Ballentine resigns as homeless shelter director; moving to Arizona UPDATED

 The Director of the Highland County Homeless Shelter Mike Ballentine has resigned from his post at the organization. 

 Ballentine told The Highland County Press that he submitted his resignation to the board on Sunday, and he has been told that the shelter's board has met and voted to accept it. Ballentine said his resignation is effective immediately, but it is his understanding that he is to receive a written notice of the board. 

 Ballentine was hired by the board as the shelter's executive director in June 2010.

 There are "multiple reasons," Ballentine said, that prompted him to resign, but that he didn't want to discuss the main reason until after he met with his church members this week. Ballentine is the pastor at Serenity in Christian Union in Hillsboro. A church meeting was held Wednesday evening, when Ballentine gave the church his resignation and informed them that he was moving to Arizona. 

"The primary reason that I put my resignation in was the difference in opinion between myself and certain members of the Highland County Homeless Shelter board of directors," Ballentine said. "I am not here to slam them. I still want people to support them and donate to them. But they were asking me to compromise my beliefs, and I'm not willing to do that."

Ballentine declined to elaborate on what concessions he was not willing to make. 

The Highland County Press has attempted to contact several board members but has not been able to reach anyone for comment. 

Ballentine said that he tried to make a difference in the Highland County community and now is venturing to another state to see if he can make a difference there.

"I am not a person who wants to work in a factory," Ballentine said. "I am not a person who wants to be on an assembly line for the rest of my life. I want to be able to make a difference somewhere in people's lives. I really thought that I would be able to do that through the homeless shelter. I have lived here the majority of my life and wanted to make a difference in the community I have been in. It didn't come to fruition. There were too many differences between the way I'd like to see the shelter run and the way I think it's going to be run. So, I tried some different avenues to find some places where I could use my talents effectively. So my wife and I are moving to Arizona."

He has been asked to be the executive director of a developing charitable foundation that is operating under the tentative title When Life Gives You Lemons. The organization is currently applying for its 501(c)(3) and is putting together a board of directors. The organization will focus on assisting families with children who are battling cancer and other diseases but will also extend help to adults with health issues in certain cases. 

Ballentine said that he resigned from the church Wednesday night, and that they plan to move in June.

"My wife has family out there," Ballentine said. "Most of her family that used to be here in Ohio has moved to Arizona, and it was through that connection that I have that gotten to accept this position."

Families with sick children is something close to the hearts of Ballentine and his wife, Sandra because their 15-year-old daughter was born four months premature. 

"We want to help raise funds for a variety of different things," Ballentine said. "There's a lot of stuff people don't realize is an expense. We remember how much it cost just to go to Cincinnati and back everyday. We had a choice to make: stay home and go back and forth every day, or stay in a hotel. I was trying to hold a full-time job at that point, and it's really hard. We want to not just help with medical expenses. We want to do more than that."

In addition to that, Ballentine said he wants to raise funds to help the siblings of children battling illness because he said that they are impacted just as much as the child who is sick. 

One of Sandra Ballentine's relatives, who overcame childhood leukemia and is now in her 20s with a family, will be a face for the organization and an inspiration. 

"I have a great deal of experience in fundraising, and I want to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a year," Ballentine said. "I'm thinking really big picture. I'm thinking outside the box."

In many ways, Ballentine said, they are inspired by the local work that the Highland County Society for Children and Adults has done in Highland County, in raising funds to fill in the gaps of medical expenses.