ABOUT NAOMI
Naomi Mitchum, author, Christian educator and consultant in church special needs.
Recent Award for Naomi Mitchum
The Mayors Disability Advocate of the Year Award was presented to Naomi Mitchum in December, 2010 culminating twenty years of advocacy in Houston and across the state of Texas. The following proclamation was read at the award ceremony:
Naomi Mitchum’s advocacy began by writing books; she has published over 50 student books, teacher books, related resource kits, teacher enrichment articles, as well as many filmstrips and dramas. Her book, Harps in the Willows, was used in Salvation Army Counseling Centers after 9/11. Naomi has led her local church planning and creating awareness of the needs of people with disabillities. She organized a committee in 1995 that visits churches across Texas to help them become more accessible. She has taught over 40 classes at leadership schools and conferences covering accessibility and educational opportunities for people with disabilities. Naomi has worked with organizations to improve and coordinate transportation, select an appropriate voting machine, organized recreational and religious groups to meet special needs, participated in panel discussions and worked in the community with parents to promote disaster preparedness.
In her response remarks to the City Council and guests, Mrs. Mitchum said, “The landmark American With Disabilities Act opened many doors, but it didn’t tell us how to walk through those doors, especially in the field of spirituality and church related and educational services. Every door is different with various disabilities and needs. I happened to be in the right places at the right times to urge or aid groups and individuals, so they could walk through the doors. In each instance, dedicated persons with heart stepped up to help.”
More About Naomi
Naomi Mitchum – author, Christian educator and consultant in church special needs – grew up in Parsons, Kansas. After graduating from Baker University with a degree in Christian education, she was employed in Methodist churches in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas then turned her Christian education background into writing. Her specialty, writing curriculum for teenagers and persons who taught them, soon grew to writing plays, books and magazine and newspaper articles. See Naomi’s writing credits .
Naomi serves as special needs coordinator at Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas where she works with a team of leaders to provide a safe haven of love and acceptance for persons of any age with special needs. See site link to Special Needs.
From 1995 until 1999 she chaired a chronic illness support group that encouraged her to write Harps in the Willows, strengths for reinventing life (Chalice Press, 2000) in which she highlighted some of their stories including her own reinvented life.
Traveling with her scientist husband, Bob led her to spend time in Germany, the origin of Rika in The Reluctant Immigrant, as well as many other interesting places. She says she has been lost in Italy, found in Denmark, given wrong directions in Norway, lived in England, and had a blast in many other places. She now lives in Houston. She and Bob, have three children, five grandchildren, four great-grandchildren.
She is never bored. Besides writing and fishing, she likes to make and listen to music, teach, write and direct plays, and, since she is passionate about her work with persons with special needs, she writes many skits and books for them.
Personal Notes from Naomi
Using cheese hot dogs for bait, I fish in the cold, clear and beautiful Guadalupe River near New Braunfels, Texas, the destination of Rika in The Reluctant Immigrant.
The Guadalupe River is a playground for our family, but for the immigrants who followed it inland through the war-ravaged area from the Gulf of Mexico to New Braunfels, the river was a slice of life on the wild and scary side with aggressive Indians, foul weather, strange food and lack of transportation.
I became curious about the early settlement of the New Braunfels area when I heard men of the community speaking German at their morning coffee Klatch in a local restaurant. Thus was born a story about German immigrants who came to settle in that town. I visited Indian Point (sometimes called Indianola), Rika’s point of Texas entry and traced the wagon trails to New Braunfels experiencing mosquito hordes on the beach, mud along the trail sites and a storm near Gonzales that I later wrote into Rika’s story.
Although I began writing stories and poetry when I first discovered pencil and paper, I didn’t set out to be a writer. I set out to do something important with my life, first through music, then through Christian education. I believe we are always under construction, so I’m still working on the doing something important part.