Two Longview Volunteers Brought Newgate’s Healing Arts Table Back to Life

A table covered with paint, brushes and unfinished canvases is once again part of Saturday life at Newgate Mission in Longview. Lauren Parrish and Mary Lou Tevebaugh brought the mission's community art program back after it had gone quiet following the death of its founder, artist Anup Bhandari.

The revival is a verified act of community service, not a ceremonial gesture. KLTV reported that Parrish and Tevebaugh restarted the sessions because the program had mattered to the people who use Newgate's services. Participants now have a regular place to make art, spend time with others and put difficult experiences into a form they control.

Bhandari began the program years ago, according to the local report. After his death about six years ago, the activity stalled. Parrish and Tevebaugh did not claim to replace the person who created it. They preserved the useful part of his legacy by reopening the table, gathering materials and showing up for the people who wanted the program back.

Newgate Mission is a day mission at 207 South Mobberly Avenue. Its official services page says it serves approximately 200 people a day, including families, senior citizens on fixed incomes, veterans, working people with low incomes and people experiencing poverty or homelessness. The organization offers meals, showers, transportation, housing referrals, job-readiness help, health services and other essentials. It also explicitly lists a Healing Arts Project among its community programs.

That context matters. An art class is not a substitute for housing, treatment, employment or food. It is one part of a broader network that addresses immediate needs while giving people space to rebuild routine and connection. Describing it accurately makes the volunteers' contribution more meaningful, not less: they restored something the mission itself recognizes as part of community care.

Participant Eural Andrews told KLTV that art gives him an outlet for feelings he keeps private. He also said the program has kept him accountable and returning to a place that supports change. His account should not be reduced to a dramatic slogan. The important fact is that he identified the program as useful in his own life and explained why in his own words.

Parrish described seeing participants become less timid as they created. That kind of confidence is difficult to measure with one number, but it can be observed through continued attendance, completed work and a participant's willingness to share. A responsible program can honor those outcomes without promising that painting alone will resolve the complex pressures participants face.

Tevebaugh's role is independently supported by the Longview Museum of Fine Arts. Her official board biography says she actively helps facilitate Newgate Mission's Healing Arts program and has a long record of community volunteering. That corroboration connects the recent revival described by KLTV to an ongoing volunteer commitment, rather than a one-day event assembled for a camera.

The work deserves recognition because consistency is often the hardest donation. Art supplies can be purchased once. A program survives only when people prepare the room, welcome participants, clean up, replenish materials and return the next week. Volunteers also have to respect boundaries, protect dignity and make room for people whose skill levels and life experiences differ.

Newgate's own volunteer page invites East Texans to mentor, drive, care for facilities, help with events or bring individual project ideas to the mission. Parrish and Tevebaugh's example shows what that last category can become when an idea is tied to a real need and maintained over time. They did not simply say art might help. They restored the conditions that let people make it.

The program's founder should remain part of the story. Bhandari's work created the original community that participants and volunteers missed. A strong revival preserves his contribution, documents the program's history and avoids presenting the new facilitators as if nothing came before them. Continuity is a form of gratitude.

There is also a lesson for nonprofit governance. Programs built around one charismatic volunteer are vulnerable when that person becomes ill, moves or dies. Newgate and similar organizations can reduce that risk by documenting session plans, supply lists, safety practices, volunteer contacts and a succession process. A simple playbook makes it easier for the next volunteer to continue a good program without erasing the founder's voice.

Publicity should center participant choice. People who receive services at a mission do not owe the public a personal history, a photograph or a story of redemption. Any display, interview or social post should be voluntary, and participants should decide whether their names and artwork are shared. The program can demonstrate impact with aggregate attendance, volunteer hours and participant-controlled exhibitions.

A practical next step would be a small, transparent wish list maintained by Newgate: paint, canvases, brushes, protective table coverings, storage and volunteer shifts that are actually needed. Specific requests protect the program from unusable donations and help supporters contribute without creating extra sorting work. Newgate's official contact and volunteer pages are the right place to confirm current needs before dropping off supplies.

The mission can also report what the revived program is accomplishing without overstating it. Useful measures could include sessions held, repeat participation, volunteer hours, artworks completed and referrals to other Newgate services. Anonymous participant feedback can add meaning to those counts. None of those figures should be invented before the organization publishes them.

East Texas community-good stories are strongest when they name the work, not just the intention. Parrish and Tevebaugh saw that a valued program had disappeared, took responsibility for bringing it back and kept the door open for people to express themselves. Bhandari's original idea became sustainable again because two neighbors accepted the unglamorous tasks that continuity requires.

The result is visible in the room: people making choices about color and form, encouraging one another and returning to a shared table. It is not a cure-all, and the volunteers do not need that claim. They restored a place where dignity, creativity and accountability can coexist. For the Longview residents who use it, that is meaningful help.