Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 7-5-19

Feature
Celebrated For 50-Year-Membership In Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. Sorority
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
Joining a sorority is a rite of passage for some young women and Pat Miles was no different.
The St. Petersburg native grew up watching the women of Alpha Kappa Alpha Soror- ity, Inc., host events, execute community service projects, and mentor young ladies.
By the time she was initi- ated in 1969 in the Gamma Tau Chapter at what is now Bethune-Cookman Univer- sity, her fate had been sealed.
“All of my role models and women that were in my family happened to all be AKA women,” she said. “By the time I got to college, it was baked in.”
Fifty years later, Miles is still active in her beloved sorority, which recently cele-
Women who were celebrated with 50-year memberships in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., from left: Justice Peggy Quince, Maria Mitchell, Pat Miles and Patsy Greene. (Photograph by Ricky Roberts)
and Patsy Greene also were lauded for their decades of membership and service to the community.
Among them are years of serving on or heading up dozens of committees, hun- dreds of hours of meetings, and holding several positions on both the local and na- tional levels.
The accolades have “been a whirlwind,” said Mitchell. “We’re blessed and hon- ored to make this milestone,” she said. “This has been re-
ally nice.”
Like Miles, Mitchell
said members of the histori- cally Black sorority – founded in 1908 on the cam- pus of Howard University – were heavy influences on her growing up in Fort Myers. Mitchell received confirma- tion that the sisterhood would definitely be part of her future on a train trip to Hampton University.
“That was my first time leaving home,” she said. “I met a young lady on the train...and we struck up a conversation. We just started talking.”
The young woman was a few years ahead of Mitchell at Hampton and the two kept in touch on campus. Their meeting would prove to be fruitful.
“She made sure that when it was time for intake (at Hampton’s Gamma Theta Chapter), she sponsored me,” Mitchell said.
Judge Quince said she, too, was influenced to join thanks to the examples of members in her community she holds dear her good for- tune to join the sorority at its Alpha Chapter, (Howard University).
“This was the chapter the founders were part of,” she said. “That alone was excit- ing.”
Quince said she wasn’t as active at certain periods
while raising her family and building a law career. But strong bonds with sorors kept her tethered to the sis- terhood and made it easy to fall back into stride.
“AKA was a more organ- ized way to do things in the community with specific goals,” she said. “I could have found projects just for me to do, but with a number of peo- ple working it was a more ef- ficient way to render service.”
Greene, who helped with the planning of Gamma Theta Omega’s Miss Teenage Tampa Scholarship Pageant for many years, said working sorors as a team to make an impact on the community al- ways has kept her connected to the sorority.
So have the many treas- ured friendships established over the years, including those she shares with Quince, Mitchell, and Miles, she said.
“The sisterhood has been immeasurable,” she said.
What isn’t hard to trace is Greene’s direct tie to the sorority from a member who inspired her to join, Alfreda Garrett.
“She was spunky and en- thusiastic and stylish,” she said. “So when I went off to school, I saw the AKAs on campus and they epitomized everything I liked about Mrs. Garrett.”
It’s been 50 years since Greene joined the sorority at Florida A&M’s Beta Alpha Chapter, but she’s already looking ahead to the centen- nial anniversary.
“That party’s gonna be so big!” she said.
Right now, it’s about cele- brating and giving gratitude for the first 50 years, Greene said.
“I’m just very thankful to God to allow me to be here,” she said. “Some people I came in with have already gone on.”
brated her milestone an- niversary along with three other members of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Gamma Theta
Omega Chapter. RetiredSupremeCourtof
Florida Judge Peggy Quince, Maria Mitchell,
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