Bass fund launches new initiatives
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The Marshall B. Bass Chil
1 dren's Fund, an agency thai
awards grants to fundamentally
build and improve the manage
ment behavior of organizations
that serve children, has
? announced two new initiatives
geared toward those children"
service organizations in
Forsyth County,
i 0 The Bass Fund will host a
new series of seminars
designed to strengthen the man
agement capability of chil
dren's service organizations
The first seminar held on June
18 at Winston-Salem State Uni
; versity, featured guest speaker
Jan Kendall, the President of
! the North Carolina Center for
Non-Profits. Kendall spoke on
the importance of organization
al effectiveness in the non-pfof
it sector.
Future seminars will cover a
range of topics such as
fundraising and strategic plan
ning. The. next seminar, to be
held on October 3 will feature
the "Techniques and Practices
for Successful Fundraising."
All seminars will be held on the
campus of Winston-Salem
State.
In addition to the Seminar
Series, the Bass Fund has also
announced a new Small Grant
program. Grants re limited to a
maximum of $1,000 and are
available to 501(c) (3) organi
zations in Forsyth County,
North Carolina that provide
services to children. Small rants
wjll be given to provide fund
ing in limited amounts for
activities that support the mis
sion of The Marshall B. Bass
Children's Fund.
"While our large grant mul
tiyear program has served us
well, we believe that these two
new initiatives will significant
ly strengthen our capability to
serve children," Bass said.
The Children's Fund, estab
lished in 1997 by Marshall
Bass, a retired senior vice pres
ident of RJR Nabisco, is found
ed on the premise that the best
way to influence the largest
number of children is by
strengthening the agencies that
serve them.
Bass
Smiley
from page A8
Black Entertainment Television
talk show in a dispute over an
interview he sold to ABC ("a
godsend" is how Smiley
describes his departure).
Smiley has quickly become a
valuable part of NPR, said the net
work's president and chief execu
tive officer Kevin Klose.
"This man's presence, his
charm, his humor about life and
his thoughtfulness about the.,
human condition, in a universal
sense, is immediately affecting to
listeners," Klose said.
But while he refuses to dilute
his show's black perspective.
Smiley says he wants to appeal to
non-black listeners. Trying to
include a variety of voices, he fea
tured Microsoft magnate Bill
Gates and former President Bill
Clinton among his early guests.
His newsmagazine is gaining
ground beyond its black-station
core, with NPR outlets in Seattle.
Philadelphia and New York
among those who have added it.
(The show stumbled in Los
Angeles. A station that was inter
rupting the popular "Morning
Edition" to air Smiley dropped
him because of viewer com
plaints. He is heard on KPCC.
another NPR station in the area.)
Siniley's goal at NPR is to
make news by breaking news, he
said. His goal with his separate
radio commentary is to stir things
up.
"What is it of all the issues I
have in front of me that I could
discuss? What are these black folk
most likely not to hear if they
don't hear it from me?" he said he
asks himself each day.
His boldness has given him
star status among black audi
ences: An uproar greeted his firing
from BET.
While Smiley reaches out to a
new audience he can't be accused
of losing touch with his fan base.
He lives and works in a largely
black section of Los Angeles and
not just, he says, because Beverly
Hills was beyond his financial
reach.
To create a headquarters for
his various enterprises, he took a
dilapidated, graffiti-smeared
building and transformed it into
an elegtfht space filled with mod
em art and African artifacts (a
design buff. Smiley picked the
look himself).
The office is a way to illus
trate a point. T wanted people in
the community to see we could
take what was old and ugly and
fix it up," he said.
A valuable picture. But can it
be worth more than a thousand
words to Smiley?
'One day when I was about 3
or 4,1 was running my mouth at a
family gathering," he recounted.
"My aunt said to me, 'Boy, do
you ever shut up? Why do you
talk so much?"
"I shot right back. Because
I've got a lot to say.' All these
years later. I've -still got a lot to
say."
Maids
from page A4
for the president of Coca Cola, the
vice president of Macy's and for a
family of lawyers. Wilson eventu
ally went to cooking school and
opened her own catering service
because she grew weary of partic
ipating in the family vacation at
the beach even though she got
along well with the family.
"I got tired of going to the
beach in the summer. I didn't like
it. ... I decided to start my own
business," Wilson said.
She catered for several affairs
in the homes of wealthy families.
With her earnings, she helped tOf>
send her grandchildren to college.
Her grandson was a fire chief in
Detroit, her three granddaughters
became a registered nurse, a spe
cial education teacher, and a the
ater/arts instructor.
"These women put a lot of
kids through college. Many pro
fessional blacks of the middle
class fared well because of the
way their mothers and grand
mothers paved the way." Smith
said. "1 am exceptionally proud of
my grandmother. I am beyond
proud. She even started her own
business. She still cooks, and
everything is still good."
Piggott enjoyed her work with
various families, and the last fam
ily she worked for even contacted
her when they read about the
death of her son in the newspaper.
"I worked for an exceptional
family. I felt elevated because of
my position. The housekeepers
normally wanted to work for
wealthy people, but sometimes
the poorer families would give us
more," Piggott said.
"These were some of the best
dressed women in the church
because they even gave me some
of the things that they received. As
they got newer clothes, they
would pass the older items on.
These women had hats and mink
stoles." said Hayes. "When they
went to church, you never really
knew what they did for a living.
At church, they were deaconesses.
nurses, ushers, choir members
who wore beautiful clothes from
exclusive shops in the city."
Smith noted that some young
people today are offended if
somebody gives them clothes.
"Nobody gave them anything.
They earned those hats, and coats,
and dresses. They earned the right
to wear them with dignity,"Smith
said.
1 I
One memory that Piggott
recalled, caused her to change
jobs. Before she had children, she
helped to care for the child of the
family she served. However,
when her son was bom, Piggott
was told that she could bring her
son to the home, and he could
play around in the basement. That
was my jewel that I had waited
and prayed for. It just wasn't
going to happen," she said. She
moved on to a better job.
Turner introduced all of the
members of the project team and
the women on the panel.
"The energy of this project is
embodied in these people before
you. It is through them that we are
channeling this vision and this
message. ... We are grateful for
Marshall Marvelli who by an
accident of birth is white, but who
knows the South. He saw some
things in these women that you
can clearly see in his photo
graphs." said Turner. "Verdell
Hayes, Mrs. Spillman's daughter,
knew all of these women."
Marvelli has taken photo
graphs nationally and internation
ally, but he ranks this project sec
ond only to his two- week shoot in
South Africa.
"The women would invite me
into their homes, and the presence
of Mrs. Spillman and Ms. Hayes
made it much easier for them to
accept a white man into their
homes." Marvelli said. "I met
more Italian grandmothers who
believe elf you love me. eat. Each
home I entered, we were given
food in the American tradition. I
tried to capture the spirit and the
personality of the women. These
ladies carried pain that they will
not soon forget. . .but they also
carried joy in what they e*peri
enced."
Hayes gained much from the
project.
"1 got a whole lot of mommas
out of this project. We went in to
hear them tell their story. . . We
met for hours to hear these stories.
There was no such thing as going
in and coming right out. And they
were not always open to letting us
in. When some of them disdov
ered that the photographer was a
white man, it took a lot of cajol
ing." Hayes said.
Photo by Felecia McMillan
Verdell Hayes, oral historian, and photographer Marshall
Marvelli serve on the project team for Maid in America.
Q Photo by Bruce Chapman
Leslie Branch, left, and Emily Kelker look over instructions before painting a column.
ft
Art/history
from paAI
Barnes believes the pictorial his
tory will preserve the lore of the
company for some time to come.
"Winston-Salem has a very
unique history in respect to
transportation...Not only for
African Americans but for the
community as a whole," said
Barnes.
More than 10.000 people
pass through the transportation
center each day pn their way to
Hanes Mall. Baptist Hospital
and every other corner of Win
ston-Salem. On Barnes' watch,
the center has taken on a definite
artistic feel, from a unique mem
ory wall on the outside of the
building to hanging sculptures in
the lobby of the center. WSTA
has also recently entered into a
project that will result in poems
by local writers being featured
on the inside of buses.
"Culture is always impor
tant," Barnes said. "When we
have so many people coming
through everyday, it is important
that they be exposed to this."
Rucker and the teens have
given travelers much to talk
about and look at since starting
their project. This is 15-year-old
Monique Smart's first year
working with Artiva. She says
working outside amid travelers
and noisy buses is actually not as
bad as it may seem. "It is
good to work with people and to
work in front of people. " she
said. "They always ask ques
tions and usually the same ques
tion about what we are doing."
Dustin Friend, also 15. has
also answered questions from
curious onlookers.
"What are you doing? Are
you going to paint all of the
columns? Do you go to the
school of the arts?" Friend si^,
r p p I i n t?
? ? ? ? " e
off some
of the
questions
he and the
other
teens get
everyday.
Bus
rider
Billy
D e e n
admits
that he
has questioned the young artists
over the past few weeks. He has
also quietly admired their work
as the columns went from cold
steel beams to colorful works of
art.
The columns really needed
to be painted," he said last week
as he waited for his bus. "The
kids are doing a great job
because it looks a lot better."
Before one drop of paint hit
the columns, Rucker spent six
months producing a miniature
rendering of the finished project.
He said he tried to incorporate
every aspect of Safe Bus, from
the companies secretaries and
drivers to the early jitney days.
The histoi7 will also include
more recent aspects of WSTA's
history, such as when the buses
were equipped to handle handi
capped passengers.
Rucker has also decided to
broaden the project's scope a bit
by incorporating the history of
George Black. Black, a world
famous brick maker, made some
of the bricks used to literally
build the city's downtown.
Rucker, who developed his
skills as an artist as a young
man, is proud of his work
through Artiva and the influence
that he has had on young people.
"It gives the kids a chance to
work with a professional artist to
see what the actual working life
for a professional is like." he
said. "They see art and do it in
class, but this gives them an
actual chance to experience
being an artist and get paid for
it."
Emily Kelker, 15, workad
with Rucker last year on the
ESR project. Although at ESR.
she painted an inside mural with
the luxury of air conditioning,
Kelker ranks the WSTA project
as her greatest artistic experi
ence so far.
"This is something totally
different," she said. "I will
remember doing this project for
a very long time."
Monique Smart said she will
take more than fresh artistic
experience with her once the
project ends. She never knew
about the history behind the
city's transit system. She says
she is greatly impressed.
"I actually thought that white
people started it," she said. "It
makes me feel good because I
would have never thought that
blacks started the bus company
in Winston-Salem."
Barnes
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