Contemporary Gospel sensations Mary Mary gave a private
concert to the winners of their "Something Big Contest" - True Holy Church: A
City of Refuge - on May 19, 2012 in Brooklyn, New York. The singers teamed up
with Pillsbury
Grands!™ Biscuit Sandwiches and Egg Scrambles™ to
award a church who identified a need in their community and have mobilized
their ministry to actively meet those needs.
Initiated last October, the contest lasted for a duration of six weeks while church contestants from across the country submitted videos of themselves discussing their community project.
True Holy Church, in the rough East New York section of Brooklyn, is a 100-member church that has been serving their community through their kitchen pantry and clothing bank since 1988. The church's members volunteer every Saturday morning preparing and distributing bagged lunches for those in need while simultaneously running a clothing drive where members of the community can obtain as many articles of clothing as they need. The Kitchen Pantry project donates an average of 275 bags to the community a week and reported 10,000 bags given to the community, equaling 33, 000 recipients in 2010.
Mary Mary, the stars of a new self-titled WETV reality show, was gracious enough to join True Holy Church for breakfast and sit down with Andre Barracks for a few questions and answers.
André: How did you come up with the idea for the 'Something Big' contest?
Erica: Initially, it started after the album Something Big. We wanted to make sure what we were doing was something more than just the music. We started the relationship with Pillsbury to support the Eggs Scrambles and Grands Biscuits. We really wanted to challenge people to do something big, we started with smaller campaigns and ended with this one. Also challenging people to change the community and so greatly impact the community that it would make folks pay attention. Really proud of the church that won the competition, because for such a small congregation to have such a massive impact is quite commendable.
André: Was it a hard choice narrowing down the churches to arrive
at the ultimate winner?
Tina: There was some good stuff. Whenever you have people that are making a great effort to help other people, I don't necessarily know how you put labels on what's better. You kind of have to just go with what moves you and touches your heart. Because we commended everybody that went beyond their norm to help and make an impact on someone else's life. But, this was quite impressive. To have 100 members, 275 bags of food a week, over 10,000 bags of food given away over time, that is something BIG. That's definitely 2 fish and five loaves.
André: What was something big for you all growing up that had an impact on you as far as giving back to the community?
Erica: We grew up in that kind of church where we made sure to go out and do outreach. We went out to the rough neighborhoods in Los Angeles and sing and share the love of God with them. Because a lot of times people don't get that, just to hear that God loves them.
Tina: Our father also was the head of the prison ministries and a few of the outreach ministries. Not only would we go to Crenshaw, but to the "hoods, ghettos, projects" and just share love. Letting them know we're not better than them, we don't have all the answers for your life, just sharing the love of God that has impacted us. Since our father was the head of this, it was a normal practice for us. We didn't know we were giving back, we were just doing what we were supposed to do being God's children.
André: Given your present state of success, how do you instill in your kids to give back and not see themselves as better than anyone else?
Erica: What's inside of us is what we give to our children. We know where we came from, we know the challenges that we dealt with. The life lessons that have brought us to this point, so we want to make sure to instill the same values. Teaching them to be humble, hard workers, and how to be appreciative, honest and good people.
Tina: If children saw their parents with a kind of entitled type of personality, or if they saw their parents carry themselves like, "I'm the elite and you're not," that is how the kids learn it. It is not so much what you tell them but it is what they see in you. I told my child today on the way over here that we don't do that. We respect everybody even though we may be different, we value everyone. So they are not those kids.
André: Lastly, your new project "Go Get It" is out. What is the album about and what can we expect from Mary Mary on this one?
Tina: The sentiment of that song is what drove us for most of our lives. Even though we grew up "underprivileged," we never thought we were subject to what we had or to boundaries or limitations. We always thought with our faith, drive, and what we thought of ourselves, that we could go after everything and it was attainable. Growing up I never liked to be defined or labeled because of what we were lacking. The song "Go Get It," which is also the title of the whole project is a song that pushes you to go after what you want. It is an encouragement to let your faith drive you.
Erica: The album is a remixed, re-mastered, reintroduction of some songs we sung before. A few of the songs, we went into the studio and did live renditions of them for a different feel. We wanted to still give our fans something while everybody was paying attention, while not overtaxing ourselves. Because we are presently in baby land, if you've been watching the show, and we're pretty committed wives and moms.
Tina: It is not exactly a 'best of' album, but more of a compilation of a lot of the songs that we love. There are still two new records on it though, "Go Get It" is one and the other is 'Sunday Morning'. 'Sunday Morning' talks about how we spend our entire week getting ready for Sunday. Sunday is our big day, while the rest of the world prepares for Friday and Saturday.
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