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Durham Woman ‘Earns’ Home
From Habitat For Humanity
By Milton Jordan
This week, Ms. Shirley Carter
jets something she says she has
ilways wanted: a new house,
lomplete with yard and a sense of
Kcurity for her two children.
“I’m planning to move in this
teek,” Ms. Carter said during a
ecent interview. “I’m really
joking forward to it because I
^as raised in a house, and I
Iways .wanted by children to
ave the same advantage.”
Ms. Carter’s new $27,000, two-
edroom home at 1001 Angler
.ve., is the first of about 15
juses slated to be built over the
at three years by the Durham
abitat For Humanity affiliate.
The local groups dedicate this
rst house Saturday.
A second house, next to Ms.
trter’s new home, is under con-
uction, and the organization,
rt of an international housing
fort, plans to build and sell five
jre houses next year.
“Our program is not a
'eaway program,” explained
try Bumgardner, a local
ibitat For Humanity volunteer.
1 is really a joint effort between
: organization and the poten-
1 homeowner.”
fere is how it works,
fabitat For Humanity, which
lan in Durham about two
rs ago, buys building lots,
iding materials, and using
»is of volunteer laborers.
Id houses for people
ngardner referred to as “the
king poor.”
The organization then sells the
houses to persons who qualify,
such as Ms. Carter. Buyers pay
no interest.
Ms. Carter, 33, works as an ad
ministrative assistant at the Edge-
mont Community Center and
earns less than $15,000 annually.
Before moving this week, Ms.
Carter lived in an apartment in
Few Gardens for about a year
where she pays almost $300 mon
thly rent. Few Gardens is a sub
sidized housing complex in East
Durham.
According to Ms. Carter, her
monthly payments on her new
home will be less than $160 mon
thly.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she
said. “Even after I applied for
the house, I had no idea that I
would get it. But I’m sure glad I
did.”
People who buy homes from
Habitat For Humanity not only
pay for the home with the mon
thly payments for a fixed term,
but they also must volunteer
sometimes as much as 100 hours
in work, either on their home, or
another house built by the
organization.
“I’ve just about put in my 100
hours,” Ms. Carter said. “It was
really interesting. 1 had never
done that kind of work before,
but I’m glad I did because 1 really
learned a lot.”
Volunteers are the heart of the
Habitat program.
According to Ms. Nancy
Grady who coordinates
volunteers for the Durham
Habitat For Humanity organiza
tion, more than 375 people have
volunteered more than 400,000
hours this year on Habitat pro
jects.
In addition to the two houses
under construction. Habitat also
conducted a housing rehabilita
tion project earlier this year, ac
cording to Ms. Grady.
“Our volunteers cover the
spectrum,” Ms. Grady said.
“Many of them come from local
churches that have sent work
groups to our projects. We aisc
have individuals who have
volunteered, as well as civic
organizations, and people who
have been sent by the courts to
complete a sentence of communi
ty service,”
Community service is the prin
ciple objective of Habitat For
. Humanity on an international
level.
According to an information
fact sheet:
“Habitat For Humanity is an
ecumenical Christian housing
ministry whose objective is to
eliminate poverty housing from
the world and to make decent
shelter a matter of conscience. By
having affluent and poor work'
together in equal partnership.
Habitat hopes to build new rela
tionships and a sense of eom-
munity as well as new houses.”
Internationally, the organiza
tion has more than 200 affiliated
projects in the United States and
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Rev. W. W, Easley, pastor of St, Joseph’s A,M.E. Church receives a special recognition award from
s. Florme Roberson, president of the local NAACP chapter, St. Joseph’s was cited for submitting the
Best number of memberships during the November 1987 NAACP Membership Drive.
Christmas Decorations At Governor’s
Mansion Ready For Viewing
BY JIM WICKER
RALEIGH - A small boy visit-
the North Carolina Governor’s
nsion, which was opened to the
lie o^er.the weekend to display
“hristmas finery, was overheard
mg a guide, "’’I^ose house is
‘It belongs to everybody in
th Carolina. If you live in the
!, then it is your house, too," the
le explained.
^uilt in the late 1880s and early
Ds with prison labor, the impos-
i buff-pale brick mansion
*ts the Victorian architectural
! of its period. Som^ people call
‘gingerbread’ type house,
sven if the state’s governors
I’t call it home, the huge house
Blount Street - within easy
hn^^^tance of the Capitol and
itive Building - would be
lessive. There’s an unmistak-
’ sense of history connected
lit
lost of the most powerful/nen
laced by the state in the past
century have dwelled in the big
house; it has the special air, or feel,
of a place where historically impor
tant things have happened, where
plans have been made by a man
pacing in front of one of the many
fireplaces.
But, at the same time, the man
sion also has the feel of a home -
where governors’ wives have been
mothers first and First Ladies sec
ond on a day-to-day basis: It seems
to be a place where youngsters
might have struggled with
homework, where daughters might
have planned weddings, or where
sons might have gotten their first
cars and headed off to college.
Each year shortly before Christ
mas, the mansion is opened to the
public, to allow a sharing of its
Yule decorations. And although it
is opened each Spring and Summer
for scheduled tours, there’s no bet
ter or more colorful opportunity to
see it than around the Christmas
seqson.
The old mansion does, indeed.
leave its visitors feeling that
they’ve been among a part of the
state’s heritage and treasure.
This year, the mansion’s first
floor is decorated with four huge
North Carolina grown Christmas
trees, including a mamouth 16-foot
fir that extends from the polished
hardwood floor to the house’s
ornate ceiling. It’s decorations are
light golden.
"It took a staff of 21 volunteers
seven full days to decorate the
mansion this year," explains Betty
Deans, personal secretary to Eirst
Lady Dottie Martin. And, she adds,
the decorating was under the super
vision of a man very experienced in
decking the halls of a governor’s
mansion.
"Grady Wheeler, who has been
decorating Tryon Palace (the
restored residence of Royal Gov.
William Tryon in New Bern) for
several years offered to decorate
the Governor’s Mansion here this
year; he had 20 volunteers helping
him and they worked long hours
t Center now has a dance studio named after Mrs. M. Kaye Sullivan .Stanriimr in
Ind%:^v‘S:irr= l^hoKryZrBobbyCfe:rn»„!;;
Appreciation And Farewell Ceremony
Held For Mrs. M. Kaye Sullivan
An appreciation and farewell
ceremony was presented by the
City of Durham and the M. Kaye
Sullivan Appreciation Day Com
mittee Sat., Dec. 12, in the
.Alfonso Elder Student Union on
the NCCU campus. Mrs. Sullivan
and her husband, DeWitt
--.Sullivan, will be leaving Durham
. at year end.
Colleagues, family and friends
filled the auditorium to pay
special tribute to the honoree
who was described as a very
dedicated, unselfish, creative and
productive citizen of the Durham
community.
Representing the City of
Durham were F.G. Burnett,
chairman of the Recreation Ad
visory Committee, and Mrs. Joan
Miller, supervisor of the Durham
Parks and Recreation Depart
ment, who commended Mrs.
Sullivan for her many contribu
tions to the citizens of Durham in
the areas of dance,
choreography, aerobics and exer
cise. They formally announced
the renaming of the W.D. Hill
C enter’s Dance
Studio to the “M. Kaye Sullivan
Dance Studio”, effective
December 9, 1987, in Mrs.
Sullivan’s honor.
Mrs. Sullivan was presented by
her son, Dwight Sullivan.
The Appreciation Day Com
mittee was co-chaired by Oren
Marsh and Mrs. JoAnne Ford-
Jones. C. Warren Massenburg
was master of ceremonies. Mrs.
Jones was given special recogni
tion. Other members of the sup
portive committee were Mrs.
Virginia Alston, Freddie McNeil,
Ms. Wanda Little and Ms. Jean
Lassiter.
(Continued On Page 3)
DeWitt Sullivan Retires
Moving To
Hattiesburg Mississippi
By Milton Jordan
DeWitt Sullivan left his home
state of Mississippi more than 30
years ago, and for all that time he
has wanted to go back but never
could.
Now he’s going home.
Sullivan, 56, president of Gar
rett, Sullivan, Davenport, Bowie
and Grant, a Durham accounting
firm, is retiring from the firm, ef
fective Dec. 31.
“We are leaving the next day
for Hattiesburg, Mississippi,”
Sullivan said during a recent in
terview, “I want to go home and
see what contriutions I can
nake.”
Making contributions has
become almost second nature for
Sullivan who has worked, both
professionally and on a voluntary
basis with community action.
political and housing organiza
tions.
He is currently a board
member or officer with the Low
Income Housing Development
Corporation of North Carolina,
the N.C. Voter Education Pro
ject, the Hayti Development Cor
poration and the N.C. Rural
Economic Development Center.
“1 really haven’t decided what
I’m going to do yet,” Sullivan
said. “I’m going to get my CPA
license in Mississippi, but beyond
that I don’t know. 1 just feel now
is a good time to go home.”
For more than 20 years,
Sullivan has called Durham
home.
He came here from Detroit in
1965 to become controller of the
North Carolina Fund.
(CominuedOnPiigeS)
each day until they finished,’’
Deans said.
Another large and colorful tree,
decorated with hand-made trinkets,
is located in the rear room of the
first floor. It got a lot of attention,
and was found to have an assort
ment of antique toys spread
beneath it. Could it, one wondered,
have been the kind of Christmas
presents the children of some long-
gone governor with names such as
Hoey or Cheiiy have found?
At either side of the huge stair
way that leads to the governor’s
private living quarters on the sec
ond floor, are small Christmas tree
decorations made of colorful crab
apples.
In fact, members of the gov
ernor’s staff explain, the decora
tions throughout the mansion, and
on the big gate leading to the man
sion, are made of real fruit - apples,
pineapples, pears.
Among the mansion staff mem
bers who aided visitors at the man
sion over the weekend was Gregory
Washington of Robeson County.
He is one several blacks who work
at the big house.
Since being first occupied by a
governor in 1891, the mansion has
been redecorated many times over
the years and was extensively
renovated during the administration
of Gov. Jim Holshouser in the early
1970s.
The mansion is npt the first state-
(Continued On Page 2)
Hillside Students To Walk
Through North Carolina For
Kidney Foundation
Twelve Hillside High School student council members will step off
at 8 o clock Monday morning, Dec. 21, on a 290-mile, 12-dav walk
across North Carolina — from just across the state line in Mecklen
burg County, Virginia to the South Carolina border south of
Charlotte.
Why&
Because they care!
It s all for the benefit of the Kidney Foundation of North Carolina
- to raise the public awareness of kidney illnes.ses, to elicit support
for people who need kidney transplants, organ donation, and to rai.se
money for the Kidney Foundation.
Hillside’s walkers are: seniors Tonya Robinson, Nathan Burton.
Anissa Fields and Patrick Hatch; juniors Charee Wilkins, C'Ico Sims,
Tony Rosser, Charlita Wilkins and Chris Respass; .sophomores Jerel
Jenkins and David Edgerton; and freshman Lcci Tavlor. These
students will be giving up the comforts and pleasures of the holidav
vacation to make a contribution to others.
At 8 o’clock on Monday morning, elected officials from both sides
ol the border, will countdown and ring bells and the .students will lake
their first steps toward their destination.
The North Carolina Association of Educators has adopted this pro
ject as one ol Its major human relations programs for the year. In sup
port ol the 12-day walk, teachers in many parts of the state are engag
ing III a iwo-mile walk on Saturday, Dec. 19. In addition, service clubs
111 many high schools and middle schools are conducting fund-raising
projects III order to support the walk. Some of these students will join
the team as they walk through their home areas.
Months of planning have gone into this project, including long Sun
day morning walks to get in shape for the 12-day journey.
The itinerary:
• Day 1, Dee. 21 — Virginia line to Henderson
—Starting Ceremony
-Pass through Wise, Norlina, Ridgeway, Soul City, Manson, Mid-
dleburg, and enter Henderson
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