WINSTON-SALEM -- Five North Carolinians received the prestigious Nancy Susan Reynolds Awards from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. They include two Raleigh women who chose to live and work with poor inner-city children; an Asheville woman who is transforming the state's Standard Course of Study and teaching diversity in the schools; and two men in rural Moore County who fought the Ku Klux Klan and discrimination in their jobs and won.
Sometimes referred to as North Carolina's Nobel Prizes, the awards are worth $25,000 each. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the awards.
Recipients this year are Betty Anne Ford and Nancy Newell, of Raleigh, who won for personal service; Deborah Miles, of Asheville, who won for race relations; and Hilton Dunlap and Bobby Person, of West End in Moore County, who won for advocacy. Joint winners share the award -- $5,000 of which goes to them personally and $20,000 which goes to nonprofit organizations of their choosing.
Today's presentation marked the 20th anniversary of the awards, named for Nancy Susan Reynolds, a daughter of R.J. Reynolds and Katharine Smith Reynolds and one of the founders of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in 1936.
Mary Mountcastle, of Durham, President of the Foundation, said, "This year's winners saw needs and were determined to meet them. They dreamed dreams and then somehow found the strength and the means to make them come true."
Miles, the recipient for race relations, has devoted her life to helping people understand that diversity is a positive thing. She increases understanding of diverse cultures, races, ethnic groups, and religions through The Center for Diversity Education, which she founded in 1995. Using her background as a teacher and community organizer, Miles has convinced school administrators of the value of teaching diversity. The Center's programs comply with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, making them immediately usable by teachers. Some 100,000 students and approximately 1,000 teachers have been exposed to its programs. In addition, thousands of others have seen the exhibits in public venues.
Ford and Newell, the recipients for personal service, started a program called Loaves and Fishes. It began when Ford, then the tennis coach at Peace College, noticed young children near the courts with nothing to do. She started a summer day camp that turned into a year-round, after-school program. Loaves and Fishes quickly became the most important part of their lives, and the children, their parents, and volunteers became Ford and Newell's family. They bought a home close to the inner city Raleigh housing project where most of the Loaves and Fishes children lived and often intervened to protect children and give them safe haven in their home. Loaves and Fishes grew one grade a year to allow students to remain in the program. Many of them regularly visit, or volunteer, years after "graduation."
For much of their adult lives, Dunlap and Person, the recipients for advocacy, have fought discrimination and intimidation. Person attempted to rise through the ranks at the correctional center where he worked but was passed over repeatedly in favor of white employees. Dunlap, in another facility, pointed out mismanagement and favoritism to no avail. Person was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan, which burned a cross in his yard, harassed the family, and threatened to kill him. When he complained to local authorities, nothing happened. Eventually, with help from the Southern Poverty Law Center, he sued the Klan, won, and bankrupted it. Their reputations for getting things done spread, and people with EEOC complaints and other issues came to them for help. For more than two decades, they have been the go-to people in Moore and Hoke counties. Five poor, predominantly African-American communities in Moore County systematically have been excluded from basic services, such as water, sewer, and police protection as affluent white communities annexed up to and around their neighborhoods. Dunlap and Person have brought the communities together, obtained national publicity, and put pressure on adjacent municipalities to annex them and provide needed services.
The Nancy Susan Reynolds Award recipients are chosen by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation's State Advisory Panel from nominations submitted by June 1 each year.
About the Z. Smith Reynold Foundation
The Foundation, headquartered in Winston-Salem, was established in 1936 as a memorial to the youngest child of R.J. Reynolds. During its history, it has made grants of more than $400 million to projects in all 100 counties in North Carolina. Although it makes grants to a wide range of projects, it now gives special attention to five focus areas -- community economic development; the environment; democracy and civic engagement; pre-collegiate education; and social justice and equity.
