City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Councilman Bernard "Jack" Young, whose district includes the Oliver community, attended yesterday's block party celebrating Bogier's new home, with Rawlings-Blake citing the Rock City's "spirit of gratitude and blessing."
Pierce said Rock City has worked for several years with Israel Baptist on projects to help Baltimore residents.
Israel Baptist's outreach focuses on those who are addicted to drugs, former prison inmates, and homeless women and children through its soup kitchen, food pantry, early learning center, street evangelism and other programs, Wilson said.
"We are trying to turn our community into what it used to be, to rid the community of drugs and crime and violence. We see so many lost souls and we try to get them back to the church," he said.
Wilson said Bogier has had "tough times across the years."
Bogier told those who gathered in front of her new rowhouse that she "raised seven children with an alcoholic husband, and I got all of them through high school and four of them through college." She said her husband, who died in 2006, only harmed himself with his drinking. But she said he supported his children getting an education, saying: "We will not raise any dummies in this family."
She retired in 1999 after working for 28 years as a unit secretary at Maryland General Hospital. She now works part time at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson.
In an interview, Bogier referred to her new home as a "blessing."
"It has lots of room, lots of closets, and I have my own private bathroom," she said, laughing.
She plans to live in her new home with a daughter, Rita, who has a 15-year-old son, Eric.
"I hope I will be a light and spiritually be able to let somebody know about the goodness of God," Bogier said.
Pierce, pastor of Rock City, said Bogier will do so.
"We have a lady who in all of her hard-working years, she has never owned a home. Now at the end of her life, she has something to leave to her children. She is a good Christian woman. She'll bring a little positive to the neighborhood, a little laughter, a little kindness," he said.
james.drew@baltsun.com
