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The Wilmington Fire Department added extra patriotism to tiie North Carolina Azalea
Festival parade as they marched in full gear along Water Street last Saturday morning.
Minority partidpatim questioned in Azalea Festival
NAACP leaders are
looking to add more diversity
to last weekend’s festivities
KATIE BLANCHARD
Azalea Festi val-goCTs may have seen
a little bit of everything along Water
Street this weekend, but some area lead
ers say that one element wasn't widely
visible—minority participation in the
event
F« four days, people from across the
nation join local residents to celebrate
the region’s cultural history. But some
say that the festival organizers don’t tty
hard enough to appeal to the minority
community in promoting and cowdinat-
ing the event. Among those is Rev. John
Fredlaw, pnssident of the New Hanover
County chapter of the NAACP. Fredlaw
said the lack of minority presence has
caused him to try harder toencourage
underrepresented community members
to participate in the festival.
"1 felt as president and as a leader,
trying to eliminate the gap between the
races and the mental gap, and healing
the wounds amongst the races, that we
should participate in the festival,”
Fredlawsaid. “It’sapartofWilmington
and a laige part of our history.”
The North Carolina Azalea F^tival
“(The festival) doesn’t exactly pro
mote minority participation, but we must
. . , promote ourselves,” Fredlaw said. "You
began m 1948 and its organizers have cannot go to the table and sit down un-
always stnved to accentuate southern „
heritage. Howev^, this cel^on. with encouraging the
itshoopskinsandsouttabeUeimages, ^AACP. including the UNCW
does not seem to reach out chapter, to get more involved
in the event Repre
sentatives from
the UNCW
chapter set iq) a
table at the pa
rade, where
they sold
raffle tickets to
■aise money for
their organization.
“I would like to think
that we will be able to par
ticipate a little more next year, maybe
to the area’s
ity population.
A few years
ago, local Af
rican Ameri
cans had
talked about
boycotting
the Azalea
Festival for
many reasons, one
of them being the lack of
events that encourage minority
participation. For example, over the
festival's 55-year history, only a small
"(The festival) doesn’t
exactly promote minority
participation, but we must
promote ourselves, ”
-Rev. John Fredlaw
: could get enough people to march i
the parade instead of just having a table,”
number of African-Mcan women ^
have been crowned Azalea queen. - • • - ■ ■ —
However, no actions were ever ofR-
UNCW chapter of the NAACP
. , Fredlaw said he feels that being vi
cially taken against the event or its or- ^ ^ ^
ganizers.
munity member was vital to improving
The fcuval s organizers say they ^ of the event
havetnedtoencour^e mvolvemern of
all area residents by having ^rfor- in it and we did,” Fredlaw said,
mances by guests stich as Bill Cosby, ^ ^
Dionne Warwick and this year, Natalie
Recruitment
aimed at
future leaders
Mdlly Handler
About 50 future UNCW student
came to campas la.st weekend in a new
program aimed at improving the acqui
sition and retention rates of universit)
student leaders.
Resident advisors, hall govemmen
participants and Resident Hall Associa
tion leaders hosted the students, all o
whom have already been accepted tc
UNCW.
The visitation program is not de
signed to show the new students arounc
the campus buildings or administration
Instead, the agenda was geared towarc
giving information to those wanting tt
pursue leadership programs in both tht
community and campus government
“We put this (program) together ir
hopes that some of these people will ge
involved. We have a hard time keeping
people involved each year due to such 
high turn over of people moving off
campus” said Craig Wymer, the resi
dence coordinator of Galloway Hall.
The incoming freshmen arrived or
Friday and were assigned to stay witl
several students already living on-cam
pus in Schwartz Hall, Galloway HaU
Graham-lett Hall, the Apartments anc
the Suites.
“The ( students saw) how hall gov
ernment works and (can decide
whether they can see themselves doinj
it The students will also be able to movt
in three days earlier than most freshmer
if they show an interest in hall govern
ment This is an incentive to start elec
tions as soon as the dorm opens,’
Wymer said.
One of the visiting students, Jess
Ellenburg said,“l loved (the program)
and I wanted to stay in Wilmington af
ter visiting. I can not wait until the fall.’
There was an evaluation at the ent
of the program, which asked about tht
overall experience of the students, in
eluding weekend, the food, the activi
ties and if they are interesting in joining
hall government as a result of the pro
gram.
" We will be able to see in Augus
based on the turnout for RHA and hal
government” Wymer said, with rcgan
to the success of the pn>gram.