3A
NEWS/OTlie Charlotte $ost
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Prominent women successful at business and community
Continued from page 1A
and creator of the POP
Awards. “One thing that I
noticed in my community
dealings was the incredible
clout, influence, and talent
African American women
had within companies and
organizations that were going
relatively unnoticed by the
community at large.”
The POP Awards will be
held at Spirit Square at 6
p.m. Tickets are $75 and can
be purchased at The Post.
Proceeds will fund scholar
ships, educational initiatives
and arts and racial inclusion
projects.
The caveat 'Women of
Distinction’ was added to this
year’s POP Awards to recog
nize the achievements of
Emma Shaw Allen, LaEita
Barber, Angeline Clinton,
Raichelle Glover, and Linda
Lockman-Brooks in their
careers, civic and commimity
organizations and family
lives.
“When Gerald.. .called me I
asked him, ‘Are you sure?”’
said Clinton, vice president of
enterprise operations ser
vices at Duke Energy. “It’s a
great honor, especially to be
recognized with this group of
women that I’m going to be
standing shoulder to shoul
der with. That’s very inspir
ing.”
The premise of “paying it
forward” inspires Allen, a
consultant and director of •
community outreach at First
Charter Bank. As founder of
a wealth management com
pany, AJ Financial, she con
ducts a seminar titled “Start
Now, Finish Rich” to empow
er the community regarding
finances.
“I am humbled by (the
honor),” she said, “because
while I recognize that I am
being recognized for doing
significant work in communi
ty, I realize that there are a
lot of other people doing the
same thing. I feel I am accept
ing on behalf of all those who
do it every day and do not get
recognized.”
All of the honorees are
accomplished professionally
and have garnered countless
awards and recognitions over
the years, but it is their char
acter and spirit as role mod
els in the commimity that
will be as much of a focal
point at the POP Awards.
“I think it incumbent upon
us to give back when we can
in what evei manner we can,”
said Clinton. “Everybody isn't
able to give back in the same
way and as we see thir^
that we can become passion
ate [about] or create some
passion around, I just think
it’s healthy. It’s what we
should do. It’s just the right
thing to do.”
As a small business owner,
Lockman-Brooks, president
of Lockman-Brooks
Marketing Services, also
acknowledges the importance
of community involvement
and said that is one of the
reasons she is so proud to
receive this particular award.
“I was raised with the old
adage ‘to whom much is
given, much is required’, so I
think that’s part of my per
sonal motivation,” she said. “I
also believe that business
owners of color and black
executives in corporate life
really need to have their feet
at the table in community
organizations so that they
can bring their perspective as
well as add their expertise to
the conversation.”
POP win include two seg
ments where guests will have,
the specific opportunity to
network and socialize with
the honorees. The honorees
will also be placed on stage
with WSOC-TV morning
news anchor Erica Bryant for
a living room-type discussion.
Though the format is a depar
ture from tjqjical awards
events, Johnson feels it will
be beneficial in that the audi
ence can learn for the hon
orees’ experiences.
. Clinton echoed that senti
ment, saying, “As long people
can learn finm the mistakes
I’ve made as well as what I’ve
done right, then so be it.”
Lockman-Brooks feels that
the unique format will be a
nice change of pace and will
be interesting and worth
while by giving people a
chance to interact.
The honorees will have
plenty of words of wisdom for
those in attendance and sage
advice for future generations.
Glover, a senior vice presi
dent with Bank of America,
emphasizes the importance of
excellence and professional
ism for the community.
“I am really driven now
more than ever before around
the whole notion of excellence
and that takes on many
forms,” she said.
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Durham defends its honor during ordeal
Continued from page 1A
with an armfiil of bright red
portfolios stuffed with promo
tional material about her city
of200,000. She hands out fly
ers or just a business card,
and knowing the fastest way
to a reporter’s heart, she
offers food from local restau
rants and caterers.
“We knew we had to be on
the street,” said Reyn
Bowman, president and chief
executive of the convention
and visitors bureau. ‘We had
to be in touch with the media.
... Our job was to move quick
ly, and Rosemary did that.”
Durham has long been
stereotyped in North
Carolina as the bad apple of
the'Triangle, as the cities of
Raleigh, Durham, and
Chapel Hill are known.
Raleigh is seen as the clean, if
bland, state capital, while
Chapel Hni is the bucolic uni-
'versity town. But Durham is
viewed as troubled and
crime-ridden, a rundown fac
tory and tobacco town that
has seen better days - with
the elite Duke in its midst.
After a black exotic dancer
told police she was raped by
white members of the Duke
lacrosse team at an off-cam-
pus party, a frenzy of media
descended on Durham to
cover the case and the later
indictment of two players.
Bowman and Kitchin said
their aim isn’t to put a posi
tive spin on the story, but pro
vide an accurate context for
national depictions of their
city, which hasn’t gotten this
much screen time since “Bull
Durham” hit theaters in
1988.
“When a frenzy hits like
this, people are looking for
contrasts,, so the temptation
is to slightly overemphasize
the contrasts,” Bowman said.
“Durham has a bit of an
image problem within a 50-
mile radius anyway, that
often contaminates the
national coverage.”
Durham officials are finas-
trated when writers describe
Durham’s population as poor
and black. The city’s popula
tion is 45.5 percent white and
43.8 percent black, while the
median household income is
$41,160, or just under the
national average.
The “rundown factory
town” image irks as well,
given that the famed
Research Triangle Park is a
special tax district within
Durham County and the
high-end Streets at
Southpoint regional mall
anchors the county’s south
ern end. The county’s largest
employers are Duke and its
medical center, drugmaker
GlaxoSmithKline and IBM,
which has its largest single
facility in Durham at RTP.
Kitchin said she was
shocked to see a television
story show an under-con
struction condominium
development to illustrate a
reporter’s statement that
Durham “has seen better
times.”
“Is the glass half-empty, or
is it half-fiiU?” she said. ‘Tie’s
showing huge renovation pro
jects as though they’re
slums.”
Bowman said the bureau
plans to commission national
polling on Durham’s image in
the days ahead and then
again in several months to
try to assess the impact of the
lacrosse case on the city’s
image.
But Duane Knapp, head of
Anacortes, Wash.-based DEK
BrandStrategy, a group that
consults to convention and
visitor bureaus on marketing
and-branding issues, said he
wouldn’t worry.
“The long-term challenge is
a strategic one, not a reac
tionary one,” Knapp said.
“The challenge would be:
What do we want our
promise to be going forward,
to make sure the city leader
ship and the convention and
visitors bureau has the
opportunity to decide what
experience they want to offer.
What kind of experience do
we want visitors to enjoy
when they’re here?”
Bowman and Kitchin are
used to battling on Durham’s
behalf Their bureau has long
urged local media outlets to
dateline stories in Research
Triangle Park from Durham,
and to note Duke’s location in
Durham in stories about the
university.
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VOTE. May 2.2006
DONNA JENKINS DAWSON
for
Mecklenburg County Board
Commissioner District 2
“Politics is not predictions and
politics is not observations.
Politics is what we do. Politics
is what we do, politics is what
we create, by what we work
for, by what we hope for and
what we dare to imagine.”
Paul David WeUstone
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