Guilford County
November 15^th, 2007

Today, I toured of High Point University with student ambassador Cassidy Clowed. Cassidy’s from Hickory and really opened my eyes to one of NC’s hidden academic gems. HPU boasts a student body from 44 states and 50 different countries. The campus is undergoing an impressive upgrade, utilizing technology as a supplementary tool to boost the delivery of higher education, and placing High Point at the forefront of educational technology development. And, the student body’s zeal for their school is infectious. HPU has come a long way since its days as High Point College during my youth.

That evening I was the featured speaker at the Triad Business and Professional Guild’s dinner. President Kate Larson of Greensboro and fellow directors and attendees offered a myriad of insights to challenges facing our state: economic and job security, their desire to see our troops brought home, the lack of faith many of them had lost in the political process and challenges facing our state and nation in terms of tackling divisive civil rights and immigration challenges.

I can tell you that while I was the “Keynote” speaker for the evening, I gained much more valuable insight from the participants than they ever could have from me. The bottom line: the people of North Carolina already know what is wrong in Washington, they don’t need me or anyone else to tell them. They want to know what we are going to do differently. And-that’s a question I’ll be trying to answer as I travel across the State.

November 21^st, 2007
Alamance County

Worked as a volunteer at the Allied Churches of Alamance County’s Good Shepherd Community Kitchen which served, through the talents of Chef Ted Callem, staff member Michelle Embry and a bunch of dedicated local volunteers both young and old; an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving lunch to over 200 families.

I had the honor of being a server and thus had a change to speak with many of the guests at the lunch. Their stories have a consistent theme: substance abuse, loss of work and no back-up and nobody to help when times got bad. We’re talking black, white and Hispanic; men and women and many, many families.

Bill Adams, the Executive Director and his entire staff are a noble lot. With an annual budget of about $500,000, of which only 8% comes from state and local government and the balance from contributions, this organization dispenses shelter, food and hope to thousands of their guests each year. Get this: members of the staff took a voluntary pay cut of 25% just to keep the programs (food kitchen, shelter and Christian assistance) going! In an era of incredible wealth accumulation, what an amazing testament to the innate goodwill of the dedicated, working people in our State. Again, look at the difference people can make when they pull together.

To learn more and see how you can help, go to www.alliedchurches.org. Right now, they are raising money through the sale of Holiday cards-which you can buy at any Wachovia Bank branch in the state.

Durham County
November 22^nd, 2007

I volunteered with the Thanksgiving lunch which the amazing folks at the Durham Rescue Mission served. The founder, the Rev. Ernie Mills, has built a program which feeds and houses about 200 resident men, women and families on a given day.

I asked him what the #1 attribute was of the majority of the guests walking into the Shelter for help, and he didn’t flinch in replying that 80% of the residents were combating some form of drug/alcohol abuse. Counseling services like those offered at the Shelter have, I’d suspect, much more impact than the billions of dollars of taxpayer money Washington politicians squander in the “war on drugs”— yet another long-running “war” to which we are losing lives and wasting resources which would be better spent on providing early education and intervention programs.

Rev. Mills seems to have figured that much out: the Shelter’s $3.5 million operating budget all comes from private donations in the community, for he does not want to have bureaucratic red tape to complicate the Shelter’s healing mission. I met and worked alongside many, many people who shared their stories of success; having turned their lives around at this wonderful faith-based community.

Later in the afternoon I ran into my friend and co-volunteer Derwin Dubose. Derwin and his girlfriend Lindsay Michel, who met while students at UNC-CH, took me on a tour of what was once a blighted neighborhood known as Barnes Avenue-now rebuilt through the Durham Housing Authority and Department of Housing & Urban Development Grants. A community activist and staffer at Ronald McDonald House, Derwin has seen firsthand how a little common sense and prudent federal investment in affordable housing can uplift a shattered community.