Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 8, 1993 TAG: 9301080362
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
ALWAYS LOOKING FOR GOOD MEN
The New River Valley Progressive Men's Club promotes a different model for black men - and it's making a name for itself.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, a group of black men met at Kroger, picked up 80 baskets of fruit and went looking for the luckless.
Working with a list of referrals from churches, they knocked on the doors of the aged and ill Nov. 21. They delivered their baskets - and then visited awhile.
Robert Pierson, president of the New River Valley Progressive Men's Club, recalls the project with no little pride.
"It worked out real good," Pierson said. "They are so appreciative, and greet you with a big smile. . . . People forget senior citizens so much, from the government on down. . . . As far as I'm concerned, that's the best thing we've done."
It wasn't the first.
Since its beginning nearly two years ago, the Men's Club has been working to make a good name for itself.
"We don't want to be stereotyped," Pierson told a reporter in 1991. "Black men care, too. And we can be role models."
Pierson and others in the club fretted then that media coverage of black males makes it seem as if crime, drug abuse and other social problems are the whole story.
Club members beg to differ.
These 14 black residents of the New River Valley, many of them former students of the segregated Christiansburg Institute, hold down jobs and raise families.
As for the role-model part, they're doing their best. In the past 20 months, Men's Club members have visited a string of churches - one every other month - to talk about the club and often make a donation.
They have chaperoned drug- and smoke-free parties for teen-agers.
They not only have visited elderly residents in their homes, but made themselves available to do their chores. All the elderly need do is ask.
"They may have to wait," Pierson said. But he also said, "Somebody in the club will always be available."
A while back, for example, members raked Viola Charlton's leaves.
Charlton, who taught many of the Men's Club members at Christiansburg Institute - the now-defunct school for blacks in Christiansburg - has osteoarthritis and can no longer do the job herself, she said.
The Men's Club also gave Charlton a plaque to show its appreciation for their former teacher.
"It's a fine little club," Charlton said. "I'm not saying that because they honored me."
Charlton also said she had to work to keep most of them in line back during their school days.
"You know they were mischievous."
The Men's Club also has contributed money from the club kitty (stocked through monthly dues and various fund-raisers) to help area youngsters compete in beauty pageants and sporting events, like the $100 they donated to help send Radford High School basketball star Michelle Wyms to a tournament in New Mexico.
The club also has contributed to the Howard Community Center in Pulaski, and the Wake Forest Community Club near McCoy. The Wake Forest money went to a scholarship fund.
The Men's Club also has given awards to such respected citizens as Charlton, the retired schoolteacher, and Maria Penn, who helps operate the Howard Community Center.
Said Penn of the Men's Club: "It's a wonderful idea."
Also, to encourage young people, the Men's Club even sent congratulatory cards to black high school graduates of Radford, Pulaski, Christiansburg and Blacksburg high schools this year, as well as to black graduates of Virginia Tech and Radford University.
"We hear a lot of positive things about us" as a result of these efforts, Pierson said.
One of the Men's Club's biggest projects is its annual scholarship, in which a deserving student is awarded $1,000 to use toward college expenses.
The first recipient was Pierson's own son, Duane - which still makes his father wince, for fear people will think he pulled strings.
In fact, the club asked a black history club to give them some names of worthy students to consider for a scholarship, and one of the names was Duane's, Pierson said. And Duane Pierson had the highest grade-point average of those who were recommended.
"He won it fair and square," his father said.
Duane Pierson is a freshman engineering student at Virginia Tech.