BAY MINETTE, Alabama — Baldwin County Highway Department supervisor Shawn Johnson regularly searches for rights of way obstructions along rural north Baldwin roadways, and also sees the recession’s repercussions on shut-ins and elderly residents.

This year, the president of North Baldwin Striders will use $2,000 generated from the group’s October race to provide Thanksgiving meals for 80 families and Christmas gifts for needy children.

During the week before Thanksgiving, Johnson, his wife Carla, who is a staffer at The Lighthouse in Robertsdale, and his son will deliver macaroni, corn, green beans, corn meal mix for stuffing, along with collards and yams to families he has met and referrals from the Council on Aging. Thirty of those households will also receive turkeys.

“My job allows me to see their struggling, and I know them by name,” Johnson said. “To see the look on their faces that they don’t have to buy this year is rewarding.

“Of all the people we have donated to the last 10 years, this has touched me the most. We go to their house. They want to talk. They want someone to talk to. You realize the pain and suffering and isolation they are going through.”

Johnson and his wife also have assisted organizers of Heart of Champions, the Christmas Fest run, the Chili Run sponsored by the Bay Minette Rotary Club and the Fatherhood Run, all held in Bay Minette.

He said the runner groups have generated about $25,000 in the last decade for CARE House, Bay Minette Youth Foundation, Dawn House, United Way, north Baldwin schools and other agencies.

Johnson also serves on the board of directors of Baldwin County Fatherhood Initiative, a fund-recipient agency that concentrates on the well-being, social development and emotional growth of children.

Board president Bill Morgan said Johnson is continually involved in fund raising to assist community needs.

“Since I was a boy, my dad taught me to help the community,” Johnson said. “I especially want to help the elderly because they are hurting. Today, I am picking up my son from school and taking him and two school friends on deliveries to let them feel the power of giving to others, just like my father did.”

The next race will be Dec. 3 during Bay Minette’s Christmas Fest. Proceeds will benefit the North Baldwin Infirmary Foundation. For more information or to register, call 251-937-9099.