(playful piano music) (funky head-bobbing music) - Hello, everyone.

I'm Rameca Vincent Leary, and welcome to this edition of "Connecting the Community."

There are movers and shakers in the community, women who are dedicated to making this world a better place, they don't seek personal recognition, but instead, find joy in making a vast array of dreams come to fruition.

During this broadcast, we'll be highlighting various women in action from organizations such as the Kukua Institute Take Stock in Children Program, Pensacola State College Adult Education Program, and much more.

But first, we'll focus our attention on Impact 100 of the Pensacola Bay Area: it's an organization that's comprised of women who are committed to providing grants to non-profit organizations in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

To get the conversations started, I'm happy to welcome Roz Leahy who serves as president, she's joined by president-elect, Kristen Longley, Diane Schwartz, grant's chair, and Alyssa Tucker membership chair, such a pleasure to have all of you with us.

Now, Roz, let's start with you, who was the brain-child behind this Pensacola Bay Area chapter?

- Well, it started when Debby Richie, a remember our community, was waiting for her children in the pickup line, and she was reading in a People magazine about an organization called Impact 100 that was begun in Cincinnati, Ohio: and the idea was to get women to give $1,000 each; and give a $100,000 grant to a nonprofit organization.

She thought that was a good idea, so she got some women together and she said, "I think we could do this in Pensacola."

The women agreed, they started holding meetings all across the community, Santa Rosa and Escambia counties, and just saying just that thing, we want 100 women to give $1,000 a piece, and we are going to give a single grant of $100,000 to a nonprofit organization.

And most of us rolled our eyes and said, "Good luck."

- It's possible, though, right?

Yes, absolutely.

- Well, as it turns out that very first year 233 women thought that was a good idea, and so the very first-year Impact 100, this was 2004, was able to give two grants of $116,000 each to two nonprofit organizations, and the rest is history, as they say.

We are now a organization of over 1,140 members, and we have given 11 grants for the last eight years each year.

- But, Roz, I'm curious, how long have you been affiliated with Impact 100?

- I was one of those women who went to the very first gatherings that they were holding to tell us about what they were trying to do in 2003, early 2004, and I was one of those who rolled my eyes and said, "I don't know.

"This is Pensacola, you know."

So, I was an early joiner, I joined in 2004.

- And now you're president.

- I am.

- That is so amazing.

Speaking of which Kristin, you are president-elect, when did you find out this good news?

- Well, big shoes to fill behind Roz, but I've known, I guess, for a year, year-and-a-half, so, I'm trying to gain all of the knowledge from Roz and everyone on the board, we have a lot of really strong members in the community that also support our board to ensure that we're doing everything as it should be done, and ensuring that grants are given in the most impactful and effective way.

- And it takes a village, right, Kristin?

So, as president-elect, tell us some of the things that you're being primed to do.

- Everything.

So, it is no secret to many in the community that if you are on the Impact 100 board that it is a hard-working board, it's not just a figurehead position, but, basically, to run the largest nonprofit in Pensacola with more than 1,140 members, it's a full-time role to make sure that everything is moving as effectively as it could be, but I think, thankfully, our founders set up a lot of really great processes and we're just continuing to optimize those where we can, we've brought a lot of digital processes to Impact through the pandemic, and we intend to continue those just to make everything as easy as it can be.

- Well, Kristen, as a little follow-up a little birdie told me this is the largest Impact 100 chapter in the entire world, let me repeat, in the entire world, fascinating, folks.

- It is true: we have the largest membership.

And when you mention, in the world, we do have chapters in Australia and in other countries throughout the world, but we don't take that distinction lightly, we have to make sure that we're staying true to what our members and what our founders intended for us to do, and that's ensuring that every dollar is spent back in the community, ensuring that our processes of vetting grants and nonprofits has a lot of rigor to it, and that's why we go to site visits on all of the nonprofits that receive grants throughout the year, and I know we're gonna talk to some of those nonprofits: they've been on the receiving end of some of those tough questions.

- Well, we'll get to them in the next segment.

- Yeah, exactly.

It's not an easy grant to receive, but our members stand very firm behind the fact that it's the right process to do when you're giving away a collective grant.

- All right, speaking of grants, Diane, why don't you give us a rundown of the process?

- Well, the process starts as soon as membership season ends in March when we announce the total dollar amount that we have to give, and our nonprofits have to complete a Letter of Intent to apply, that's due in April 30th, and that allows our grants committee to make sure that the nonprofit is actually eligible to submit a grant: they have to be a registered 501-c-3; have to have filed an annual report with Sunbiz; have to be registered with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

So if they meet those requirements, we open up the grant application to them, so, they fill out the grant application and that's due by June 15th, so, that starts the process, Letter of Intent to apply, then the grant application is due, and then our membership starts a six-week process of evaluating the grant.

- So, I'm curious, I would imagine you probably have hundreds of applications, do they write an essay of sorts?

It sounds like something I would do in school.

- It's a very involved application.

It's a standard application they fill out online.

We feel like it's a significant amount of money that we're awarding, so, there's a significant amount of questions and information that we ask them to provide.

All of the things that we ask them really help our membership evaluate the grant, we wanna be good stewards of the money that the membership has given us and through this application process, and then, like Kristen said, "Do a site visit for all the nonprofits "who have applied for more information."

- Wonderful.

Okay, Alyssa.

Membership, membership, membership to everybody out there watching.

Okay, a rigorous process, I know.

Please tell us about that.

- Well, actually I like sitting over here with my friend, Diane, because I do think that what we do on the Impact board really go hand-in-hand without the members, we don't have the grants, but without these amazing nonprofits and our ability to award them these grants we won't have members, and we do talk a lot about membership season, grant season, but really, it's always grant season and always membership season, it feels like at least.

So, in order to be a member of Impact 100, we are just looking for women anywhere that are interested and passionate about making a difference in our community here in Escambia and Santa Rosa County, each member, they make a donation of $1,000, and that is what we use to fund these grants.

We're looking for women 18 and up, and when you make that donation you're a member, and your membership gets you one vote in October to help us decide who our recipients will be.

Some members choose to be active all year long and help us evaluate these grants and do all sorts of volunteer work with us, but some members don't necessarily, some don't even live here which I always find really interesting, we have women who've lived in Pensacola for a few years and then moved, but maintained the membership because they're still really, really passionate about supporting our area.

- Well, Alyssa, how many members can you have in a calendar year?

Or is there a term limit?

- So, just like you said your membership lasts you for one year, but we are always open to taking your donation and getting you signed up, so, right now, like Diane said, "In March is our cutoff, March 1st."

That's when we pull all that money together and we know exactly what we have to give.

So, anyone that gives after that date, that includes right now, and that is all the way up until March 1st, 2023, so, you have a little bit of time.

- Pay attention folks.

I hope you are listening out there.

- Before March 1st, 2023, you will be a member for 2023.

- Wonderful.

Okay, Roz, back to you.

Board of directors, 25 volunteers, that's nice.

- 25 hard-working volunteers, yes.

We will increase the size of our board by about three or four this year because we have a lot of work.

I will say that as Kristen said, "Our board works very hard."

We have no paid staff, no physical location for our office, we don't have an office, everything that we do is done by members of the board so we have some very talented people, you've met some of them here, we also have people who handle technology, great technology team, our membership team is wonderful, our grants team is probably the best on the planet.

- Of course, we know that.

- And so our board members take their role very seriously because we want everything that we do to represent integrity, and quality, and our commitment to what we say we're going to do, which is to provide significant transformative grants to local nonprofit organizations for projects that will make a difference.

And talking about the grant process, we've had people tell us, people who know that our grants process is one of the most rigorous processes they have ever encountered, and we take that as a compliment because, in the end, we want to be able to say these organizations are quality organizations, well-run organizations who are going to make a difference because of a project that Impact 100 is helping to fund.

- And Chris and I also understand that donations can be received through community partners and sponsors, so, that's food for thought, right?

Interesting.

- Yeah, definitely.

We have so many generous community members, and thank you to you for hosting us and helping us get the word out to the community that wants to get involved, but similarly, we have a lot of media partners that support us, we have a lot of spouses that quite frankly want to make donations on behalf of their wife that was a member or may have been a member, and we greatly appreciate that as well, because it does support, I mean, the reality is we're a volunteer organization but we do have hard costs for printing, we have costs for a lot of what we do to get the word out, so we appreciate the support of the community.

- Time, time, time.

Diane and Alyssa, and as you two were talking over there a short time ago I could feel the energy emanating from you, and Alyssa, when you were talking about the membership a tear almost rolled down my eye, I was so enthralled because this is- - I'm doing my job then.

- Yes, you are.

Yes, you are, all the extra hours that you put in.

Diane, I would imagine that you're probably up in the wee hours of the morning looking over information pertaining to grants.

- We are very meticulous about what we do.

It's a privilege to serve on the board and we wanna make sure that everything is vetted and we're transparent, and one of the things that's really cool is that since we are a volunteer board, you donate $1,000 to join, all of that goes back directly to the community, we don't take any of that for expenses.

- Wonderful, Alyssa, always servant leadership.

All of you ladies it's been such a pleasure, and Roz, please stick around for the next segment.

All right, folks, don't touch that dial, we have much more to explore with Impact 100 of the Pensacola Bay Area coming up right after this.

(funky head-bobbing music) Hello, everyone.

We're continuing our conversation with Roz Leahy, President of Impact 100 of the Pensacola Bay Area.

She's thrilled to have representatives from three non-profit organizations joining her, these grant recipients will be sharing their stories: I'm happy to introduce Paul Entrekin from the Veterans Memorial Park Foundation; he's joined by Kathy Holsworth with the Pensacola Little Theater; we also have Peggy Brockman who's representing United for a Good Cause.

Now, Paul, let's start with you.

What was your first reaction when you found out that Veterans Memorial Park Foundation had received an Impact 100 Grant.

- The ceremony that the ladies hold is a very, very fun event, so, everybody's emotions are amped up, you're eagerly awaiting the decision as to whether or not your organization has made the cut, and my vice president and I were sitting together, and when they called out our name we were absolutely thrilled, we swapped a couple of firm marine handshakes, and smiled as big as I've ever smiled, I think.

It was just a thrill to know that we were going to be able to make some substantial improvements at Veterans Memorial Park, thanks to these wonderful ladies.

- And I'm just so psyched really hearing this great news.

Veterans Memorial Park Foundation, let's talk about healing, remembrance, learning, celebration of our fallen heroes.

My dad served in the US Navy for 31 years and he was a nuke; served on the submarine.

So, tell us more about the organization and the overarching mission.

- Our foundation has been in place for nine years now, and we were stood up at the pleasure of Mayor Hayward who needed an organization to facilitate keeping the park at a higher standard than one might expect at some of the other parks because of the significant factor of remembering the fallen.

And so our foundation acts as stewards of the park: we keep the monuments in pristine condition; we keep the grounds in pristine condition.

And it's a wonderful place for people to go and remember the fallen, and it's very unique: we have the only half-scale size Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in the country.

It's a beautiful park, but that anchor monument is the one that draws some people there first, and then they see that we have monuments to World War II, World War I, Korea: the Global War on Terrorists.

It's just a really, really special, beautiful place.

- And the expanse being far-reaching, attracting visitors from all over the country and I might even imagine around the world.

- We have had visitors that are international that have heard about our park and they wanted to come down and see for themselves, so, you're absolutely right.

- I'll get back with you in just a moment.

So, Kathy, lights, camera, action, Pensacola Little Theatre.

- Well, less camera, this is live theater.

And we are an 85-year-old community theater, all of our players are volunteers, but we have an old historic building downtown, we are in the old Escambia County jail and court of record, and part of our mission is stewardship of the building, and we got our first Impact Grant in 2008, and that allowed us to get a truck, and equipment, and rehearsal blocks that allowed us to go out into the community and take theater to folks who weren't able to come to us, and although the technology of the equipment we got way back then is defunct, we still use that truck all the time, so we are proud of our truck and have rewrapped it, it always has the Impact 100 logo on it.

And then, we just got our second grant in 2020 but we write for that grant every year.

- Why not?

- Why not?

A: we've grown from it; B, we've become a better organization; and we absolutely become better grant writers because of it.

- And the fact, creating theater for more than 80 years.

That is phenomenal.

- It's a crazy thing to do.

We rehearse all the time, people give up all of their weeknights when they're involved in a play, and when people say, "People really do that."

I'm like, "Okay, so, I'm a theater person, "I don't have a boat and I don't golf, "so, that's what we do."

'Cause, we'll rehearse for six to 10 weeks depending on the play every night, and then you give up your weekends to put on the productions and we do it for free.

- That is awesome.

Peggy, Peggy, Peggy, United for a Good Cause, I just love the name of the organization: United for a Good Cause.

Give us the backstory and also when you found out about your award.

- Well, we are United for a Good Cause, the mission and the project that we received the grant for is our HOPE Squad peer-to-peer suicide prevention program, so, that is for all of our schools in the area.

And our organization has been around since 2012 but only started the HOPE Squad program, the thought came to mind the first part of 2019, we launched our first school in 2020, and we now have schools in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, and Escambia County, and we'll be starting Walton County this year as well, but I think we screamed the loudest when we won.

- Paul might give you a little bit of a battle with that one.

Oh, I think we did.

We did.

- Pretty much we did.

Yeah, I was so excited, I think we cried the hardest and screamed the loudest.

Because our organization is about saving kids' lives and knowing that we would have the money to be able to put a HOPE Squad in every middle and high school in both Santa Rosa and Escambia County was just, I mean, that's just amazing because these kids are saving lives in the schools.

- So, I would imagine that you probably hear back from some of these people who have been impacted in such positive ways, and please, maybe just, generally, share maybe one story if you can.

- Well, at our conference in March this year, one of our HOPE Squad members shared a story of recognizing that one of her peers, not a close friend of hers but one of her peers, what she noticed was struggling, and so HOPE Squad members are trained: they go through a curriculum; they learn what the warning signs are; and they learn how to talk to someone about their struggles; and their main purpose is to get them and go with them to an adult that is qualified to help them.

And so she recognized this peer was struggling, and she went to her, and she started talking to her, she said, "Hey, I'm here for you."

And she asked her the questions she said, "Are you thinking about taking your life?"

And the girl looked at her and said, "Yeah."

And she said, "Well, do you have a plan in place?"

And she said, "Yeah, tonight."

And she had a plan to take her life that night, that HOPE Squad member got her to a school counselor, got her to an adult, they got the person in the hospital, and that child came back, and thanked that HOPE Squad member for saving their life.

- And I know that you also accept volunteers as well, and I can see the emotion on your face, very impacting.

Servant leadership, such a strong thing, right, Roz?

- Oh, absolutely.

My goodness.

And we hear stories like this from so many of our grant recipients, and $100,000+ can go a long ways for a nonprofit organization, and meeting their goals and changing everything they do.

And it's made me proud for many years, and it makes all of us proud to know that we have a hand in helping to make a difference in our community, and my goodness, and even possibly help save lives, nobody would ever have imagined that 20 years ago when we were founded, nobody.

- So, with the, okay, hooray, hooray notification ceremony are these some of the things that you might even share at one of the award ceremonies for grants, maybe stories?

- We don't actually have award ceremonies for the grant, what we have is an annual meeting every year, and at the annual meeting, that year's grant finalists, and there are 15 of those, will each make a presentation to the members who are present in the room, they have five minutes to make their presentation, that's where the signs are coming in, and to make their case to the women of Impact, and then our members vote, thanks to the Supervisors of Elections of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, we have voting machines, we have printed ballots from those supervisors, our ladies vote on that ballot, they run it through the machine.

So, we don't count any of the ballots or any of the votes that machines do just like if you were at a poll voting in an election.

So once that's done, then we get the results, and we announce the grant recipients, and that's when the shouting starts.

(all laugh) - Well, the process checks and everything.

- Having heard the process: heart-pounding experience, Paul.

Seriously, I understand why you screamed so loudly.

So, tell us about some of the featured projects at the Veterans Memorial Park Foundation.

- We have been very fortunate to be the beneficiary of three grants from the ladies of Impact 100: the first one that we got, if you've seen Veterans Memorial Park across from the Florida Power & Light building on Bayfront, it's in a low-lying area, and we had a real problem with flooding, and thanks to their first grant: we were able to mitigate the flooding problem, and now all the stormwater goes into the retention pond and doesn't collect at the wall south; our second one, as you may know, the Veterans Memorial Park is referred to affectionately as Pensacola's Jewel on the Bay, and it needed to have many lights that were almost 30 years old replaced or repaired, and thanks to the second grant we got that done, so, now it just glimmers at night, it's absolutely spectacular; and the last grant was a portable restroom facility, which is a precursor to a permanent restroom facility, but they planted the seed, they will make sure that that happens, and anyone that needs to avail themselves of those facilities at the park, have the ladies of Impact 100 to thank for that.

- Oh, yes.

Okay, Kathy, I told you I was coming back.

Why don't you talk about some of the specific productions at the Pensacola Little Theatre?

- Wow, okay.

So, at the theater, we have three umbrellas for the types of shows that we put on: we have our main stage shows, which are the traditional mix of musicals, comedies, and dramas; we have Treehouse, which is our family theater, always involves children, but it's rated G or PG production, same size production values as our main stage; and then we have our studio 400 shows, which is black box, a little edgy, fringy, and sometimes unpublished works for our volunteers and audiences that like to be thrilled when they're at the theater.

We just finished our big summer production was "Cinderella:" we did 13 performances; we had a 21-piece orchestra; the full-size golden carriage.

I mean, it was a big deal and all put together by volunteers.

- [Rameca] Education department as well.

- That's correct.

So, our first grant was highlighting our education department which continues to grow, and so we have an education director and we have an outreach coordinator, and together we teach classes both after school, as well as adult classes at night and summer camps, and our outreach coordinator is working on new significant programs to reach both the underserved, our elderly population that can't get to us anymore that still love theater, as well as going to festivals, and to the parks, and gallery night, and all the ways that we like to reach out to the community and make art a part of their lives.

- Wonderful.

So, Peggy, instilling hope in our youth, just tell us something for anybody out there watching, maybe even a young person, as far as contacting your organization and maybe they have a little hesitancy, what would you tell them?

- Well, our organization, again, because we work within the schools, the mission of the kids is to instill hope in their peers at school, and to be there, and they'll do things like make posters that they'll post around with positive messaging on it.

It's really about creating a culture of kindness and connectedness, and when you can create that culture in a school; then it becomes one of unity; there's hope for there.

And because it's peer-nominated, then the kids come together, and you have every group in the school represented, so, every group has one of their peers that they trust that's part of the HOPE Squad.

So, then these kids come together, and they're kids that may not have even liked each other before or not groups that would hang out together, but now they're working for a common mission within the school, and they become the leaders of unity and hope within the school.

And so is a pretty amazing program, the program itself has been around for 17 years and is actually an international program called Hope Squad.

- Well, I will say many thanks to all of you, and Roz, and everyone else.

My heart is so full right now.

Impact 100.

Now, folks, to find out more about Impact 100 of the Pensacola Bay Area log on to impact100pensacola.org.

We'll be back in a moment.

(funky head-bobbing music) Hello, everyone.

During this segment, we are switching gears focusing on a shining light in the community, a woman who never takes anything for granted: I'm talking about the one and only Robin Reshard.

She's an author, interviewer, public speaker, community educator, and much more.

To reflect on her accomplishments, and introduce viewers to others who have inspired her along the way: it's an honor to welcome Mamie Webb Hixon, assistant professor of English at the University of West Florida; we also have Nicole Dixon who serves as director for the Real Women Radio Foundation.

This is an opportunity of a lifetime having all of you on the show, I'm so excited; giving me goosebumps.

Now, Robin, let's get this conversation started.

You are such a multifaceted woman.

Take me back and the viewers as well, and tell us about the Kukua Institute.

- So thank you for having me.

And I am excited too to be in the presence of these women and sisters who are doing amazing things.

And the Kukua Institute was born out of a need to preserve a historic house in historic Belmont-DeVilliers.

I appreciate that at the top that you have all of the amazing images about that beautiful community that represents so much for Pensacola and the African-American community, and so we started it in 2016 to preserve that house, it's the Arthur H. D'Alemberte house that was gonna be slated for demolishment if it couldn't be moved to make way for a new development, and so we started the Kukua Institute because we had some great friends who wanted to help us preserve that house, but we needed help in moving that, and so we started the institute because of that.

And so our idea is to discover, share, celebrate, and grow art history, science, and technology about African Americans, primarily in the Belmont-DeVilliers area but it spans all of Pensacola and Northwest Florida.

- Now, to all of our viewers out there, Robin Reshard is such a humble woman but I have to let the cat out of the bag: once upon a time, she served as a host right here on WSRE.

So, when I said multifaceted I really meant it.

So, the Pensacola Network, yet, another great thing that you're a part of.

- Yes.

My husband Lloyd and I started that officially here in Pensacola in 2013, and the idea for that was to bring together members of the community, the residential community, the neighborhoods, businesses, religious organizations, anyone who wanted to see the greater development of African-Americans around economic development and community development.

So, we come once a month on the 4th Friday of the month, and we share an issue of importance around those things, it's an opportunity to network, to grow, to strengthen the community, to connect people, Nicole Dixon was our special guest because of her new bookstore.

- Oh, we'll get to you shortly.

- And so it's an idea to bring people together.

We're very intentional that people need to be able to meet.

I don't think you have to meet anybody to love anybody but I think that's what we're called to do, but I think we have to be intentional if we want to connect people, and so that's what the Pensacola Network strives to do.

- One of the things I really admire about you: you have such a big heart.

Women supporting other females individually and collectively, no big eyes, no little use, why is that so important to you?

- So, I didn't meet my great, great, great grandmother, Molly, who came here in 1851 from Liberia, but because she was forced to make that trip, and came here as an enslaved person and her siblings, I'm standing on her shoulder, so, I didn't meet her but I think of women like her, like my great, great, great grandmother, Molly, who I didn't meet, but who did these amazing things under some very difficult circumstances: not having the right to vote; not even being considered as a full citizen.

But these unnamed women, I think it's so important for us to recognize them if nothing but in spirit and in truth, and so I see, especially, with Mamie and Nicole that they do that, they do that for women that they don't even know, seven generations down the road they won't be here, y'all won't be here in seven generations but they're making a way for women today so that in seven generations or in 150 years little girls will be able to connect, or will be able to read, or will be able to go to a bookstore, they're doing that now.

And so I'm standing on shoulders of women like that.

- And speaking of standing on shoulders and thinking of Maya Angelou "Phenomenal Woman" that you are Mamie Webb Hixon.

I know that you have inspired this beautiful lady so much, but we need to inform the public about some of the things that you've been up to lately at the University of West Florida, why don't you tell us about your job?

And what you do there?

- Oh, thank you.

I'm here to talk about Robin.

- We're talking about you too.

(all laugh) - I guess I wear many hats: I am director of the Writing Lab and the Grammar Hotline for one; and I'm an assistant professor of English, and in that role, this semester, for instance, I'm teaching perspective English teachers a course called Modern Grammar: we talk about the linguistic aspects of the English language.

And then, each semester, I have a full enrollment of students in grammar for professional success, those are the two major courses I teach during spring.

I teach a literature class, speaking of women, black women writers, and it's not necessarily for black female writers, this is a course about black women writers like Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker, we study their works and have interactive discussions, it is one of my favorite courses to teach other than my grammar classes.

- Now once upon a time, a few years ago when I was hosting a show here called "inStudio," I called you up.

Now, you are the producer and director for "Our Voices are Many," and we used some of the artists during one of our shows during Black History Month, talk about wearing a lot of hats.

Don't worry, I'll be back to you in just a moment.

All right, Nicole, let me shift on over here.

Quote: REP Yo City Campaign.

That name sounds enlightening, why don't you tell us about that?

And why Robin Reshard inspires you so much?

- So REP Yo City is part of the Real Women Radio Foundation, we're a very young organization; we started out in 2018.

REP stands for register, educate, and participate in voting, so, you rep your city, you register, educate, and participate in voting civic engagement.

We started out with we do non-partisan civic engagement, we've registered over 15,000 people of color in Northwest Florida since we've begun, but we really just meet people where they are.

So, that brings me to Robin.

- Yes, indeed.

- Robin.

I have known her since I was a little bitty baby.

(all laugh) - Not overall young here, okay.

We're not talking about age.

- Okay, okay.

But not literally, but very young in my entrepreneur phases, so, I was really still trying to figure out who I was; and how I was; and who I was gonna be.

And Robin was just one of those people that was like, "Come here.

"Come here, baby.

"Come here."

And she took me in her wing, and anytime I would run into something complicated or I needed something thoughtful, or I needed to think something through, she was always instrumental, and even now that I think I know it all.

- There's always something new to learn.

- She always challenges me to think outside of what the thought process that I have, and so I just love Robin Reshard, she is just one of those people who- - We love her, we do.

We certainly love her.

- She is just a pillar in the community.

And when you talk about someone who just takes you as you are, she don't try to change anything about you, and she actually probably don't know this but she was one of the first black women that I saw just being herself, and she was a black woman, and she said that and she loved that, and she talks about that, and it really gave me the courage to continue and do the work that I do.

- Oh, you're giving me goosebumps over there.

Robin, back to you.

Remember I mentioned earlier author, the two books that I would like to highlight: "The Little Book of 'Fro-isms;" and then, of course, "Marty Goes to the Library."

Talk briefly about both, if you will.

- Yeah.

Let me start with "Marty Goes to the Library" because my first librarian was an elder cousin, Francis, who I dedicated the book and who is the librarian.

My mother was a teacher.

Cousin Francis, she was born in 1913, she was my first librarian, and she was a janitor at the library, and she challenged me every time I'd see her at the public library; to do better than she did; to use those books to get better.

So, "Marty Goes to the Library" is a book about a young Martin Luther King with his first trip to the library.

And actually, a librarian here, Rachel, and a school teacher here, Rachel, both Rachel's challenged me to write the book when we were providing books to children at the Martin Luther King Parade, they challenged me to write the book, write the book that you think that these students need, so, that book is important.

Libraries were important for me growing up as a child, we had several libraries at home, the public library at school, and the public library in the city, the bookmobile, all of those were important to me.

So, again, my cousin, Francis, who's no longer here, was my first librarian, so, that book is really dear to me, we provided 10,000 copies of that book to children near Escambia County for free.

And then, "The Little Book of 'Fro-Ism" was just born after my father passed, it was in 2009, it was born outta a need to write, to put some things down.

Mamie was really instrumental in helping me through a personal challenge when my mother passed, and so it was really born out of a need to say something, what's the Delany Sisters' say?

Have their say.

- Having their say.

- Having their say.

To say something, to put those nuggets that I had learned from my parents down.

So, books are important to me.

And it was a privilege to write those two, but "Marty Goes to the Library" is really important for my cousin, Francis.

- And I like how you encourage others to read books.

Mamie back to you.

Speaking of authors, you've authored: "Real Good Grammar, Too;" "Essentials of English Language" as well.

Your hand is in many pots and you're not wearing a hat this evening, but we already know you wear many hats, right?

So, have you two collaborated on anything else except for the book that you mentioned previously, is there anything in the works that you two are working on?

- Not in the works, but that's a good idea.

I'd always come together.

- That's a wonderful idea.

- Whenever I need a voice, people call me the voice scout, anyway, I will call on Robin for her voice.

She was actually a part of "Our Voices are Many," I created the Grillo course, a combination of Grillo who's an African storyteller, and of course, the Greek course, the people who are on the sidelines commenting, Robin was one of those people involved in those segments of "Our Voices are Many."

And she mentioned something about her grandmother, Robin gives voice to the voiceless, that's the way I like to think of her.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called "The Tipping Point," and he said that there are three kinds of people, I remember one of them, one is a connector, and that's Robin, a person who connects the people in the community to each other, she connects all the components of her life to each other and she connects them to other people, and that's the person she is, and it's all done intentionally: it is not about Robin; it is about no other people.

I love the way you just bring people together and you lift them up, I think it was Toni Morrison who said, "We need to have a high regard for other women."

And Robin shows that high regard that she has for other women and other people.

- You are such a phenomenal woman, I've already said that once, but we must give credit where credit is due.

Nicole, and maybe an inspiring nugget of a story that you can share pertaining to Robin before we wrap up the segment.

- Keep it clean, keep it clean.

(all laugh) - PBS - PBS, keep it clean.

- I have a couple quick ones.

You didn't cut me off.

But Robin actually gave my son who is a genius, and I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom, straight A, he's in advanced classes, things like that.

She gave him his first book when he was in my belly.

Marty goes, "Get this for this baby."

- What a wonderful gift.

- I didn't know that.

- Yes, it was his first book.

And so that is just who Robin is like miss Mamie said there are people who find a way not to do something, and Robin finds a reason or way to do something and that's just who she is.

She recently had me on Pensacola Network to talk about the opening of my bookstore because a couple weeks prior to that, I don't know if you want me to share this Robin but people are gonna be knocking at your door, 'cause she actually has this phenomenal book with photographs of Naomi Campbell, the model, and it is a beautiful book, I had to put my gloves on.

And she shared her library with me, so, we are a lover of books, and so that's just Robin, she's just always giving and finding a way to inspire you, or to feed into you, or to challenge you, and to help you go where you're going.

- Doers, doers, doers, you have inspired me so much, ladies.

And Robin, what a beacon in this community, and I'm glad that Mamie Webb Hixon and Nicole Dixon had a chance to impart wisdom and knowledge, and also share some insightful stories about you.

What a blessing it's been.

All right, folks, as we head to break to learn more about the Kukua Institute: log on to Kukuainstitute.org.

Stay tuned.

(funky head-bobbing music) - [Narrator] You are watching viewer-supported WSRE TV, a service of Pensacola State College.

(heart-warming music) (funky head-bobbing music) - Hello, everyone.

During this segment, we're highlighting two organizations that strive to help children and adults attain their educational goals.

To discuss this further, I'm happy to introduce Sally Lee, student services coordinator for Take Stock in Children, she's joined by her faithful volunteer mentor: Dora Sanchez-Dominguez.

Next, we have Dr. Debby Meyer, director of the Pensacola State College Adult Education Program, and the energetic student sitting next to her is Columbus Lewis Jr, a recent PSC Adult Education graduate.

Welcome to all of you.

Having a good evening, Sally?

- Yes, thanks for having us.

- All right, Take Stock in Children.

I was excited when I explored your website and read about your mission.

Please tell us about the organization.

- It's a nonprofit statewide organization and it offers scholarships, mentors, and hope to young deserving students who are low-income, who could do well in college if they could get there but families probably can't afford to send them, so, our program does provide a way for them to get a scholarship to college.

- So, are we talking about middle school and high school students?

- Correct.

We select our students in middle school: 6th and 7th-grade students can apply.

And if they are accepted to the program, then they remain in the program until they graduate from high school, and while they're in the program, they have to keep good grades, good citizenship, good attendance, and meet with their mentor, and if they do that all through middle and high school, when they graduate, they get their four-year scholarship.

- So, is there a cost to the student or parents?

- No, that's the beauty, zero.

- Zero.

I like that.

Nothing, free.

- Part of my job is to go in our community and find generous people who are willing to donate the funds to buy the scholarships.

So, to bring a student into the program I have to have a scholarship on hand.

- So, established in 1995, how long have you been with the organization?

- Almost that long.

- Really?

Since the beginning.

- 20 years, yeah.

- 20 years.

Doris, speaking of volunteers, but I must let everyone know how did I find out about this beautiful lady.

I was flipping through a BELLA Magazine, thank you, Tiffany Washington, and I saw your bio and I thought, "Wow, she's such a multifaceted woman."

And then, I find out you're a volunteer mentor with Take Stock in Children, so, tell us about how you found out about the organization, and what you do, specifically?

- Well, as Sally mentioned, one of the requirements for the mentees to have a mentor, my son attended West Florida High School and I was part of the PTSA and they were looking for mentors, they were looking for different ways to contribute to the community, so, that's how I became a mentor, so, it's very, very rewarding.

- And how long have you served as a mentor?

- I started in 2016.

Begin with a middle school little young girl, and then from there, I move into receive another mentoring high school.

- Dr. Meyer, isn't this interesting?

Because we have scenarios just as they both stated where there are times; where people are struggling; students are struggling.

So, we're transitioning, and then we're expanding that journey with additional options, so why don't you tell us about your role at Pensacola State College with the Adult Education Program?

- Well, I'm the director of adult education, and what that is, it covers students that have left high school, so, 16 and on up, it is also for students who need to learn English as a second language.

And so we try to give students not only the educational foundation, but we also try to get them interested in the college afterwards.

- And sometimes Dr. Meyer we'll run into situations where someone wants a refresher course or two, maybe they're not good in English or math, are there non-credit courses available through the program?

- Well, adult education does have non-credit programs, but if students have already earned their high school diploma we cannot help 'em.

But we're there to get the students their high school diploma, and that's a big thing that people forget about the GED: they wanna think that it's not equivalent to a high school diploma, but it is, it's just given out by the State of Florida.

- All right, we definitely have to dispel any and all myths.

And so to obtain a GED from the Adult Education Program, is there a cost?

- There is a cost.

So our tuition is $30 a semester, however, we do have some scholarships for that.

The other thing is that the GED itself does cost money, it is a total of $32 per test, there's four tests total, so, it's $128, and we do have scholarships for that.

So, it can be very hard on students when they're trying to earn their actual high school diploma.

And we'll have a lot of students that they earned what's called a credit diploma, so, they had all their high school credits but they may not have passed the ACT or the FSA, and so they'll have to come through our doors to help them actually earn their diploma.

- And then, of course, we know that there are people out there that are learning English as their second language, highlight that program, please.

- Correct.

And they're not just learning their second, they're learning their third, their fourth, or fifth language, these are remarkable people, and so they come to our program, and again, it's just $30, and they take it with us, and we test them on their reading and listening skills.

And then, we help them not only just learn how to possibly test further citizenship if they wanna become US citizens, but we also get them interested in other careers.

- Dr. Meyer has inspired me as an employee at Pensacola State College, just imagine what she's doing as the director of the program.

So, Columbus, let me step into your world.

Recent adult education graduate.

Take me back to your first day, were there butterflies in your stomach?

- Yes.

Yes, but I felt welcomed, and they had treated me like family the first day, and from the first day to the last day it was the exact same love, and yeah.

- So, did you meet a lot of friends in the program?

People that helped you.

- Yes, ma'am.

I met Dr. Meyer, I met Ms. Sparky, Ms. D, couple of teachers, Yes, ma'am.

- So, did you ever have rough days?

In life, we have hard times, and now, let's be honest folks, sometimes we all have a bad day, but did you ever have a rough day and receive a word of encouragement from somebody like Dr. Meyer that helped get you through?

- Yes, ma'am.

- Can you think of a specific instance?

- No, I can't.

- But that's all right because you overcame that obstacle, and good for you.

So, his problem did not linger, right, Sally?

- Right.

- But we know that sometimes when we have middle school-aged children and the high schoolers, and they're thinking about what in the world am I going to do?

Is there a future for me?

But we must encourage them, right, Sally?

So, they have to have support through not only the caring volunteer mentors, but we also think about the college readiness and success coaching, would you expand on those facets?

- Sure, I work with another lady, Genie Campbell, she's our college success coach, and it's her job to go all around the county, to the schools, and she meets with our students.

And by the way, we have 141 students in grade 7 through 12, so, that's a good number of children, and all of those students can say, "I'm going to college."

Because they know there's a scholarship waiting for them.

But part of what Genie's job is: is to monitor their grades, make sure they're keeping up the way they should.

And then, we do workshops at UWF and here at BSC to help them get ready for college, doing the FAFSA loan application, filling that out, we do money skills workshop here, and getting ready for college.

- Now, Doris, I know that you encourage students a lot and you shared a wonderful example in your son, but what would you say to anyone out there that might be contemplating going to the website and finding out more information about Take Stock in Children?

You would probably say, "Go, go, go."

- Absolutely.

It's very rewarding having that conversation, engaging, creating that trust, at the beginning is usually a little tension, they don't open up right away, right?

But session after session you see how they begin to open up and have conversation, issues that they might be going through, "Help me with the homework."

As a native from Puerto Rico, I'm able to help them with Spanish classes.

I don't do their homework, I guide them.

- Oh, they must do their own homework.

- So, very rewarding, so, hey, it's an opportunity to give to the community and also to support the students as well.

- So, Dr. Meyer, graduation, I know your heart is probably full during that time, and then, the hugs from instructor to student, and group pictures, tell us a little bit about that experience.

- Let me tell you one of the things I love about working with adult education students is that I get to make a difference in each one of their lives.

When it comes to earning a degree or a diploma, most people, they expect that degree or diploma to change their lives, but with adult education students, they change their lives to reach and earn that piece of paper.

So, every time a student earns their degree, or if they learn English and they're able to talk to people in their community, I know I'm making a difference in their lives.

Last year, we had 82 graduates that came through our program that actually earned their GED, so, they earned their high school diploma, and this is only my second year at this program being able to help it, but we have doubled how many people have earned their GED.

People like Columbus, he was in our program only a matter of weeks and he's a determined young man, he knows what he wants, and he was driven, and he would come to class an hour beforehand just so he could talk to us because he wanted to engage in conversations with the staff.

But it means so much when I get to take a picture of people and be able to show them how well they've done, and send these pictures to their family.

- And I must say, Columbus, that smile says it all.

I'd like to thank all of you for joining us on the show, just great people doing amazing things.

And of course, I'd like to thank all of our guests for joining us.

I'm Rameca Vincent Leary.

Remember to keep it locked in right here on WSRE: PBS for the Gulf Coast.

(funky head-bobbing music)