For Jill and Mark Fischer, one unexpected connection to ESP became years of friendship, service and a shared vision for what is possible in Rome.
Jill and Mark did not set out with a plan to become deeply involved with ESP. In fact, Jill describes their connection as something that happened almost by chance.
Java Joy, ESP’s mobile coffee experience, regularly visited their church and was their first touchpoint. The mission made such an impression that Jill joined the Rome staff! She was preparing for an empty nest and looking for a new challenge.
“I just kind of jumped in, not really knowing what to expect,” Jill said.
She quickly found herself doing a little bit of everything. During a season of transition for ESP Rome, Jill was part of a small team helping keep programs, events and relationships moving forward. She spent time learning from the team in Athens, organized fundraising, supported camps and family events, In short, Jill got an up-close look at what makes ESP so special.
“Everything about ESP was go time,” she said with a laugh. Woven into the fast pace and activity, she discovered something much deeper: a community built around friendship, joy and belonging.
It did not take long for Jill’s commitment to ESP to become a family affair.
A Natural Fit
Mark experienced the heart of ESP by volunteering alongside Jill at family dinners. So, when the opportunity came up to play in Big Hoops, ESP’s spirited basketball fundraiser, he was an enthusiastic “yes.” As a coach of his children’s sports teams, basketball was a natural way for Mark to become more involved. Big Hoops allowed him to experience ESP’s energy and community in a new way.
During the game, each team had an ESP member serving as an assistant coach. When a foul was called, the member coach hit the court to take the free throw. One assistant coach tried again and again to make a basket, growing more frustrated with every miss.
Then, in the final moments, he got one more chance.
The ball went in.
“The entire room just erupted,” Jill remembered. “Everybody stood up. It was like he had just won the Olympics.”
Mark calls it one of those moments that melts into your memory, the kind of story they will talk about for years. It captures something they have come to understand about ESP: when one person is celebrated, the joy belongs to everyone in the room.
The same feeling has met them again and again. Jill remembers standing beside a long red carpet at an ESP event, cheering as participants made their entrances. “It was their moment,” she said. “They were just beaming. Such joy.”
There was also the day Java Joy surprised Mark at his dental office during a sponsor thank-you tour. One participant had created her own ESP rap and performed it at every business they visited. “It was impressive,” Mark said. “It was amazing.”
These are the stories that make ESP hard to explain with a brochure or photograph. As Jill puts it, “You just have to be there.”
A Place That Strengthens the Whole Family
Jill eventually stepped away from her staff role as she entered the next phase of her life and began exploring new opportunities to serve as a volunteer and board member across the Rome community. But stepping away from the job did not mean stepping away from ESP.
Two years later, she and Mark remain deeply involved as volunteers, supporters and members of the 1818 building committee. Jill may no longer work for ESP, but her heart never left.
Part of what continues to draw them back is the way ESP cares for entire families, not only the person participating in a program.
Mark has seen that impact through families he knows personally. He remembers the relief on one mother’s face when she brought her child to an ESP family dinner for the first time. When asked whether she planned to stay, the mother explained that she and her husband were going to use the time to take a break and do a few things without worrying.
“When they hand their child over, they know their child is in good hands,” Mark said. “They can sit back, enjoy themselves and breathe. And it’s a positive experience. It’s a great experience.”
That simple chance to breathe stayed with him. For Jill, it deepened her understanding of how disability can affect every member of a family and why support must extend to the whole family.
They have also watched ESP shape the volunteers who show up to help. Jill has seen young people form genuine bonds with participants and grow in maturity, empathy and perspective.
“That’s not something you can buy,” she said. “You’re not going to get that in college. It is such a fundamental experience that I think everyone should have.”
At ESP, volunteers do not remain outside the story. They become part of it.
Building a Home at 1818 Kingston
Jill and Mark already give generously of their time throughout Rome. Jill has served the community through Good Neighbor Ministries, the school board, the Rome City Commission and other local organizations. Mark has practiced family dentistry in Rome for more than two decades, served on the YMCA board, coached young athletes for years and remained active through their church.
Their roots in Rome run deep, and that is one reason the future of ESP Rome matters so much to them.
Today, they are helping champion the Home Sweet Rome campaign and the future Atrium Health Floyd ESP Rome Campus at 1818 Kingston Highway. It will be ESP Rome’s first permanent, purpose-built home, creating a central, familiar place for programs, recreation, family support and connection.
For years, ESP Rome has brought its magic to borrowed and shared spaces across the community. The new campus will allow more of that magic to happen in one place.
“It’s not going to be ESP here and ESP there,” Mark said. “It’s going to be ESP at ESP.”
He pictures the campus becoming a beacon, a place everyone knows and recognizes. Jill sees its impact reaching beyond Rome, drawing families from surrounding counties who may not have anything like it in their own communities.
“In serving the families, creating experiences and giving volunteers opportunities, I think it just betters our community,” she said. “It’s important for the health of the community that you have these outlets that serve populations that are underserved.”
Their work on the building committee has included a little Louisiana flavor. Jill and Mark, both LSU alumni, joined friends and fellow committee members to host a crawfish boil in support of the project. They knew people with the right equipment, found friends who could cook crawfish well and turned those connections into a celebration with purpose.
It is a fitting example of their message about ESP: there is no single way to help. You can serve a meal, volunteer at camp, bring your coworkers to Friend Friday, play in Big Hoops, make a financial gift, host an event, introduce ESP to a friend or simply walk through the doors and experience the community for yourself.
Come See It for Yourself
For someone wondering where to begin, Jill recommends a family meal, an ESP event or a visit to see the programs in action.
“You can’t explain it. You can’t show it in pictures. You just have to be there,” she said. “You give, and then you go and see what it’s doing. Something tangible brings it home.”
Mark agrees. With ESP, you can see the impact on participants and families. You can feel the friendships forming. You can witness the relief, the laughter and the moments when a room erupts because someone finally made the shot.
And, as Jill says, “You never leave without a good story.”
The future campus at 1818 Kingston Highway will give many more families, volunteers and neighbors the chance to become part of those stories. Jill and Mark are helping build that future because they have seen what happens when people do more than support ESP from a distance. They show up, form relationships and discover that the joy they came to give has a way of changing them too.
To learn more about ESP Rome, support the Home Sweet Rome campaign or find your way to get involved, visit espyouandme.org/locations/rome.
