i | i a 2 Mt 4 At : SERVING PRINCEVILLE TARBORO WILLIAMSTON AND PITT COUNTY SINCE 1980 FREE DEDICATED TO THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF . AFRICAN AMERICANS Feb. 2007 Issue The Daily Reflector Sunday, February 11, 2007. The nomination form poses: divorced African-American woman who lives ina a lack of personal funds be the citizen of the year?” The answer is simple. Renee Arrington has a seemingly endless gpirit and passion when it comes to helping her community, especially its children, Arrington, 54,°" founder of the Little Willie Center, was named citizen of the year for 2006 during the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce’s annual gala earlier this month, Since starting the program in 1990 to provide safety, meals, tutoring and mentoring for latchkey kids, Arrington has been “a light for people that need a little extra hope,” said Mike Aldridge of Aldridge & Southerland Realtors, one of the center’s many supporters “She has completely given her life to it,” Aldridge said. “And when gry ask her, - The Greatest READ |. THE facut. * And she does not think about herself at all,” Touching as many lives as she can with the gifts God has given her has become her ee Se life’s mission, Arrington said, imonth, Yue She calls it “depositing te Ig blessings.” ~ HRY “I feel like I'm going to the grave empty,” she said, “I’m going to empty everything . out of me to somebody, Whatever I can do, whatever gifts or talents I have, one question: “Why should a ! donated apartment because of eke biker ee a ee somebody's going to get it. ae Willie many, oie the Limit at 35, Today, the center remains at capacity with more wanting to Mrs Arringt At the age of 3, Jamal Nobles already was a street-smart kid. Most everyone on West Fifth Street, now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, knew him as “Little Willie,” | He would pop into The Raven, a restaurant owned by ~~ Arrington and her husband, hungry but with no money. Arrington made sure he didn’t leave with an empty belly, Soon, more kids stopped by, and Arrington fed them. Convinced that there was an even bigger community of children in need, she closed the restaurant, and the Little Willie Center was bom. Each afternoon, a two- et in, . With siaistance from the city of Greenville, a move to St, Gabriel’s Roman Catholic Church and School could be complete in March. That could double the number of children served but also could double the budget. “To me, I’m grateful that the city of Greenville, their hearts are turned to the Little Willie Center,” Arrington said. “That's what we prayed. Every person, board, volunteer, staff for this program for years, we prayed that God would pour this ~ center into the hearts and minds of his people. God's people are going to hear his voice, and they’re going to as an amened what he says A do, a fe A ‘That type of faith has kept the center growing not only its services but its base of volunteers and financial . supporters. Computers, books, video games, movies and playground equipment await kids ages 3-17 who come in weekdays from 2:30- 6:30 p.m. during the school year and for summer camps that include off-site activities. Arrington emphasizes the focus is on tutoring and mentoring to develop the whole person — not a baby- sitting service. “A child has a mind,” she said. “They have a heart, they have a spirit, they have a body.” Bill Clark of Bill Clark Homes in Greenville is amazed by the impact . Arrington has had on countless families and calls her “the closest thing to a saint that I’ve ever seen.” “She’s taken these children off the street, and she’s given them an opportunity to learn some real values about life,” Clark said. “It’s a remarkable, remarkable thing she’s doing.” Keeping the center going has meant sacrifice. Arrington cut a full-time schedule teaching adult education at Pitt Community College to 22 hours so she can spend afternoons with the kids. She ‘teaches GED classes four days a week at the Little Willie Center, and PCC has provided a second instructor. The center offers 16 programs, including survival skill classes, a big buddy program, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, 4-H Club, an ensemble, praise ministry dancers and Bible study. The Little Willie Center operates solely with volunteers — not even Arrington draws a salary ~~ and receives its funding through grants and private N ~] (oe) W > «ange Crack Cocaine sentences set for = review shown that since the In hate at age 19, » Belinda cumpkin was ter byte ss el in ' bra prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Her boyfriend, w ManGsoy minamurns Were she had dated since she was 15, ran Detroit’s largest crack ring, instituted in the late 1980s, an organization that supplied half the city’s crack houses and at Blacks have been incarcerated its peak, prosecutors said, took in $3 millioii a day, Lumpkin says By: j ames Wright far more than Whites whet her boyfriend threatened her family,when, she tried to leave him. AFRO Staff Writer . ", 4 She was pregnant throughout her trial and gave birth in prison. | ? convicted of possession of | President Clinton commuted hér sentencein January 2001. Now | . cocaine in the form of crack. «she lives in Georgia and is working as a-forklift driver, a skill she The chairman of the powerful 7 ovat ory minimums learned in prison. House Judiciary Committee . sg ; ted to review the dictate to judges what length 8 or “we A a sentence should be in the pleted con oC stam oe eee eta oririties distribution of crack cocaine. Rep. John Conyers (D- Mare- Mauer, the executive Dorothy Gaines, a mother with no criminal record, was Mich.), who is the chairman director of The Sentencing convicted of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in The New Wells to leant ___ Project, said that the time for 1994 and sentenced to 20 years im prison. She let her ; of the Judiciary Committee ay of the senieacit boyfriend, a crack dealer, keep drugs in her Alabama Chapel pgs for the 110th Congress,had ge cae home. He and other ring members, who testified against told his colleagues that laws guidelines is right. “Most of Gaines her trial, received lesser sentences. President . d the mandatory minimums Clinton commuted her sentence in 2000. Gaines now shat give mancatcyy wete put in place in the 1980s. lives in Mobile and-has lobbied Congress to change the minimum sentences to people - ' , ’ mandatory minimum laws. who are convicted of drug- mys een ee | . | : related crimes will be subject f.... - Conyers, along with the Conyers told the AFRO that to oversight. Studies Someone can get a five or 10 Congressional Black Caucus have stated that this is esi earl 6 year prison term for crack but era saet < HRISTIAN Book FLOAD, GREENVILLI 74 oe 7 rd STORI Ni \ en ee 4 04 tO ha Call us if you need someone to collect your rent and your property, Several nice building lots... We handle Conv,, HUD, VA, FHA Financing Realtor, Notary Public, Accounting - 606 Albermarle Avenue Greenville, NC 27834 _ 252) 787-1692 or (252) 757-1162 | _ Fax Number (252) 757-0018 ay is Owens & Nelson, P.L.L.C. 201 West Third Street _ Post Office Box 36 Greenville, North Carolina 27835 Telephone: (252) 787-3300 Fax (252) 754-8367 Mark W. 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