As they noshed on fried chicken and exchanged handshakes and hugs at a reception in downtown Raleigh last week, they seemed to genuinely enjoy one another's company.

What brought them together was their love for a couple who have long toiled in the fields of racial reconciliation: Freddy and Helen Johnson of Raleigh. The two retired last week as founders of Building Together Ministries.

Since the Johnsons sold their North Raleigh home and moved in across the street from the old Halifax Court housing project in 1989, they have befriended their low-income neighbors and provided for many of their needs by tapping the pocketbooks of wealthier friends

"We're a user-friendly Robin Hood organization," Freddy Johnson, 65, likes to say.

Over the years, Building Together Ministries has provided after-school tutorials for children, summer camp, a thrift store, life-skill classes for single mothers and access to GED classes. It has done so out of an old school on North Blount Street that now also houses a charter school, Hope Elementary. The ministry and the school are guided by Christian principles.

Although many of the families the Johnsons helped were displaced when Halifax Court was torn down to make way for new homes, Building Together continues to help families in low-income neighborhoods across Raleigh.

On Thursday evening, as the couple got up to offer thanks to the many people who have helped them through the years, Freddy Johnson took care to mention his neighbors. "You taught us what it means to be a neighbor, to give and to receive," he said.

A former construction contractor who built homes and apartment buildings across the Triangle, Johnson left his profitable career in 1987 after a trip to Haiti convinced him, he said, that his ladder was "leaning against the wrong building."

Two years later, the couple chose to settle in the Halifax Court community because there were 10 acres of open land next to it that they thought they could develop into a mix of low-cost housing. But the owner of the land never wanted to sell at the right price, so instead the Johnsons rented, then bought, the old Barbee School for $240,000.

They renovated the school, persuaded some of their friends to move downtown with them and began to offer help to the community.

"There wasn't a manual on how you do it," said Reggie Edwards, associate director of adult services at Building Together. Instead, the ministry responded to what members said they needed.

A hangout for kids

The people the ministry helped the most were the children who grew up spending much of their free time at Building Together. Many are now adults, and some returned Thursday night to pay tribute to the Johnsons.

Chris Dickerson, 21, said he considered the Johnsons "angels."

"I just thank God for them," said Dickerson, who started attending Building Together when he was 5. "They helped me when I needed them."

Another who was helped was Shediah Ector, who this May graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in psychology.

"They've made a far-off dream a complete reality -- graduating from college debt-free," she said.

Besides listening to the needs of neighbors, the Johnsons, both Broughton High School graduates, knew where to turn for money. After all, they had grown up in Raleigh's middle-class community. They knew many successful businesspeople who would be able to help a child pay for braces, for example, or go to college.

M. Lamont Cooper, the new executive director of Building Together, said that when he needed five buses to take 179 children to a camp near Asheville, Freddy knew where to turn. After making a couple of calls, he got both BB&T bank and Fonville Morisey Realty to sponsor two of the buses.

"Freddy taught me years ago, 'Don't make yourself an island. Connect,' " Cooper said. "Freddy's good at building relationships."

While Freddy brought in most of the money -- last year, the ministry's budget was $700,000 -- Helen has been its compassionate core. Over the years, she has led Bible studies, run senior care ministries and introduced art -- especially pottery -- classes to the community. She also has helped keep the ministry's relationships going with folks in Haiti.

Empowerment is goal

Ministries such as Building Together often struggle to quantify the difference they have made. Freddy Johnson said he adopted a different definition of success since starting the ministry.

"Success," he said, "is empowering people to become all God created them to be."

The Johnsons plan to take a monthlong trip to Montana. When they return, they will continue to live in their white clapboard home on East Franklin Street.

Employees of Building Together said they will continue to seek the couple's guidance. But the Johnsons won't be burdened with raising money or managing employees.

Skip Long, president of the National Jobs Partnership and a longtime friend, said what the Johnsons did was subtle but powerful.

"They allowed people of color to see white people differently," Long said. "They did it by serving, not by words. They showed up every day."

Staff writer Yonat Shimron can be reached at 829-4891 or yshimron@newsobserver.com.