Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Nov. 25, 2004, edition 1 / Page 5
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Conference asks young men to turn to Christ and away from drugs BY JAESON PITT THE CHRONICLE Gregg Sanders knows the aftereffects of a life lived on the mean streets. A five-time convicted felon, Sanders has served time in three states. In all, Sanders spent more than 13 years behind bars, mostly for drug offenses. Today, Sanders is walking on the straight and narrow. Faith, he said, saved him and gave him a new lease on life. "Fast money, easy money, wasn't worth what I found in Christ." he said. Sanders was among those in attendance at Union Baptist Church's Corner 2 Corner Conference last week. The conference was designed to show people in the drug trade that there is a way out. The conference featured a wide variety of seminars, lec tures and even a job fair. All were aimed at helping drug dealers change their lives. One of the highlights of the conference was a special luncheon held Friday at Cente nary United Methodist Church. Businessman Ben Ruffin, a former chairman of the UNC Boapj of Governors, served as the keynote speaker for the event. Ruffin seemed to morph into a preacher with his spoken delivery. In a powerful tone, Ruffin shouted a message of hope to conference attendees. "Take your life. Get out of that famine. Shake it off and just come on back. You ain't seen nothin' yet. You can do any thing you want to do," he said. He went on to say, "Forget about this quick fix, forget about these quick dollars that'll get lost in the famine, and let's build some solid foundation." Ruffin's words touched many of the participants. One participant, who was simply known as "Priest," said those slinging drugs are doing more harm than they may think. "(The) only thing I can say is out of all the material wealth you get out on the street, it's a lot of spiritual downfalls as far as taking from the neighbor hood, killing off your brothers and sisters. And not only that. I got not a penny I made out there in them streets and it isn't worth it. ...It's not." Derrick Dendy, another young man who came to the Gregg Sanders spent a large j chunk of his adult life in prison for drug offenses. conference to refocus his life, said that the conference has been a long time coming. He feels that he received a lot from the community leaders who took part in the event. He is looking forward to having a positive impact on his commu nity from now on and to encouraging others. "(I want to) take this oppor tunity to try to achieve and be successful in life, because there are open doors for others." Artemus Bellamy said the work that Union Baptist and its pastor, the ReV. Sir Walker Mack Jr., have already done saved him from a life of crime and possibly doing time behind bars. Today, Bellamy tries <o prevent others from making the same mistakes he did. "It's not worth it. I've been there. I tried it. I can't do it no more; that drug thing is noth ing to play with," said Bel lamy, who says he used to sell crack. "God gave me another chance." Mack believes that through faith, there can be more suc cess stories like Bellamy. "This was a tremendous week because transformation has taken place. We have seen young men turn their life over to Christ, and we are thankful for that." Mack feels that the confer ence made an impact on all those who attended, and he plans on strengthening it that much more next year. LISC receives foundation grant SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) has been awarded a grant of $300,000 by The Win ston-Salem Foundation. According to Paula McCoy, LISC program director, the grant will be used for core oper ating support for 2005-2007. LISC's mission is to build the capacity of community based development organizations to revi talize their neighbor hoods. The ageny strives to achieve its mission by providing technical assistance, training, grants and loans. "Our vision is that the private, public and non-profit sectors of Winston-Salem work in partnership to create neuitny, vinrant neignoornooas where all residents have a safe, affordable place to live, work and play." McCoy said. LISC. a national nonprofit community development organ ization. opened an office in Win ston-Salem in early 1999 at the request of a consortium of com munity leaders, area businesses and local philanthropic organi zations interested in revitalizing distressed neighborhoods in Winston-Salem. The Winston Salem Foundation was one of the primary forces behind the initiative and has been a vital partner in LISC's community revitalization efforts. The Win ston-Salem Foundation has pro vided critical organizational and financial support to LISC and our nonprofit partners, McCoy said. LISC's funded partners cur rently include the following nonprofit Community Develop ment Corporations (CDCs) and Community Development Enti ties (CDEs): The Center for HomeOwnership, Goler-Depot Renaissance CDC, Housing Partnership of Winston McCoy Salem/Forsyth County, Liberty CDC, Neighbors for Better Neighbor hoods. North Caroli. na Housing Founda tion, Rural Initia- 4* tives Project Inc.. Simon Green Atkins CDC, and Southside CDC. Gerald Church, first Vice president of Central Carolina Bank and Trust, is the chairman of LISC's local advi sory committee. "Winston-Salem's redevel opment landscape has changed significantly in the last five years with LISC's commitment to broad-based community involvement. LISC has provid ed $882,483 in grant support and $2.3 million in loan support to date to support approximately $50 million irt 'revitalization projects. One hundred sixty-two units have been completed to date. 70 are under construction, and 105 units have some or all of their financing in place, with another 1 10 units in the planning stages. Fifteen thousand square feet of commercial space is being planned." McCoy said. Photo by JaeM>n Pin * With the fire of a Baptist preacher, Ben Ruffin delivers the ceynote address at a luncheon last week. Water grants b< SPE( IAI TO THF. CHRONICLE Three clean-waler grants approved last week will invest nearly $1.8 million to improve water quality in the Yadkin River Basin, Sen. Linda Garrou said last week. The grants will help improve storm-water management in the headwaters of Silas Creek, begin plan ning for (he restora tion of Monarcas Creek, and return Bath Creek - now buried underneath downtown Winston Salem - to its above-ground natu ral state. The board of trustees of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund voted last week to award the grants to Pilot View Resource Conservation and Development Inc. for the fol lowing local projects: ? Upper Silas Creek: $1.6 million to restore the headwa ters of Silas Creek in the Yadkin River Basin at seven different sites, including restoring nearly 3.800 linear feet of stream bank and implementing storm-water BMPs. The city of Winston Salem will monitor these sites ^nefit Forsyth as a $375, (MM) match. ? Bath Creek restoration: $59.<MK> to investigate the feasi bility of "daylighting" Bath Creek in downtown Winston Salem and re-establishing vege tation and habitat. If it is feasi ble, this would be the largest daylighting project in the state. The match is a cash match of Garrou $25,(XX). ? Monarcas Creek restoration: $134,000 to evaluate, plan and design the restoration of the creek. The goal is to address about 7,000 linear feet of stream, through natu ral channel design, with the county donat ing 200-foot buffers. Wake Forest Universi ty will conduct an archaeological sludy in this area, which will he added lo Bethabara Historical Park. Garrou worked with the worked with the Clean Water Management Trust Fund in sup port of the grants and. as chair woman of the Senate's Appro priations Committee, worked to make sure the fund received $62 million in this year's budget. "A clean environment is critical to our economy and our quality of life," Garrou said. \ . Veil On wire less Buy a CAMERA PHONE and get a COLOR PHONE FREE ?ltti rw 2-yi SNppmg ctw^s roy ^ tomsunq a650 America's Best, Most Reliable Wireless Network. Join Q Today! MOTOROLA F\1"M ??1.800.2 JOIN? > verizonwireless.com any of our stores VERIZON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS STORES Om Sufldm Qnt Or, CMIIw EHmM MM* Km BURLINGTON 422 Huffman Mill Rd. 585-0034 Drtv? rtiponiiMy ^ Call wWh c?r? 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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