Volunteer Spotlight: Patrice Floyd

 

The oldest of four girls, Patrice was brought up by parents who instilled a sense of family values, who always struck together and are involved in the community and the church. Such is the essence of a quietly modest Southern woman who doesn’t take life for granted.  

Patrice was married in 2004 to “Big Anthony,” a disabled Army Veteran. They enjoy a blended family of 7 children. Several family members can be seen at the CUE Annual Conference as assistants, helpers, servers, and wait staff  at their buffet style meals. They include – Chaquetta; Jasmine, Anthony, TyTianna, Merkyia and “Big Anthony.”

As a child, Patrice visited her Grandmother’s farm every weekend, where at the tender age of 7 or 8 she took over the caretaking of the home and younger siblings when her parents worked. Her Grandmother taught her to cook, clean, and nurture her siblings.

Her mother opened her first of two day care centers in 1982 and through the 1990’s operated as “The First Young Parent’s Center” whose purpose was to care for infants of teenage mothers who attended high school. This was a concept that was just getting started and served a vital service to help young girls get on the right path.

In the interim, Patrice attended college and obtained her degree in order to assist her mother in the role of daycare director.  A second day care center was spearheaded by Patrice’s mother known as “Ms Pat’s Child Development Center” which cared for infants through age 12. During the summer, the focus changed from academics to summer camp activities. 

Along the way, her mother experienced a stroke affecting her optic nerve in 2012 and is now legally blind, but her spirit is strong and she’s an active member of the family. The former day care business was closed after which she opened “Ms. Pat’s Wings”  and managed it with the assistance of family beginning in 2014 through 2018. As of 2019, the Wilmington restaurant is under new management and is known today as   “Nippy’s” a soul food restaurant. 

Patrice caters parties in the Wilmington community where most enjoyed is her fried chicken. She also described in detail working with her church as a youth coordinator. She creates activities such as cooking, arts and crafts and outings for them. On the “Second Sunday” the youth are in charge of the church service with Patrice’s guidance. Together they sing songs, chose scripture, and play creative interactive games encompassing inspirational messages for the entire congregation.

While embracing her love of cooking, Patrice decided to expand her horizons in the culinary world earning a degree in Baking and Pastry School at Cape Fear Community College. She enjoys learning new techniques as well as the opportunity to meet other budding pastry chefs. Patrice believes that “Cooking is comforting and it is important to know that you produce good quality food, always.”

Patrice’s family believes in treating everybody the same, or following the Golden rule-  “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matt. 7:12). They also enjoy each other’s company and love to go on family vacations.  

When Patrice’s daughter, Tatianna, (now 21 years old) was just three months old, she was enrolled in Monica Caison’s child beauty pageants. To Patrice’s surprise and delight, her daughter won the category of Baby Miss Independence. 

The pageants were utilized as a fundraiser for the relatively new non-profit, the CUE Center for Missing Persons. At that time, although the infrastructure of the CUE Center was in its early stages, Monica saw the importance of pairing families from the beauty pageant world with missing persons families for support and mentorship.

Patrice was encouraged to learn about a missing person’s family. It was suggested that she become familiar with the case of Peggy Carr through Peggy’s mother, Penny.  As it turned out, this was the initial landmark case for the CUE Center.  

Patrice described her experience and feelings about the CUE Center as, “It’s a wonderful organization, striving for the good in all situations and being helpful to families.”

Patrice is an active Board of Directors Member for the CUE Center. One goal that would readily tie into her cooking skills, would be the opportunity to purchase, or have a benefactor donate a used food truck which could be an integral part of the search and rescue, on the road experience. This is an idea she hopes will come to fruition in the future. After all, cooking is comforting and missing persons families require a lot of care and comfort.