Steeped in values she learned growing up in Indian Land, she’s devoted to giving back

Born and raised in Indian Land, Robin Massey Kirk said that community is where she “learned many of the small town values” that she described as her guiding principles: “Education, hard work, and make no excuses!”

Now she is looking for support from Indian Land residents and everyone else from the region as she campaigns as a candidate for South Carolina Woman of the Year 2017, sponsored yearly by branches of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. The Woman of the Year Program is an exclusive program of the S.C. State Conference NAACP, she said, and this year marks the 39th edition of the annual contest.

Proceeds generated through this campaign will support the NAACP’s legal, civic engagement, and youth initiatives.

Massey Kirk, who resides in Indian Land again, is the daughter of Mary M. Lewis of Indian Land and the late Elder William O. Thompson of Lancaster. After her mother married Belton T. Lewis, they moved to Rock Hill, where she graduated from Northwestern High School in 1992.

She earned bachelor of science in family and consumer sciences from South Carolina State University in 1996 her master’s in computer resource information management from Webster University in Columbia in 2002. In 2007, Massey Kirk completed the alternative route to a teaching license and completed the Career Switcher Program through Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

An active member of the Lancaster County Community, she works in Lancaster as a pre-K4 teacher at Southside Early Childhood Center. Massey Kirk has nine years’ experience in education, having worked in both Virginia and North Carolina. Recently she was chosen as a participant of the Celebrating Great Teachers Program 2016-2017 school year by the Lancaster County School District. In 2015 and again this year, she appeared on the Lancaster Learn TV’s “Nurture Your Child.”

At her church, Steele A.M.E. Zion Church where the Rev. Sandra C. Sistare is the pastor, Massey Kirk’s activities include, local supervisor of the Buds of Promise (children ages 1-12), children’s class leader, and a Christian education officer. She’s a member of the Mass Choir, M.R. Wilson Singers, Lay Council, Culinary Arts Ministry, and founding coordinator of the church’s Relay for Life team. She represented her church as a contestant for the Pee Dee Conference 2014 and 2015 Home Missions Program, serves on the Executive Board of the Lancaster Branch NAACP and is a member of the Political Action and Freedom Fund committees.

Each year, the NAACP Branches in South Carolina participate in a time honored tradition of friendly competition to earn the title of Woman of the Year. Each candidate works hard to secure financial support through pledges from individuals, businesses, churches and other organizations within their local community.

This story was originally published June 11, 2017 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Steeped in values she learned growing up in Indian Land, she’s devoted to giving back."