Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 2-21-17

Features
Over 30 ‘Day Of Service’ Projects Recognized At Special Dinner
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
They spent more than 300 hours opening food pantries, hosting teen summits, and sponsoring community events.
In all, two dozen Hillsbor- ough County nonprofit groups and organizations reached hundreds through completion of more than 30 Martin Luther King Day of Service projects, a program supported by Hills- borough Community College.
It’s quite an accomplish- ment in spite of financial cut- backs to the program, said Dr. Samuel L. Wright, Sr., pro- gram consultant.
The groups – which in- cluded churches, sororities, and charities – were honored by Dr. Wright and other pro- gram coordinators for their ef- forts last week at a special dinner at Hillsborough Com- munity College’s Ybor campus.
Backed by funding from the Florida Legislature, the Day of Service awards grants to organizations or groups to
Dr. Samuel L. Wright, Sr., Consultant, Dr. Joan Holmes, Coordinator, HCC; and Senator (Atty.) Darryl Rouson, who was the guest speaker for the “Day of Service” recognition program.
servations of the King holiday, Rouson said.
“I’m very happy to be here to honor you,” he said.
This year, the total amount of grant money shrunk from $1 million to $650,000. What did not change was the high number of stellar proposals submitted by groups from throughout the county, Dr. Wright said.
It was the inspiration needed to help program ad- ministrators to push forward and award grants to as many organizations as they possibly could, he said.
“We thank you for your long-term commitment to the community,” he said.
While some of the projects were one-time events, others –
like a food pantry at Clair Mel Elementary School – will have a lasting effect.
The pantry, which opened last month in one of the county’s poorest areas, has been a boon to the school’s students and families, said Conchita Canty-Jones, the coordinator for Hillsborough County Public Schools’ full service centers.
Canty-Jones, who worked with the Hillsborough County Center of Excellence to launch the pantry, said the ef- fect has been immediate with parents having written letters of thanks.
“Now, we have given our families somewhere to go,” she said. (Photos by Frederick Harris)
develop and complete a serv- ice project while honoring Dr. King’s legacies of non-violent activism, racial equality, serv- ice to others, and social uplift.
Born of an idea from State Sen. Darryl Rouson, the Day of Service grants were first administered by St. Pe- tersburg College and later ex- panded to Hillsborough Community College.
The local program mirrors the National Martin Luther King Day of Service that was created in 1994 by civil rights
veterans, the former Pennsyl- vania U. S. Senator Harris Wolford and Atlanta Con- gressman John Lewis.
The goal was to “change the culture” with the addition of a service component to ob-
Under Our Skin Forum: The Purpose Is To Deal With The Racial Divide
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
Healing the racial divide is a process that begins on an in- dividual level that branches into honest conversations with others who are different from ourselves.
That’s the premise behind “Under Our Skin: A Forum on Race and Faith,” a three-part panel discussion held last week featuring University of South Florida football coach, Char- lie Strong, Baltimore Ravens tight end, Benjamin Wat- son, and Hall of Fame coach, Tony Dungy, among others.
ESPN host Sage Steele
TONY DUNGY
CHARLIE STRONG
BENJAMIN WATSON
served as moderator. Hundreds packed
Watson after a grand jury de- clined to indict white Fergu- son, Mo., police officer, Darren Wilson in the shoot- ing death of unarmed teenager, Michael Brown.
Shortly after Watson wrote a book, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race — and Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations That Divide Us, which examines race, bias, and justice.
Part of the three-hour forum addressed what pan- elists are doing currently in their professional and personal lives to heal the racial divide.
For author and speaker Mo Isoma, the shooting death of Alton Sterling at the hands of two white police officers in Baton Rouge stirred “a deep empathy” in her unlike similar events because she knew many who were affected personally.
Isoma said she recognized that “it was not all lives matter in the body of Christ” and that “in the American church, we’ve whitewashed the gospel.”
“From that point for- ward...I can speak the ‘truth and light’, and I’ve got to do it as much as possible,” she said.
Christians should approach
racism not just on an individ- ual level, but also one that is corporate and systemic, said former University of Florida QB and Heisman Trophy win- ner, Danny Wuerffel.
“Christians should be at the forefront” of breaking down walls of racism in hous- ing, education, and other areas of society, said Wuerffel, the executive director of Atlanta- based Desire Street Ministries.
“But what happens is we drag our feet,” he said. “We’ve got to take a good look at our world, society, and systems.”
Wuerffel said one way that racism can be combated is for everyone to “stay engaged in the fight against it, some- thing that he admitted that he has the privilege of not doing.
“That’s not something I have to engage in as a white person,” he said. “To stay at it is one of the most important things.”
It all begins with following the commandment of the Bible that asks us to ‘love our neigh- bors as ourselves’, Dungy said.
“I think we can do what the Lord says to do,” he said. “It’s simple, but not always easy.”
into Tampa’s The Crossing Church to hear panelists discuss their perspectives on race and how faith plays a role in their out-
look.
It’s important to under-
stand that racism is “a trick of the enemy”, said CBS sports- caster James Brown.
“If we allow ourselves to get caught up in that, he’s won,” Brown said.
Getting serious about erad- icating racism requires us to honor the word of the “best coach that has been, and that’s God,” he said.
That means putting action behind your faith in the eradi- cation of racism, Brown said.
“Too many of us have been talking about the play,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we’re still in the huddle.”
The forum is rooted in a Facebook post penned by
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017