The last couple of weeks I’ve become a bullhorn advocate for a very smart program offered at the local YMCA.
It’s called The Black Achievers. It promotes positive challenges and motivation for the youth of this area.
“It’s a promising program,” says Sandy Flowers, director of the J.F. Hurley Family YMCA. After attending the first couple of meetings, I strongly agree. I have been out in the community asking parents to bring their children and any middle and high school students they know to the Saturday gatherings.
The responses were not surprising; it only made writing this column necessary.
“I didn’t know anything about it!”
“What does it really do for the children?”
I have heard that over and over.
Well, Salisbury residents, there’s a program right in your own back yard. Oct. 4 was the official kick-off for the program.
Kevin Carroll, a Salisbury native and 10-year veteran of the film/TV industry, came and spoke to a room full of enthusiastic teenagers. He showed a reel of movie clips of his many roles and discussed the educational and networking paths he used. He also shared his own childhood memories of growing up in Salisbury.
The kids crowded around him with questions and wonder.
It was a good feeling to see someone giving back to the community.
P149, a Christian hip hop dance ministry from Cornerstone Church, led by choreographer Gabriel Zapata, performed and demonstrated positive youths achieving positive goals while still maintaining their cool status.
U-N-T productions, a new motivational and performance company here in Salisbury, performed a skit demonstrating the importance of knowing yourself and keeping positive.
The session ended with a commentary by former student achiever Nicola Bradshaw, who now attends Kings College. Bradshaw expressed appreciation for the program and thanked the committee for a care package presented to her.
“It was everything I needed and more,” she said.
Eighteen teenagers attended the Oct. 11 Black Achievers meeting.
Food Lion has agreed to sponsor the club, and Charmain Davis, Food Lion’s director of compensation and benefits, and Brian Williams talked to the group about leadership. They engaged the teenagers in exciting activities and exercises that encouraged group participation.
Achievers Edward Wright and Brian Harris had the opportunity to leading their peers in completing a task ó building a fortress out of Legos.
Simple, you would think, but these two guys found out quickly that positive leadership is often difficult.
Watching from the corner of the room was Salisbury High girls basketball coach Andrew Mitchell. Asked about his part in the Black Achievers program, he said, “I wanted to see what was going on and to let them know I’m available to do whatever they need me to do.”
We need more people like Coach Mitchell to step up and start making a difference. Hats off to those who already have put their names on the volunteer rooster and to those students who want to be achievers.
Keep challenging yourself and keep coming back. Bring more friends.
On Oct. 18, champion boxer Roberto “Bully” White spoke to club members, and U-N-T productions, as part of career exploration, got the teens talking about and practicing different ways of speaking ó motivational, public speaking, poetry, interviewing.
The Black Achievers steering committee ó and other adult achievers ó are committed to the program’s growth and success. We look forward to seeing you today or next Saturday. The club meets from 10 a.m. to noon.
And we challenge every community leader to help lift up our children, not just with words, but with their hands.