Caring for the City: Leadership Winston-Salem graduates its latest class
At a graduation celebration for the 2006 class of Leadership Winston-Salem, Allen Joines, the mayor of Winston-Salem, and Don deBethizy, the president and CEO of Targacept Inc., a local biotechnology company, gave the organization credit for a couple of major developments in the city's life.
Joines, a 1989 graduate of the program, said he had never considered running for public office until he participated in the program.
"I got the bug a little bit," Joines said.
He elicited a laugh from the 170 people in the Hearn Ballroom at the Marriott Hotel when he added, "It is a bug."
DeBethizy, who was the featured speaker, said he was living in Stokes County when he participated in the program in 1997-98. What he learned about the city through Leadership Winston-Salem made him think that it was important to keep Targacept here when it was spun off from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. six years ago, he said. "It is the reason that Targacept is in Winston-Salem."
Leadership Winston-Salem describes itself as a program that is designed "to educate, connect and energize leaders to serve and improve the community." Thomas K. Hearn, then president of Wake Forest University, and other local leaders founded it in 1984. It has offered classes each year since, except 2004-05, when the organization took a year off to regroup. About 1,000 people have participated over the years.
It again offered a class last fall. On Wednesday night, 44 members of the 2005-06 class celebrated their graduation along with spouses, graduates of earlier classes and people from sponsoring organizations in a celebration organized by such volunteers as Judie Holcomb-Pack, a regular volunteer with the organization.
"We're the party group," she joked.
Joines was there to give the organization's first Community Impact Award to Vestal "Pat" Taylor, the former general manager of the Winston-Salem Journal, for seeing the organization through its transition as chairman of its board of trustees.
"I believe in this program," Taylor said. "I believe in what it can do for the community."
Chatting with current and earlier graduates before the formal program, several themes emerged. The program has been valuable in establishing stronger connections between members of the black and white communities. It has done the same for people working for nonprofit organizations and for people working for businesses. And, through such experiences as visiting the jail, riding with police officers and eating at a soup kitchen, it has given participants a much richer picture of the city.
Larry Colbourne of Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind - there with his wife, Beverly - said, "I learned a lot about the city of Winston-Salem that I didn't know was there."
Tonya Atkins of Forsyth Futures said: "I work for a nonprofit. It was nice to mix with a lot of for-profits.... To see the compassion that was displayed by the entire class was a very humbling experience."
Velvet Simington - whose husband, Kenneth of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, had just completed the program - said she could tell he was getting a lot out of the program. He often doesn't have much to say about his day when he comes home at night, but he was quite forthcoming about a day at Leadership Winston-Salem, she said. "I think he really looked forward to it."
Jo Ellen Carson, the organization's executive director, mentioned that each graduate had been asked, earlier that day, to make a commitment to work to improve the community in a specific way.
Arnold Hence of Forsyth Technical Community College - there with his wife, Anna - said, "My commitment is to continue to work to improve the quality of higher education for anyone who is interested."
Graduates of earlier classes at the celebration included Chandra Irvin (1996), Patricia Shore Clark (1986) and Tom Lambeth, who was in the first graduating class in 1985.
Clark said that she was able to participate only because her boss at the time backed out of the program at the last minute, but it proved to be a valuable experience. "It makes you so aware of what is going on," she said. "It accelerated everything. I think it's marvelous that the program is still going."
In addition to the 2006 graduates mentioned above, this year's graduates are Ronnie Abernathy of the Winston-Salem Police Department, Ayo Ademoyero of the Forsyth County Department of Public Health, Maria Aristizabal of YMCA of Northwest North Carolina, Bert "Cort" Bennett IV of Wachovia Bank, Charlie Bethea of BB&T, Mark Billings of Forsyth Medical Center, Daryle Bost of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, Nikki Burris of Salemtowne Continuing Care Retirement Community, Glenn Cobb of the Home Builders Association of Winston-Salem, community volunteer Margaret Collins, Greg Colner of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Nancy Crouch of Wake Forest University, Lynn Felder of the Journal, Larry Freeman of Wake Forest University Health Services, Timothy Grant of the Winston-Salem Recreation & Parks Department, Maureen Hall of The Woodbine Agency, Josef "Joe" Huff of Duke Energy , Linda Jackson-Barnes of the City of Winston-Salem, Henry Lafferty of Lafferty Architecture, Peter Laroche of Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Forsyth County, Doug Lischke of Wake Forest University Health Services, Annette Lynch of the Winston-Salem Foundation, Angie Mannino of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Dawn Markovics of Wachovia Bank, Karen McNeil-Miller of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, Dennis Moser of Winston-Salem/For-syth County Schools, Cathy Pace of Allegacy Federal Credit Union, Susan Perkins of Wachovia Bank, Ben Rowe of the City of Winston-Salem, Mark Sadock of Alliance Display, community volunteer Scott Sanders, Mary Anne Squire of ForsythHeathCare Inc./HealthCare Access, Lydell Thompson of Wachovia Bank, Ed Toole of YMCA Community Outreach Service, Brent Waddell of BB&T, McLain Wallace of N.C. Baptist Hospital, Bart Watts of BB&T, Vicki Wooten of Crisis Control Ministry Inc., Brad Zabel of Mullen and Vicky Zickmund of Wake Forest University Health Services.
