At 6’8” in height, Ronnie Hinson is without a doubt tall. But, where the successful businessman — now in the nonprofit sector — wants to really ‘stand tall’ is in his efforts to help less fortunate Middle Georgia residents.
Hinson, who turned 69 March 19, has excelled financially in commercial endeavors, and that success, coupled with him accepting Jesus into his life in 1990, led him to pursue more benevolent projects. Sonrise Ministries — which includes a merchandise outlet offering items at bargain prices and a food pantry as well as temporary housing assistance at what was once a motel known for its ‘one-night stays’ — has made its presence felt in the past few years.
Hinson’s journey to where he is today began early in his life.
Otis and Louise Hinson settled in Jones County when their son was in elementary school, and a sudden growth spurt helped kickstart his basketball career.
“I went out for basketball in the seventh grade,” Hinson recalled. “I didn’t make it. Went back in the eighth grade. I want to say I grew like, three or four inches in one summer, and that’s when the coach came to me and said, ‘You’re gonna play basketball.’” Hinson said when he was a senior, he played with Morris Wood, a junior, and his brother Al Wood (“probably the greatest basketball player in the Middle Georgia area”), a sophomore. The Greyhounds lost just one game that year, the former basketball star said.
Life was not all a bed of roses while Hinson was growing up, however, and he actually ran away from home one time. He went and stayed a few days with a basketball coach, Eddie Dudley.
“It was my dad,” Hinson indicated. “I would say it like this. My dad did not spare the rod. I was just tired of … my dad was angry, and he would get so mad. He gets so mad at my mom. I saw some things, heard some things.”
The youngster returned home, of course, and he found his mechanism to help face problems in the family and elsewhere.
“I was in love,” Hinson recalled. “I had one girlfriend for a short period of time. (But) I was in love with basketball. Basketball changed my life. And I tell young people, find something that you’re good at. I think your calling should be easy. It should be something that you have passion for.
“And so,” he further explained, “I found basketball, and, man, it became my best friend. It became my outlet.”
Hinson parlayed his love for the sport and his abilities into a full scholarship to Middle Tennessee State University. However, various circumstances, including the passing of his grandmother, the loss of his best friend in a car wreck and the death of his dad, shortened that career, and he ultimately returned home before graduating from college.
“I didn’t have, you know, a youth pastor,” he said. “I didn’t have a mentor. And I didn’t blame it on other people, but that was just a fact.
“I was 20 years old,” he reflected. “I didn’t know a whole lot about life at that time.”
Once he returned home, it took a while for Hinson to find his bearings.
“I came home, and I had all kind of odd jobs. I’m just trying to figure life out,” he reflected. “And I worked at a Handy Andy.
I stopped at a store in in Gray, and I got me a parttime job.” That part-time job was in 1982 at a Kwickie Food Mart just outside Gray on Highway 22 in a manufactured building. The manager subsequently offered him a position as manager, which Hinson accepted.
“I started at the bottom. I worked my butt off, and I used to have the book, to show how we doubled and tripled the sales.”
Hinson’s success there led to a promotion and a move to Thomaston. He oversaw the operation of 10 stores for three years before he was asked to go back to Gray. That didn’t appeal to him.
“I told them ‘Y’all have been a great company I work with. But I don’t like going down the ladder. I want to climb the ladder.’ I felt like I had put my time in.”
It didn’t take the up-and-coming entrepreneur long to secure another position. Hinson went to work with Pepsi Cola after giving a week’s notice. He started in the mid-1980s running a truck route and moved up after five years.
“I got into management my sixth year with Pepsi,” he said. “They had a position come open in food service. And so, out of 150 guys, I got the job. The amazing thing is,” Hinson added with a chuckle, “out of the 150 guys, I was probably the least qualified.”
Hinson said he went from driving a Pepsi truck to a Pepsi car.
“I was in sales. I worked hard. My dad taught me the value of hard work. He said one time, ‘Ronnie, nobody owes you nothing.’ So, I was working a lot of hours.”
Meanwhile, Hinson was doing other things a lot of hours as well. In his personal life, the successful salesperson was developing less than desirable habits, visiting certain clubs in Atlanta and drinking his share of alcohol.
There was the night in 1989 when he ended up at Dreamer’s, a club in Baldwin County that featured scantily clad women dancing.
“Crown and Coke, Crown and Coke, Crown and Coke,” Hinson recalled drinking. “And when I left, I got pulled over by the state patrol. I won’t ever forget that. It’s like it was yesterday I got pulled over, and the last thing I remember was showing the guy my license.
“I should have been arrested,” he admitted. “Could have lost my job, could have had a wreck.”
He woke up the next morning parked on the side of the highway between Gray and Milledgeville.
“I got home, I got in the shower, and then the Spirit of the Lord came over me, and that’s when the Lord spoke to me, and He took the wheel.”
That was also about the time he started dating his future wife, Vickie Jackson. They had known each other since high school. They saw each other at a class reunion in 1985, and he learned she was married with two children. Four years later, they ran into each other, and she told him she was divorced.
“Vickie and I started dating, and I was still a sinner,” Hinson recalled. “We dated a couple of months, and we broke up.”
Hinson still worked in management for Pepsi then, but his personal life was taking its toll.
“I was tired, I was wore out, I was hurt, I was bruised,” he shared. “Had lost a father, had a lot of loss; my basketball career ended. But,” he added, “I tell people my testimony is that the worst day of my life became the best day of my life.”
Hinson took his mother’s hand June 23, 1990 and went to the church altar.
“I gave my life to the Lord; I got saved that day.”
Jackson was at her aunt’s house that day.
“I went to that house, and she was there with another man. I said ‘Hey, Vickie, I wanted to come by and let you know I gave my life to the Lord today.’ She said, ‘I’m proud for you Ronnie.’ I looked over at the guy she was dating, and I just walked out.
“And I just started praying about it,” Hinson recalled. “And about two weeks later, I called her up and I said, ‘hey, I don’t know how you feel, but I feel like I want to marry you.’” Vickie shortly thereafter agreed with him, and the couple wasted no time tying the knot. Three months later, they went to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to exchange vows. Her two sons, Eric and Jason, are 40 and 45 now. The couple had one son, Brandon, now 33. They all live in Jones County, close to their parents.
About three years later, Hinson’s job with Pepsi led to another door opening. He had told the owners of one of his small vending company customers he would be interested in buying it if they ever decided to sell.
They did decide to do that, and Hinson left Pepsi to start his own business in 1993.
“It was out on Hartley Bridge Road,” Hinson said. “And just a few, a handful of accounts. It was Middle Georgia Vendors. We started out, and we just gave it to the Lord.”
Hinson said his experience was the key for success.
“Anytime you’re doing any type of sales, the keyword of sales is contact,” he pointed out. “And so, all those years I was with Pepsi, I had already been in every school in the Middle Georgia area, in every hospital, in every nursing home, in all these factories. So, when we started the business, I went back and knocked on these doors. They might not have remembered my name, but they remembered I was the Pepsi guy.
“So our business just exploded,” he shared. “I mean, it exploded, and the rest of it was history. We were in business for 27 years.”
Hinson added that a “game-changer” was picking up GEICO as a customer in 2015.
“There were 7,000 people drinking our cocoa, our snicker candy bars, our potato chips. When we picked up GEICO, we added a lot of value.”
That growth led to the subsequent sale of the business in 2017 and the furtherance of a ministry that had begun about five years earlier.
(Next week: Ronnie Hinson’s story of Sonrise Ministries: how it started, how it has grown, and how it benefits Jones County.)
