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» Your hometown newspaper since 1861 The Eatonton Messenger THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2025 | A3 New NHN director addresses EPTAH meeting Ian Tocher ian@msgrnews.com When Allyn Rippin stood before Eaton ton-Putnam Tourism, Arts, and Heritage (EPTAH) committee members last Wednesday morning, she shared both her personal story and a community mission. Rippin recently was hired as the first full- time employee of Neigh- bors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a Greens boro-based nonprofit that celebrated its fifth anni versary in June. The new NHN executive director explained the organization helps fami lies throughout Greene and Putnam counties by building and providing free beds and bedding to needy children, as well as vehicle replacements or repairs, and home repairs Allyn Rippin such as plumbing and elec trical work to qualifying adults. NHN also partners with other local service- based organizations in various charitable efforts. Essentially, NHN provides what Rippin called, “critical support in critical times” for residents of Greene and Putnam counties, especially through its bed-building initiative. “Getting a good night’s sleep is critical for learning, brain develop ment, wellbeing, self-es teem — all those things,” Rippin said. “When we provide a bed for a child, it’s more than furniture; it’s dignity.” Founded and operated by volunteers, NHN was built on the idea of offering stability during moments of crisis. “We often say we’re a hand up, not a handout,” Rippin said. “We’re there when families are just doing their best to get through, and our support helps them keep moving forward.” The nonprofit’s clients are often single mothers, veterans, the elderly, or people living with disabil ities. Partnerships make much of the work possible. For example, Rippin said local mechanic Chris Ross refurbishes donated vehi cles so NHN can provide safe, reliable transporta tion to families. Demand for NHN services always remains high, Rippin said; however, she emphasized that growth for NHN does not mean spreading to more counties. “Our goal is to stay focused and do what we do well, and do more of it,” she stated. Sustainability is key. Currently, funding comes from memberships, grants, foundations, and dona tions, but Rippin sees untapped opportunities in corporate sponsorships and broader community partnerships. Events are also a vital part of fundraising. A Neighbors Helping Neigh bors casino night is sched uled for Oct. 7 at Festival Hall in Greensboro, and NHN continues to encourage membership drives and neighborhood fundraisers. Many families find NHN through word of mouth, but applications are now also available online (nhnga.org), where appli cants must meet certain criteria. For example, home repair recipients must own and live in their home at least two years and have no other realistic solution available. NHN volunteers often rely on local schools and even bus drivers to identify children without beds. Partnerships with churches and other nonprofits help provide labor, such as for assembling bed frames. Rippin insisted her vision is long-term. “My hope is to be here in 20 or 30 years, making us as sustainable as possible,” she said. “We’ve already exceeded expectations in just five years. Now we want to make sure we can do this for generations to come. Rippin said the biggest reward of her job is the feeling she gets each time Neighbors Helping Neighbors helps someone overcome an obstacle that previously seemed insurmountable. “I just feel so proud and happy over the sense of relief that people feel,” she said. “You can just see their body language change, that there’s dignity restored, there’s excite ment, there’s a hope for the future.” For more information about donating to or volunteering with Neigh bors Helping Neighbors, or to apply for assis- tance, visit nhnga.org or contact Rippin directly at execdir@nhnga.org. ARRESTS CONTINUED FROM » A1 on similar charges he currently faces in Putnam. Those prior arrests include 16 felony convictions. “Georgia law says once you have three felony convictions, then on your fourth, you get the maximum penalty with no probation or parole,” Sills noted. “I do not believe the law has been abided by,” he added with sarcasm. “And unfortu nately, that is a routine issue.” Sills said Blocker has seven prior arrests in Putnam, Baldwin, and Lauren counties, which include probation violations in Putnam and Baldwin. He said the Dublin case was dismissed. “This is why we have so much crime,” Sills said about the multiple counties in which both of the accused men have records. “This is so illus trative of the mobility of today’s criminals, where they are routinely traversing the state and committing crimes everywhere.” Latest crimes What Sills described as a “rash of burglaries, mail thefts and regular thefts” began in May in the Lake Sinclair area of Putnam County, mainly in the Twin Bridges Road area. “One of the burglaries, for instance, in addition to all kind of other things that were stolen, they took out the stove and range and water heater and stole it from the house,” Sills said. The incidents were sporadic in the beginning but have been on the increase since the first week of July, especially mail theft, he said. Even tually, someone’s home security camera captured a picture of a white Kia with a person’s arm reaching out the window and stealing mail from a mailbox. Flock cameras enabled detectives to iden tify the vehicle and further investigation revealed Blocker was “someone potentially associated with that vehicle,” Sills said. Alarming arrests After determining the vehicle was occasionally parked at a residence on the 200 block of Bluegill Road, deputies staked out the house and waited its return. On Monday, Aug. 18, Sgt. Jeffrey Duncan saw the Kia heading toward him on Bluegill with size] southlandfisheries.i (©southlandfisheries PRE ORDER NOW!!! CALL TO FIND YOUR NEAREST PICK-UP LOCATION Mayfield driving and Blocker and two women as passengers. Duncan turned on his patrol car lights to let Mayfield know to pull over, but Mayfield continued down the road and pulled into the driveway of the house the deputies had been staking out. Duncan pulled in and parked behind them. As Duncan began getting out of his vehicle, Mayfield put the Kia in reverse and backed up and “slammed into the front of the patrol car,” Sills said. He explained this is a relatively new tactic criminals are using in attempt to force the patrol vehicle’s airbags to deploy, which not only temporarily incapacitates the law enforcement officer, but disables the vehicle because it will not run with the airbags deployed. “This has been occur ring all over the country, but it’s the first time it’s happened in Putnam County,” Sills said. “Of course, Mayfield said he didn’t mean to back up, but he had no reason to back up. Fortunately, those push bumpers we have on the front of our patrol cars took most of the impact and the air bags did not deploy.” When Mayfield stepped out of his car, he was wearing a gun in a holster on his hip and a law enforcement badge. “Two times, Mayfield reached down toward this gun with his right hand,” Sills said. “I don’t know why Jeffrey didn’t shoot him because it would’ve been justified. I mean, he didn’t follow commands and two times he reached down to the gun. The video from the car cam is frightening to watch.” As it turns out, the handgun was a BB gun, “but there’s no way to tell it’s a BB gun or a govern ment model .45 pistol when it’s in the holster like that; just no way,” Sills said. The badge was a real law enforcement badge, but it’s a Code Enforce ment badge from Carra belle, Florida. Sills said Mayfield had used gold tape to cover the State of Florida seal on it. “We learned that he would wear the badge and gun into stores while he shoplifted, probably to make store personnel think ‘well, he’s a police officer, we don’t have to watch him,’” Sills said. Sills said some of the evidence they recovered has allowed Milledgeville Police Department to charge Mayfield with shoplifting at Hobby Lobby earlier on that same day he was arrested, and he wore the badge and pistol then. After he was taken to Putnam County jail, Blocker had a medical issue which resulted in him being taken to Putnam General Hospital, Sills said. From there, he was transferred to an Athens hospital where his condi tion improved, but he remained hospitalized this week. Evidence roundup The sheriff said he and his deputies are still taking stock of all the evidence and noted more charges would be coming. As of Monday, he said they had tied Mayfield and Blocker to 18 separate thefts or burglaries and more than 20 incidents of mail theft as well as the methamphetamine possession with intent to distribute. They also found evidence that Mayfield was counterfeiting checks from the stolen mail. He appeared to be counter feiting a Georgia driver’s license with his picture THANKS TO A DONATED BLAZER I LEARNED DIGITAL SKILLS THAT SUIT MY CAREER. Your donations fund career services and education programs in your community. Where your things start new lives. Learn more and the name of the person the checks were made payable to. Additionally, they found evidence that appeared like Mayfield was making some sort of identifica tion that he was a postal inspector. “Of course, that’s handy to have,” Sills said. “So, if you come home and a person is in your yard and he’s got on this code enforcement badge or this postal inspector badge and says, ‘I’m just checking on something,’ you’d be ok with it.” “But it’s just that we catch ‘em when they shouldn’t have been out of jail in the first place,” Sills continued. “And then all that crime they did here, the phenomenal danger he put my deputy in ... And a deputy completely justified in killing him but just by the grace of God he didn’t, there’s just no end to it. “The public needs to talk to their legislators and pay more attention to what’s going on at the state level than what’s going on in Washington,” he said. • COUNTRY Q92.3FM Home of Today's 0. REAL J Follow us on facebook lwww.facebook.com/EatontonMessenqer
