FLORIDA MOM MAGAZINE - July '08 - Carol Neil, R.N.By: Michele Gillis Photos: Carrie-Lynn Smith
 Though she had an interesting career in broadcast journalism, Carol Neil, executive director of Hope Adult Day Services in Jacksonville Beach, knew she wanted something more. She just couldn't put her finger on it. “Have you ever been in a profession and you felt like you want something more or different but you just don’t know what it is?” asked Neil. “I had that feeling.”
After being in broadcast journalism at several local news stations in Jacksonville for several years, Neil was up for a job that she was well qualified for. But, she didn’t get the job. “That was like the writing on the wall for me,” said Neil. “I just didn’t see longevity in broadcast journalism for me. So, I decided I wanted to do something to help people and to make a difference. I went to the nearest college campus. I got a catalog and everything about nursing stood out to me. I realized that was it.”
Then in a twist of fate her father, James Jenkins Jr., took ill and that experience led her to eventually open Hope Adult Day Services, an Alzheimer's and Dementia specific center. “My dad was very sick,” said Neil. “This was the one time in my life that I felt helpless. I read everything I could get my hands on about Multiple Myeloma. We took him to the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Institute in Tampa, Fla. He needed a bone marrow transplant.
Watching every moment of his life slip away and the struggle it placed on the family helped to start the idea and the formation of Hope Adult Day Services.” Neil said her main goal was to have something for the community where an elderly person could go during the day, so their caretakers could go to work and not have to put them in a nursing home.
 “When my Daddy was ill and my mother was having the problem that she needed to go to work, but she needed to be there with daddy, that’s when I saw the connection,” she said. “I thought that there has to be a place where he can go during the day so she can go to work. But, apparently there
wasn’t.” When Neil was working on her master’s degree and had to come up with a business plan that’s when she decided to work out the details for an adult daycare. She called it the “Daddy Idea.”
She found there were several adult daycares in Jacksonville, so she started visiting them and started putting an idea for her business together.
She went to a Florida Adult Daycare Association conference and really started solidifying her plans. “When I came back from that conference, I knew that was it,” she said. “It was something I had to do.”
Neil opened Hope Adult Day Services in 2005. Finding a safe haven for adults during the day was crucial and she also learned a lot about herself in the process. “Being a business owner, especially in a service business of this type has taught me a lot about my character,” said Neil. “I’ve grown as a person and now have stronger people skills. I treat every single person that comes in here as if they are my grandparents. I treat them as if they are family.”
Even though she is the one taking care of her clients, it seems sometimes they give her so much more in return.“My most memorable past client was Edwin Buickerood,” said Neil. “He was my first client and a World War II fighter pilot. Sometimes he would offer me advice. I looked forward to those moments. My present most challenged client is Anna Hatchell, but even at the age of 84 she has a sense of style.”
Neil said some of her main struggles were learning how to run a business.
“Sometimes you don’t know how to handle certain situations until you are right in the middle of it and a college degree could not have prepared me for it,” she said. “I call these growing pains and how you handle them comes from your heart.”
In addition to being the executive director of Hope Adult Day Services, Neil is also a part-time registered nurse in the Surgical Telemetry Unit at Baptist Medical Center two nights a week.
Neil, a mother of two, Amandla, 9 and Omari, 4 said a good support system is a must if you are to realize your dreams. She said Latanya Upshaw, a certified nursing assistant who is also her assistant has been with her since the first day of business and is an invaluable part of the center. “She knows this business backwards and forwards,” said Neil. “When I’m not here, I trust her to keep things running smoothly.” She currently has five employees and handles from 12-23 clients a day at the center.
 Under the mentorship of a man named Tony Gabriel from the Service Corps. of Retired Executives (SCORE), Neil said she learned how to run her business more efficiently and effectively. She meets with her SCORE counselor once a month to go over her business plan and decide areas they need to cut and areas they need to grow.
“Several of my staff members have been with me from my first day of operation and I could not have made it without them,” she said. “I am so grateful to have them. I try to let them know how much I appreciate them. We now have a health insurance plan and life insurance.”
Her husband Archester Neil is an insurance agent and financial planner with AllState and a retired Jacksonville firefighter and he is very supportive of her career. “His schedule is flexible, so he is able to help pick up the children when I am not able to,” she said.
She and Archester have been married for 17 years. They met six years before that at a local Burger King. “I was working for a newspaper, the Jacksonville Advocate,” said Neil. “It was my second day on the job and I was told to go out to funeral directors and try to sell advertisements. I figured that was easy enough, but the problem was that every funeral director kept hitting on me! They were hitting on me left and right. In the middle of the day, I went to the Burger King on Main Street and was just sitting there minding my own business and tired of being hit on by all these old men all morning long. Wouldn’t you know it, there was my (future) husband winking at me. I was like oh no! He was sitting there in a business suit with a client and he just kept winking at me.”
Archester approached her and asked for her number. She gave him her name, Carol Jenkins and told him to look her up. “I knew there were six Carol Jenkins in the phone book and mine was the last,” she said. “I figured if he really wanted to talk to me he had to work for it.”
Neil grew up in Darien, Ga. and had a great support system back then too. “We were a very close family. We believe in going to church and praising God,” said Neil. “I believe that this type of upbringing has helped to mold me into a firm believer. My parents were very supportive. They told me at the very young age of seven that I could do anything that I wanted to do as long as I worked hard and put my mind to it. I really believed that and even today I still set high goals.”
 Neil has a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from Jones College, a nursing degree from Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Fla. and a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix in Nursing. Neil is involved with several charities including Friends of Hope Adult Day Services Corporation, a non-profit that raises funds to help an elderly person in Jacksonville go to any adult day care center they need to and the
Alzheimer’s association in many ways.
At the end of the day, Neil likes to cuddle with her boys and read them bedtime stories. “The main thing is that family comes first,” she said. “I never allowed myself to forget that my two boys are the most important people in my life. When she is not working she enjoys listening to books on tapes and bicycling.
“Having a strong support team can either make you are break you,” she said. “It is a constant struggle to keep balance. Lastly, stay true to yourself and remain authentic and credible.” Another outstanding Florida Mom. Thanks Carol! |
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