Captains Shaun and Stacy McNeil: Building a network

For their ability to connect people and organizations in Tompkins County to serve the community better, and for their unwavering commitment to growing programs such as the Adopt-an-Angel and Adopt-a-Family holiday programs and their homeless outreach team, Captains Shaun and Stacy McNeil of the Salvation Army Ithaca Corps are this month’s Hometown Heroes. 

Even as so many of the Salvation Army’s local initiatives are hitting their stride, the McNeils, who have been instrumental in getting many of them off the ground, are being relocated to Springfield, Massachusetts, and will move there in late June.

The McNeils watched their two daughters, now 19 and 20, grow up in Ithaca, and the house will soon be occupied by a new married couple, David Eric and Jessica Kelly, who have two young daughters of their own and will be moving from the Philadelphia area.

“They are wonderful people,” Stacy said. “Their daughters are getting to the age where they need to have some stability, and this is the perfect place for them. They’re very excited for the community and the potential here to keep growing what we’ve already started, so we’re not worried.”

Seeing opportunities and going where the need is greatest

Over the last seven years, the McNeils have made it their mission to increase social services in their area, and within the last year-and-a-half they have hired four new full-time staff members to help carry out their homeless outreach efforts.

“A difference is being made through this corps, and I know that Shaun and Stacy have been a big part of that,” said Brady Bond, director of outreach and housing for the last 18 months. “They are always talking about ways to better the countywide homelessness response and how we can add our best efforts to the county’s approach. Something I’ve always admired about them as leaders is that they are not intimidated by big ideas or vision. They’re like, ‘How can we do it?’ They’re always asking, ‘How can we do the next great thing?’”

Throughout their tenure in Ithaca, they have relied on the expertise and capabilities of other local organizations, prioritizing collaboration over “reinventing the wheel,” Shaun and Stacy said. This has led to the Salvation Army creating a local network that benefits the whole community.

“Everybody knows when they come to the Salvation Army, they’re going to get the service they need or they’re going to be connected to someone who can provide that service,” Shaun said.

Bert Adams-Kucik, director of the Cornell Fitness Centers, came to know the captains when they first moved to Ithaca, as Adams-Kucik has long overseen Cornell Athletics and Recreation’s participation in the Salvation Army’s Adopt-a-Family holiday program.

“Their desire to reach out to others and build relationships is absolutely wonderful,” Adams-Kucik said.

She added that their ability and willingness to collaborate with others is something that sets them apart.

“They are part of an even bigger coming together of services in Tompkins County who are now working so much closer because they worked with others who had similar desires to improve the networking that goes on here, to improve the lives of people who are in need,” Adams-Kucik said. “Everybody was just so busy; they just didn’t have that time to weave that net. And, well, [Shaun and Stacy] weaved the net. And they have continued to build that connection.”

At one of their most recent gatherings, a THRIVE mega outreach event, 15 agencies and 35 people within those agencies came together to share the services they have available to the community. By the time it was over, 127 bags of groceries were given out, 139 “walking tacos” were put in the hands of hungry locals, and the Street Dog Coalition Ithaca Team, which provides free veterinary care to the pets of people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, provided veterinary care to 35 households with 66 pets.

“It was like a block party,” Stacy said. “It was awesome.”

Facing challenges head on

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Salvation Army had to adjust in many ways, but rather than laying off their office employees, Shaun switched their job descriptions to the category of emergency disaster relief and kept them all on board.

“We still tried to do what the Salvation Army does, and when we came back from COVID, our [community participation] just skyrocketed,” Stacy said, because they had given out so many meals and reached new people in new ways.

The Salvation Army’s annual Thanksgiving meal has grown from fewer than 100 attendees when the couple first started in Ithaca to now serving over 450 people. “Last year we had 26 turkeys, all donated,” Stacy said.

The Christmas assistance program has grown from serving 200 families to 350 families with 800 children last year.

“We do it with such support from the community,” Stacy said. “We don’t purchase a single toy or clothing item. The community, when it comes to serving one another, is incredible.”

Stacy said one of her most memorable experiences during her time in Ithaca was the time she did a 24-hour marathon stint as a bell ringer at Walmart.

She came home exhausted, hungry and cold, but that one-day period gained the highest amount of donations of any day that year, in large part because of the support Stacy received on social media, which helped to get the word out about her 24-hour goal.

“Soup never tasted so good at 3 in the morning,” Stacy said, “and then at the end of the shift I remember going to get Chipotle, and they didn’t have any cheese, which is my favorite, and I cried. Then I went home and ate … and probably slept for 12 hours.” 

Shaun’s passion for disaster relief brought him to Puerto Rico to help with the devastation of Hurricane Fiona in 2022, earning him the Lion of the Year Award the following year.

Among other things, he and his fellow Salvation Army members climbed to the top of a mountain that was hit by a landslide and delivered a cooktop, propane and food to a family whose home had been largely destroyed by the disaster.  

“Seeing the tears in their eyes, and gratefulness… That’s what fuels my fire,” Shaun said. “Every time a disaster happens, I get that internal blaze to want to help.”

He said the experience had a big impact on him, and he has since secured funding for the Ithaca Corps’ new canteen so they will be well equipped to help locally, as well, whenever a disaster strikes.

Salvation Army Ithaca Corps staff members say that the captains will be missed. Karen Sargent, facilities manager since 2005, said that she has come to think of the McNeils not just as bosses but as friends.

“They supported me in a big move and helped me grow spiritually,” Sargent said. “Stacy has definitely pushed some of us out of our comfort zone and helped us to grow and mature.”

Embracing change and moving on

Relocating to their newly assigned location means packing up the belongings they acquired over the last seven years in their Ithaca home, which is owned by the Salvation Army, and they have to do it all within just a couple of months.

“At the end of March, they gave us a little notice that we may be moving; they just didn’t say where,” Shaun said.

At the end of April, they received an official phone call telling them that they would soon be living in Springfield.

The family has to make sure that the home is move-in ready for the next people who are stationed in Ithaca, “which means taking seven years of stuff and deciding whether you’re taking it or putting it in the dumpster,” Shaun said.

The McNeils said they are sad to leave Ithaca, but they understand that it was time to move; the Salvation Army does not typically station commanders for longer than five years, so while they didn’t ask for the relocation, they were expecting it.

The move will bring the McNeils closer to family members who live in Massachusetts, including their daughter who is attending college there and Stacy’s sister, whom Stacy just walked beside through a cancer journey.

“Last summer through January was a rough year for me, personally,” Stacy said. It was rough on Shaun as well, as he lost his sister Barbara and his cousin Ray last year.

“The amount of trips we took back and forth to Massachusetts was unbelievable, so I’m sure that was a factor in why they moved us,” Stacy said.

She is looking forward to spending holidays with her family. With the annual Thanksgiving meal that the Salvation Army hosts every year and the great efforts the organization makes around Christmastime, the couple has not been able to travel to spend time with family in 10 years.

They are also excited to get to work at their new post. “We’re not going in guns blazing,” Stacy said, “but we’re definitely excited to see what the potential is.”

If you would like to nominate a Hometown Hero, please visit www.tompkinsweekly.com/hometown-heroes. 

Tompkins Weekly’s Hometown Heroes Award is sponsored by Security Mutual Insurance and Canopy by Hilton Ithaca.