EMPTY STOCKING: Agency helps older woman start over

Jean Fox wanted a hand up — not a hand out — when she lost her job in 2009.

The former college recruiter enrolled at Pikes Peak Community College in an attempt to enhance her skills. But her age seemed to prevent her from getting hired for jobs that paid enough to cover her living expenses.

“I realized at my age, a lot of people aren’t going to hire you back no matter how much experience you have,” said Fox, 57.

Fox spent a year and a half living off of unemployment, student loans, savings and food stamps.

Last spring, the community college student also enrolled in the Collinson Massage School — but the tuition funding she’d lined up soon fell through.

The school suggested that Fox contact the Pikes Peak Community Action Agency, one of 15 area charities receiving grants from The Gazette/El Pomar Empty Stocking Fund.

The agency enrolled Fox in its Individual Development Accounts program, which matches the savings of low-income individuals.

That turned Fox’s $1,000 into $3,000, allowing her to pay her massage-school tuition.

Since graduating and receiving her national certification this fall, Fox has found work as a massage therapist at Ofelia’s Salon and Spa.

She eventually hopes to rent a room at a spa or open a small clinic using the money she will have saved from another development account she opened to fund her future small business.

She credits Pikes Peak Community Action Agency with helping her realize that it’s never too late to find a new career.

“You spend all your life doing jobs and then all of the sudden a door opens and you do something you love,” said Fox, who hopes to further her education in the field of healing arts.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the help from this group.”