The Chronicle January 10, 2019 B5 Community adopts ESR families, teaches to decorate IN MEMORIAM on a budget ■SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE„ This past Christmas, local community part ners worked with Experiment in Self-Reliance (ESR) to adopt ESR clients and provide a class to help clients decorate for the holidays on a budget. Thirty-five ESR clients were adopted by St. Leo’s Catholic Church and Psi Phi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. to make sure they received groceries, food for a Christmas meal, necessities, and presents for their children to open at Christmas. St. Leo’s and Psi Phi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. wanted to give families in need the opportunity to enjoy Christmas and alleviate some stress that holidays often bring, especially those with a limited budget. Clients and families were thatikful for the unexpected help they received, some expressing their gratitude and surprise through tears and hugs. “We can’t say enough how thankful we are for the support we receive for our clients throughout the year,” says Twana W. Roebuck, Executive Director of ESR, “especially during the holidays which can be such a difficult time for many families.” In collaboration with Liberty East Restoration, ESR held their Road to Empowerment Series in the Naomi Jones Resource Center at in the LaDeara Crest neigh borhood this fall. The Series consisted of three classes and is a part of the United Way of Forsyth County Place Matters Initiative. Residents worked with ESR staff to determine the classes they wanted to have at the center. The classes were taught over a three-month period by experts in the community and consisted of Budgeting, Cooking on a Budget, and Decorating on a Budget. - all with the goal of empowering residents to take control of their finances, save money, and manage their budget. The final class - Decorating on a Budget - was held on Monday, December 17 and taught by Roslyn Evans, Edelina Oliphant, and Tonya Bellanger. Residents learned frugal and creative ways to decorate for Christmas and came away with handmade gifts and decorations for their homes. Tonya Bellanger, ESR Board Member and Finance Chair, volunteered at the final class with her mom, Edelina Oliphant. “I believe in the mission of ESR to empower people in our com munity to become self-reliant,” says Bellanger. “When we have the opportunity to make a posi tive difference in this world, we should use it. ESR gives me that opportunity every time I attend an event and get the chance to interact with people in the community.” “It is truly a special place filled with people who are doing good.” Yolanda, a LaDeara Crest resident, has par ticipated in all three classes and every Road to Empowerment Series offered by ESR. “It is something you can take with you throughout life. Stop and think classes,” says Yolanda. “I love being hands on in the community period, so when ESR comes and brings these classes, it is something extra to do. It is also informative. You get to meet other people in the community. It is something fun. We need something fun.” Yolanda, who serves as the Community Liason for the LaDeara Crest neighborhood, sees participating in the classes as an opportuni ty to de-stress and learn valuable information. “This is brain food. [This is] something you can take with you throughout life.” “Never give up... Every body has their own path they are going to go, but along the way, there are people out here in the community that care like ESR and different organizations and such that can make the experience a little bit eas ier.” ESR would like to give a special thanks to St. Leo’s Catholic Church and Psi Phi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. for their generous donation and for providing hope to families this holiday season, and to Liberty East Restoration and the Road to Empowerment instructors for empowering our community this fall. ESR is a non-profit Community Action Agency that focuses on empowering people with low-moderate income to become self-reliant. Programs help provide housing, teach clients to save, budget, and improve credit scores, provide assistance for education, and help clients build assets like homeownership, as well as free tax preparation. All clients must be working. For more information on ESR’s services, visit their website at www.eisr.org or call (336) 722-9400. Signs of hope and climate change BY KAREN BEARDEN AND KIM PORTER SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE As we enter 2019, we find ourselves speeding toward two different cli mate tipping points. \ The first is alarming. As reported in October by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, if humanity does not halve its greenhouse gas emis sions by 2030, we will trig ger feedback loops that cause warming to continue no matter what humans do. Photo courtesy ofAP News Protesters calling for action on climate change outside the White House in 2017 To prevent this catastrophe, scientists say emissions must peak and start down ward by 2020. Yet if last year’s growth in climate awareness and activism continues, it could lead to a tipping point at which climate progress - rather than climate disaster - becomes inevitable. The fate of civilization hangs upon which tipping point we reach first. The past year brought many “natural” disasters that scientists agree were significantly worsened by climate change: hurricanes and flooding in the US and elsewhere; wildfires in California, Scandinavia and Australia; and the hottest days ever recorded in Japan, Pakistan and Africa. When such disasters strike, low-income com munities and people of color suffer most, having fewer resources to rebuild and getting less attention from those who rush to help. They self-organize in amazing ways, as did local grassroots organizations in eastern North Carolina after Hurricane Florence. But these people still suffer disproportionately, both from severe weather and from the health effects of fossil fuel facilities rou tinely sited in communities with the least power to oppose them. Pretty grim. But 2018 also saw signs of hope. More than 400 mayors, including 13 in North- Carolina, have committed to accelerated climate action; 1,300 state and local politicians have pledged to refuse money from the fossil fuel indus try; and 90 U.S. cities, ten counties and two states have adopted 100% clean energy goals. Six cities already have hit those tar gets. In October, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper established the NC Climate Change Interagency Council. Even on the Federal level, there is reason to hope. Incoming Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and others are call ing for a Green New Deal to invest massively in clean energy and other climate solutions, creating jobs and boosting the economy. One poll found more than 80 percent of voters support the Green New Deal. And the market is ready, with prices for renewables and energy storage plummet ing. The fossil fuel divest ment campaign, which began in. 2012 with tiny Unity College in Maine, just marked its 1,000th divestment, taking $8 tril- John “Raymond” Oliver was born on November 22, 1930 to the late John Raymond Oliver, Sr. and Emma Freeman Oliver. He graduated from Atkins High School in 1948 and North Carolina Central College in 1952. After proudly serving his coun try for four years in the US Army, Raymond com pleted one year of law school at Howard Univer sity, then earned his Doc torate of Dental Surgery from the Howard Univer sity School of Dentistry in 1960. Dr. Oliver married Ruth Clark (Oliver). They re turned to Winston-Salem where he began his dental practice serving the greater Winston-Salem area. While providing quality and affordable oral health care for the com munity, he mentored sev eral young dentists in his office and assisted them in establishing their own practices. He continued to practice dentistry for over 45 years until his retire ment in 2006. In the early 1960s Ray mond Oliver, worked to integrate various segre gated venues in Winston- Salem to include Reynolds Park Amuse ment area and roller skat ing rink, K&W Cafeteria, the Drive-In Movie the atre and the Dixie Classic Fair. In 1968, Dr. Oliver pur chased a shopping center to provide an opportunity for minority entrepreneurs to operate businesses in their community. Dr. Oliver has been hon ored for his contributions to the quality of life of the community. He was rec ognized for his services as a dentist, and the many boards on which he served including The Mayor’s Biracial Goodwill Com mittee, Winston-Salem Civic Ventures, Citizens lion dollars out of carbon- intensive companies. A worldwide move ment is calling for a ban on all new fossil fuel projects. Twenty-one plaintiffs aged 11 to 22 are suing the U.S. government, asserting it has violated their consti tutional rights to life, liber ty and property, and has failed to protect essential public trust resources. Youth-led legal proceed ings are also underway in all 50 states and 13 other countries. Some utilities have made significant commit Budget Advisory Council, East Winston Economic Development Task Force, Trustee of First Baptist Church- Highland Av enue, and the Board of Di rectors of the YMCA. Dr. Oliver served for ten years on the Central and Local Board of Directors for Mechanics and Farmers Bank. He was a member ofnational, state and local dental associations, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, National Association of Guardsmen, and the Bachelor Benedict Club. Furthering his commit ment to public service, Raymond Oliver men tored boys through the Best Choice Center for ten years as well as passion ately serving and support ing the food pantry at First Baptist Church. Raymond Oliver is a proud, sixth generation, descendant of Peter Oliver; a slave, skilled craftsman and potter, who bought his freedom from the Moravians of Old Salem. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sister, Verda Oliver Morgan. He transitioned on De cember 26, 2018 and leaves to cherish his mem ory his wife, Ruth C. Oliver and children An gela Oliver Battle (Samuel Battle), The Hon orable Judge Aileen Oliver, Roland F. Oliver, Dr. John Mark Oliver (Dr. Pamela Oliver); and grandchildren, Jared Bat tle, Ayanna Battle, John Mark Oliver, Jr., Lauren Oliver and Miles Oliver, his brother Lawrence Oliver (Colleen Oliver) and many nieces and nephews. A service in his memory will be held at 12:00 PM on Saturday, January 5, 2019 at First Baptist Church-Highland Avenue. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. will give final rites at 10:30 AM, family visita tion will begin at 11:00 AM. In lieu of flowers the family requests that dona tions be made to First Baptist Church-Food Pantry, 700 N. Highland Ave. Winston-Salem, NC 27101. (Clark S. Brown & Sons Funeral Home) ments to renewable energy, with several already gener ating over 30% of their power from renewables, and one planning to reach 100% this year. (Unfortunately, Duke Energy gets only 3 percent of its power from renew ables in the Carolinas, and plans only 8 percent by 2032.) All of these advances can be attributed to public action. The economics and technologies are in place for humanity to avert cli mate catastrophe. All that is missing is the political will. Let’s make this the year that a critical mass of people demands real cli mate action and truth- telling from our govern ment, utilities and media. Write letters to your elect ed officials and media out lets. Join a climate justice organization. March in the streets. In the Words of Greta Thunberg, the 15-year-old Swede who addressed UN leaders at the December climate conference in Poland, “Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.”

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view