ROCKWELL — Heather Haaland is bringing her experience in nonprofit development to the Nazareth Child & Family Connection in Rockwell, where she has been named the development manager. Haaland officially began her role there on Jan. 8.

A native of Indianapolis and a graduate of Butler University, she has lived in North Carolina since 2007. She is married and the couple has three children that attend school in the Rowan-Salisbury School System.

At Nazareth, Haaland will oversee various responsibilities including fundraising appeals, on-campus events, community-service projects and community outreach along with a lot of its social media. She has already been involved working on new brochures, fliers and newsletters.

“I’m excited to be part of Nazareth and work with a great team to bring awareness to the community about our services and to support those we serve,” Haaland said in a release.

At her previous position with Motor Racing Outreach, a faith-based nonprofit servicing the NASCAR community, she served as the development coordinator where she similarly worked on special events and fundraisers.

She was with Motor Racing Outreach for nine years and shared that she struggled with the thought of going to a different sort of job where maybe they weren’t doing “Kingdom work” and feeling like she wanted to make sure she was being called for it.

“The thing that excited me about Nazareth when I started thinking about it is I feel like this is even bigger Kingdom work because this is raising money for kids and families here who are in desperate need of it,” Haaland said.

Caring for widows and orphans is what the Bible says is our call and duty, she continued, and many of these children, while they have families, they are families they can’t live with right now. So, it did “pull at her heart,” noting that she wants to do something special there.

Her heart is for the kids, she shared, “and that’s what it’s all about,” adding, “My focus is to get these kids opportunities that I can give my own kids.”

Nazareth CEO Jennifer Ethridge said in a release, “We are excited that Heather has joined our team. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience of working in the nonprofit sector. She is going to be a valuable asset for Nazareth as we try to raise our profile in the community.”

In speaking of some of the various upcoming community events, Haaland noted the annual Funfest, which is planned for June 1 on the campus. It will once again feature a variety of shows including crafts, cars and trucks, along with entertainment.

“This is something that has been going on for a long time, and we hope that a lot of people will come out,” Haaland said.

Along with this event, multiple new ones are being planned for the community to attend with the hopes that members of the community will “be able to see the campus, learn more about what Nazareth does and it’s not just something that they drive by all the time.”

These on campus events they want to offer include an Easter egg hunt, a Bingo night in September, a Trunk or Treat in October and a Doughnuts with Santa in December.

“I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can about the different programs that Nazareth offers and the community that we serve and just being able to learn and grow and to work with the director that we have and with Jennifer, our new CEO,” shared Haaland. “A lot of the directors have been here a long time and so I’m excited to find a place that hopefully I can be here for a long time as well.”