WSMV4 Surprise Squad blesses nonprofit that empowers children to thrive through education and mentoring [Video]

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WSMV) – A Middle Tennessee nonprofit has been helping children in the Franklin area for decades, empowering them to thrive through education and mentoring. Retired teacher Evelyn Gentry Hickerson, affectionately known as “Aunt Evelyn” to students, is the woman behind Gentry’s Educational Foundation.

Hickerson said her parents instilled in her the importance of giving back and helping others in her community.

“When my mom died, I took every penny that she left as inheritance to my husband and myself and started Gentry’s Educational Foundation because I had taught for 39 years, and I could see there were so many deficits in the children, as far as the children that were homeless,” explained Hickerson. “How could they learn their ABCs if they didn’t know where they were going to sleep the night before? How in the world would they even be able to read a sentence,” said Hickerson, “If …