Atlanta woman honors mother by creating nonprofit

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This time of year is called “the season of giving” – but for one local woman, giving is a year-round mission.  And now, with her nonprofit organization Mary’s Golden Heart Foundation, Atlanta native A. China Peek is honoring her mother’s legacy of making the community a better place.

Peek created Mary’s Golden Heart Foundation in honor of her mother, Mary Jackson, who passed away from cancer in August of 2014.  According to Peek, “I never met a person like her, someone that just did not see the bad in people first off. 

You had to actually prove to her that you were a bad person!  So, I think for a person to feel that way about any and every one, you have to have a heart of gold.”  When Jackson passed away, she was in the midst of planning a back-to-school event for her community, buying school supplies to give away to local children. 

Peek decided to complete that mission, which led her to create Mary’s Golden Heart Foundation as a way to keep her mother’s legacy of giving alive.  “We help the youth, we help low-income families, and we help the elderly,” Peek says.

Good Day Atlanta’s Paul Milliken recently met A. China Peek at the Embassy Suites Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park Festival of Trees, where Mary’s Golden Heart Foundation is one of 35 charities with a featured tree.  They talked more about the incredible legacy of Mary Jackson, and how her daughter plans to continue her mother’s mission of giving back.