Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Forsyth County United Way is not so uniting





As children growing up in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, we were raised to be very community minded by always being charitable to the neighborhood and any organization that helps all the people in Winston-Salem. We were told that you never know when you may need that helping hand.

Through Sara Lee Company, one of my family members won for being one of the largest contributors to United Way.

Even today through the East/Northeast Winston-Salem Neighborhood Association and the Ashley School Precinct, which both are volunteer community services, we give of our time and funds striving for a better neighbor/community.

We have co-partnered with the City of Winston-Salem in many area plans, mostly for the East/Northeast wards . We co-partnered with the Winston-Salem Police Department. We have participated in so many things to uplift this community since 2005.

And if I might add, we excelled at being the most active neighborhood association in the E/NE wards, which was our purpose: to shine a light on the much needed renovations in this Black Historical Community.

Over a year ago, I was contacted by a neighborhood organization to inform me that 13 neighborhoods had been chosen by Forsyth County United Way for rehabilitation assistance, but we were not one of them.

Now mind you, my neighborhood sits in the very middle of these 13 neighborhoods that were selected. So we continued to beautify our neighborhood by cleaning the streets, painting a mural, and continuing our winning streak of being the citywide largest National Night Out for the sixth year in a row in hopes that we would be given some consideration for funds other than committing our properties to the City.

Most people would like to leave their property to family members and not be indebted to the City, which would inherit the property.

So after almost two years of hearing this sad news of not being selected, we felt gerrymandered, black-balled, red-lined for some reason. Actually, it seems mean-spirited to leave our neighborhood out.

We can only attribute the decision by Forsyth County United Way via its Board and Advisory Committee.

We invited Forsyth County United Way out to our Mural Debut in hopes they could see the progress we want for our neighborhood and reconsider helping us as well. We know of no explainable reason to be singled and left out like that.

We hope someone would contact me to explain what we are doing wrong.

Marva Reid, President

East/Northeast Winston-Salem Neighborhood Association

and Community Advocate Ashley Precinct Chair



WSCHRONICLE-newssource
http://www.wschronicle.com/2016/04/letters-editor-hb2-cancer-services-united-way/

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