‘I think God puts you at places for a reason’

Wanda Amos rose from poverty to become a Columbus businesswoman, philanthropist and community advocate.

She is married to John Shelby Amos II, the son of the late Aflac co-founder, John Amos, and they have owned the Columbus Cottonmouths hockey team since 2001.

Amos and her husband are big supporters of several organizations, including Girls Inc. of Columbus and Phenix City, the John B. Amos Cancer Center and the Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Center for Breast Health at St Francis Hospital.

Amos sat down with reporter Alva James-Johnson and talked about her childhood, hockey franchise and efforts to lift others out of poverty.

Here are excerpts from the interview, with the content and order of the questions edited slightly for length and clarity.

Q: Let’s start with your background. You are a member of one of the wealthiest families in Columbus, but that’s not how you started, is it?

A: No. I actually grew up in Beallwood.

Q: So, tell me about your childhood in Beallwood.

A: My father died when I was 10, and so my mother raised just me and my three brothers as a single mother. It was hard. She struggled, but she had a sixth-grade education and she cleaned people’s houses, worked in the mill, did those kind of things — whatever it took to raise her children.

Q: Did you all live in public housing?

A: No, we didn’t. We actually had these people that were like — we called them our grandparents, but they weren’t. They were just good friends. They had a little house that we lived in, and then we lived in those little apartments across the street from Girls Inc., but never in public housing.

Q: You’ve said in the past that Girls Inc. made a big difference in your life at that time. Tell me about that.

A: You had to be 6 years old to go to Girls Inc. I wasn’t quite old enough, and we lived in these apartments across the street and you could see the girls swim. So, I would just walk across the street, and I would literally hang on the fence and watch the girls all day. Dorothy (Hyatt, the recently retired executive director of Girls Inc.) used to see me. She was a lifeguard. She said, “I’ll always remember this little blonde-headed girl hanging on the fence.” That was me.

Q: At that time of your life, what were your aspirations?

A: ... Nobody in my family even went to college. So, back then, you just wanted to graduate high school, get a job and help my mother provide for my brothers. We actually all had jobs when we were young. I went to work at a little grocery store in the neighborhood when I was 14 to help out. My brothers also had little jobs. We would clean people’s yards, whatever it took. Then when I was 15, I was able to get a work permit, and I worked for Captain D’s full-time and went to school.

Q: What was the biggest challenge that you faced growing up in poverty?

A: It’s funny, I didn’t really know I was poor until somebody told me I was. We always had food. We had clothes. I knew we didn’t have a car or some things that other people did, but we always got by. We were happy. We had great neighbors that helped each other. I really didn’t realize I was poor until I remember somebody telling me, “Oh, you live in Beallwood.” I was in the sixth grade and I remember that vividly.

Q: Who were your role models?

A: My mother. I’m going to start crying. She really was. I’m sorry. (Tears flow.)

Q: It’s OK. It’s OK.

A: I knew I was going to do this when you started talking about her.

Q: Is she still living?

A: No. She passed away in 2012.

Q: I’m sorry to hear that.

A: She was just an amazing woman who had such a faith in God and family. ... There’s no way anybody could come through what she did if she didn’t have God.

Q: Did you ever think at that point in your life that you would one day marry into a prominent family in Columbus?

A: No, never. I just wanted to graduate high school and get a job. That was my aspiration. I never thought about college. As I said, nobody in our family had ever been to college, so that was not something that you even thought about, which is why I think it’s so important now that I try to make sure, through Girls Inc., that we help girls be able to get an education. That’s one thing I regret is that I didn’t go to college.

Q: Did you hear a lot about Aflac and the Amoses growing up?

A: It’s really funny, because I actually went to work for Shelby and people said, “You’re going to be working for Shelby Amos.” And I’m like, “Who is that?” I did not have a clue. ... I’m like, “Oh my God, I hope he’s not going to be a mean boss. Is he going to be a nice guy?” Then I ended up marrying him, which is pretty funny.

Q: What did you do after you graduated from high school?

A: ... I worked at Captain D’s at night and then I worked at Indy’s Restaurant in the morning. ... We didn’t have a car, so I used to the ride the bus or walk. ... I moved with my first husband to Philadelphia, because he was with Domino’s, and then I got a divorce and came back home and met Shelby.

Q: What was it like working for Shelby?

A: At first scary, because when they told me, “Oh, he’s an Amos,” and all this,” I was kind of scared. But he’s ... the most non-intimidating person. He wears his blue jeans. We’re just down to earth. He’s not like what I think some people would think. It was great working for him.

Q: Coming from your background into a wealthy family, what was the biggest challenge that you faced?

A: People obviously thinking, “Oh, she’s poor and she’s after his money.” We had a lot of people say things like that, which is sad. ... Everything else has been great. ... His whole entire family welcomed me.

Q: Tell me how you all got into the hockey business?

A: It’s funny because I’ve always liked football. I’m a Falcons fan and a Georgia fan, but never thought about hockey. It’s not traditionally a Southern sport. Actually, my husband went to a hockey game first, and he was like, “Oh, this is really neat.” And then we actually went to the Tip-a-Snake, which is an event we still do for Children’s Miracle Network, and we met Jerome (Bechard, head coach of the Columbus Cottonmouths.) He was our waiter. You just meet a certain person and you click with them. We clicked with Jerome, and I was like, “Well, I need to go to a game.” I started being a fan, and then Charlie Morrow died, and they wanted to sell the team, and so they called us. I’m like, “What do we know about hockey?” The main reason we did it was because we wanted to keep it in Columbus because it does so much for charity, and so that’s how we ended up with the hockey team.

Q: When you say it does a lot for charity, tell me about that.

A: ... We do just about a charity at every game. We do the Tip-a-Snake every year, which they started before I owned the team. We’ve probably raised $750,000, $800,000 with that event for the Children’s Miracle Network. We take toys to the hospital. We do things for schools to raise money. The boys go out and read to the schools. Oh my God, the list is so long. We do the blood drive. We do PAWS. We do the Humane Society. We do stuff for the Alzheimer’s Association. We’ve had United Way, Girls and Boys Clubs. We try to give back to the community, and that’s what it’s about.

Q: How big of a hockey community do we have in Columbus?

A: We have probably an average of 2,500 to 3,000 a game, die-hard fans. Of course we do get more people in the building, but we have our die-hard fans who live and breath hockey. And that’s what I love about it. My fans are loyal, extremely loyal.

Q: How is the hockey team doing these days?

A: This past year we didn’t have the greatest year, but since we’ve had the team, we have won three championships, which is phenomenal. ... This is the first year we didn’t make the playoffs, which was weird.

... We always have lost money. It’s just hard. All we have is ticket revenue and advertising revenue to make money. Of course, we’d like to get close to breaking even or make a little bit of money, but I’m not making money off the Cottonmouths. Aflac pays our bills and Cottonmouths is something we do because we love the community.

Q: Are there any initiatives that you’re going to be doing in the near future to try to address the profit situation?

A: We have a new team in our office. We just redid our office staff. It’s not that they’re not working hard; they are. But we’ve had a lot of things happen, like with both the hospitals having their issues, we’ve lost some revenue from them; with Fort Benning going up and down, that hurts. And just the economy sometimes. But, really, we are doing everything that we can do. We have a good team that’s out there trying to work. We get out in the community. We do a lot of stuff. ... We just need more support from the community.

Q: Will the hockey team be here for the long haul?

A: As long as I don’t go bankrupt. As long as my husband continues to let me do it. ... My ultimate dream would be to one day have one of the little players that grew up (here) play on my team. I think that would just be awesome. It’s our dream.

Q: You’re known in the community for being very generous, a real philanthropist. Why do you have such a passion for giving?

A: ... We were very fortunate to have people do stuff for us when I was little. ... Like at Christmas, my mother not being able to have gifts, and having a church show up with stuff. I remember that, and I’m like, “Dear Jesus, if you ever let me have money, I’m not going to forget this.” I just feel like I have to give back. I just do.

A: I think God puts you at places for a reason, and I think he put me here so I could remember the people that were in my neighborhood and things like that.

Q: Do you go back to Beallwood often?

A: Yeah, because the Girls Inc. is up there. We did “Big for Beallwood” last year, which was great to go back to the neighborhood. The one little house that I lived in is still standing and the little apartments across the street are all boarded up. ... I would love to get that old house that we lived in and do a Habitat house there. Looking into who owns it and that kind of stuff. I think that would be a great thing to do.

We never owned the house. We’d rented. My mother never owned a house until I married Shelby and I was able to buy a house for her. That was the first house that she ever owned.

Q: You seem to have a real affinity for Girls Inc. Tell about your involvement over the years.

A: I went there, of course, as a child and it was great, because when you live in a one-bedroom apartment across the street and there’s five people there... it was good to go to a place that I didn’t have three brothers tackling me, tying me to trees, or whatever brothers do to torture sisters. So, I could go across the street and have a place just to be a girl. It was a fun place to go. We did cooking and ceramics and things like that back then. Now, they just have so many more important programs for girls.

I think it’s so important for girls to have a place just for them. We talk about gender-specific programs, and I know United Way and a lot of places are pushing for us to have certain things together because of duplication of service. But I just think, from my experience and the things I’ve seen, it’s important that we have a place for girls so they can feel comfortable being girls; because sometimes when you’re around boys, you’re shy. You don’t want to speak up, and I’ve seen that with these girls. There they just can say whatever they want to say and they don’t have to worry about it. It’s a great place.

Q: What are some of the roles that you’ve played in Girls Inc. over the years?

A: I’ve had every position on the board. I’ve worked on the capital campaign. ... We have the Legacy campaign going on, which is an endowment fund. Dorothy wanted to make sure before she left that we had a fund to help continue Girls Inc. So I’m on the Legacy campaign. ... Last week, I was out there bagging up popcorn and things like that for a carnival. I’ve taken some girls to Washington, D.C., some girls to New York City.

A lot of times it’s whatever Dorothy needs. ... In 2002, the swimming pool at (the Kolb center) was in disrepair and it was going to cost quite a bit of money to get it fixed. ... She’s like, “Where am I going to get that money?” She said, “I just thought about that little girl hanging on the fence.” Of course, she called me up. I got off the phone, I said, “Shelby, Dorothy just called.” He’s like, “Oh God, what’s this going to cost me?” Because he knows when she calls, it’s going to cost him something. They got their swimming pool fixed.

Q: How do you feel about Dorothy leaving Girls Inc?

A: It’s scary, because she’s been there for so long. The thing about Dorothy is she lived it. She grew up in Beallwood. She was raised in Beallwood. She was able to go to college because of Girls Inc. ... It is scary, but I feel like we have a good board, and I think we have our longtime supporters that are going to stay with Girls Inc. no matter what.

Q: You mentioned the Big for Beallwood neighborhood revitalization project. Do you think it has had some impact?

A: Definitely. ... When I grew up, it was like whoever had a car, they gave everybody else a ride. Whoever had a telephone, they let people use that for emergency contact. We were neighbors. If you had some extra vegetables, you shared. That was a great way to grow up. There were only a few white families in the neighborhood. It was predominantly a black neighborhood, but we didn’t see that. It was like, “We’re neighbors and we’re going to pull together,” which was great. It was a great place to live. We had some of the best neighbors.

Q: How has the neighborhood changed over the years?

A: I think it went down for a while and they started putting a lot of commercial stuff in, and then they put a stop to that and tried to revitalize the neighborhood, and that’s what they’ve been doing with Habitat for Humanity, and Big for Beallwood is coming in and trying to get that neighborhood feeling back.

Q: Do you feel that there’s a big divide in Columbus between the haves and the have-nots?

A: ... For me, I have an interesting take. I’ve been on both sides of it. I’ve been on the not-having and the having. I also think there are a lot of people in this community that have money that give back. You don’t have to have money to give back. That’s one of the things my mama taught me. ... You can volunteer your time. You don’t have to have a lot of money. My mama always taught us — she didn’t get a big check — but she would take her money out and tithe it immediately to the church. Five dollars or 10 dollars, to her, was like, that’s a lot of money. So, it’s not about the amount of money, it’s about the intent and if it comes from your heart.

This story was originally published June 4, 2016 at 9:12 PM with the headline "‘I think God puts you at places for a reason’."