Annie Timmons; Faith, Fitness, and Future.
Annie Timmons’s life has been one of intention, faith, and commitment. She has worked for the Friars Club for 43 years—and currently serves as its president. The Center for Respite Care is honored to name Timmons one of the Transformation Awards 2022 honorees.
She is an inspiration to thousands.
Her impactful life journey started with education.
“I grew up in Corryville — with my grandmother — and I had three sisters. Our family was making about $4000 a year for a family of five. My grandmother ran into a priest who told her that she should send us to the Catholic school.”
Timmons’s life path included the College of Mt. St Joseph. She went to college on an academic scholarship. Her love of sports began in her younger days, and she initially sought a life playing volleyball.
When she was a senior (in high school) she coached freshman volleyball. She applied for a job with the Friars Club for the summer as the Girls Club director. She was only 18 when the club took a chance on her. Her story is one of seeing opportunities and embracing her future, surrounded by people who believed in her.
Throughout her college years, she continued to work at the Friars Club as a desk clerk, helping with maintenance, while at the same time being president of her college class – as well as playing on the volleyball team. She had four knee operations which dashed her dreams of playing professionally. She ultimately was a referee for the WNBA – which kept her active in the sports arena – with the Friars Club continuing to be a big part of her life.
“The Friars Club was always my backup plan. In the end, I realized that there was always God’s plan. I feel like I ended up in the place where I was supposed to be. I remember being in college and broke and didn’t have any money — the priest at Friars just took care of things for me.”
As she looks back over her life – and prepares for her ultimate retirement – she explains her role from the front desk, to executive director, and to president. While she and her husband did not have children; they view their life’s work as serving children in the community.
“It was just a life of devotion to kids. I’ve been married now and will celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary. My husband is a retired schoolteacher from Cincinnati Public Schools. We both worked with kids all of our lives without ever having kids of our own.”
The Friars Club helps about 1,000 kids annually – which means that Timmons’s has likely impacted over 43,000 young people.
“We work about 1000 kids a year. There are about 700 from my regular program that come from all over the city at least maybe 40% of those are also low-income kids.”
Her goal is to leave the organization in solid financial condition and increase its endowment from its current 1.5 million to ten million dollars. As she steps away from the day-to-day and focuses on the future she reminisces about the mission of the club – and how young people learn about faith, fitness, and respect.
“My definition of respect is that when we’re nice — we’re respectful to others and then the whole world is a different place to live. The other big thing that is different is the diversity at the Friars Club.”
Annie Timmons believes in a positive future for the young people with whom she interacts. Her own story was one of challenge and she was given an opportunity to impact her own life and thousands of others.
“I do believe that there’s a way to rewrite your story and to rewrite the ending of your story– through your journey and by the people that you need on that journey — the people that are placed in your life and the things that happen to you. My mission (and recognizing it as my mission — later in life) – is that this was what and who I was supposed to be.”
