenyatta McDonald’s house burned down this summer and she lost everything, it was Tara Grinstead who made sure the high school senior had what she needed.
Grinstead bought her things she wanted and things she needed, such as clothes and shoes.
“She was right there, even if I needed a hug or a shoulder to cry on she was there,” McDonald said.
She’s a teacher who bought students prom dresses when they couldn’t afford them. The students paid her back over time. But she put her students in a fake jail when they didn’t pay fake taxes with their “Grinstead dollars” – part of her lesson on taxation without representation.
“She’s just been so close to students in her classes,” Conner said. “Any type of kid she could talk with, the A-plus students who are basically care free and those kids who are at risk.”
What makes a community love someone as much as they have come to care for Tara Grinstead? Maybe the fact that as her step mother, Connie Grinstead stated, “Grinstead didn’t move to Ocilla intending to stay.” The fact that Tara embraced her community and cared for its people as especially her students. Wanting to become part of a community and wanting to be a role model, one would be hard pressed not to have seen a small town community like Ocilla not embrace someone so caring and thoughtful like Tara Grinstead.
Grinstead didn’t move to Ocilla intending to stay, her stepmother, Connie Grinstead, said.
During her senior year at Georgia Southwestern State in Americus, she did her student teaching at Irwin County High. She fell in love with the town and its people. When the school system offered her a job eight years ago, she accepted, her stepmother said.
Connie Grinstead said her stepdaughter loves history and loves helping people, but there were other reasons for her career choice.
Pageants gave Grinstead self-esteem and confidence, and so she encouraged her students to do them, too, her stepmother said.
“It has helped her so much in her life that she knew it could benefit other young ladies in the same way,” she said.
“She just liked young people. She always wanted to be a good role model for them,” she said.
Also for further information, news and events go to www.findtara.com