Board Member Spotlight: Roger Vest!
Board Member Spotlight!
Learn more about Roger Vest, a four year veteran of the Cobb Collaborative Board of Directors!
Roger is married to Bonnie, a 6th grade reading teacher at East Paulding Middle School. He has two children: Frances, a senior at Oglethorpe, and Grady (and wife Amber) who live in Chattanooga and are expecting Roger and Bonnie’s first grandchild in August! Roger has been the pastor at Powder Springs First United Methodist Church for six years and has been a pastor overall for 28 years (all in the North Georgia area). He received his undergraduate degree from Berry College, a Master’s degree from Duke University Divinity School, and is currently working on his Doctorate of Ministry at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Roger is passionate about community outreach and has served on multiple non-profit boards over the years.
Q&A!
- Describe your involvement with Ferst Readers, a literacy program that provides bookstore-quality, age-specific book and resources mailed to children at home every month until their fifth birthday. I love the simplicity of the approach and the program. Reading on grade level is so important to a child both now and far into the future. Ferst Readers goes to the root of one of the problems – Access to age appropriate books. I am currently serving as their Community Action Team chairperson, trying to raise awareness and money to reach as many of the 48,000 children under the age of five in Cobb County.
- How is Ferst readers working to improve literacy in Cobb County? We mail age appropriate books every month to the child’s home – from birth to age five. A newsletter is included which includes activities to do with the book and local information about resources in Cobb County.In addition, every dollar raised in Cobb goes to Cobb County children. $3 puts a book in a child’s hands every month.
- What drew you to become involved with Cobb Collaborative? In my Methodist tour across Georgia, I have been involved with 4 different county collaboratives and have found each one to be a wonderful way to learn about the community and how to best serve the community. The Cobb Collaborative has definitely helped me to learn more about Cobb County quicker and easier.
- Tell us a fun fact about yourself! I love playing Disc Golf and have close to 30 discs. My father worked for the Coca-Cola Company for 35 years and invented Diet Coke
