Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 9, 1993 TAG: 9309090361
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY BELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I was reluctant at first. I thought, you know, it would be a drag," said the rising senior at William Fleming High School.
"I didn't know what Anytown was. I wasn't interested in going to camp," he said.
Jones, who stands out from other students at his school because of his athletic abilities - he plays football, baseball and wrestles - had to be persuaded to attend the conference for high school juniors and seniors called Anytown.
The conference, hosted each summer by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, uses a peaceful camp setting and workshops to teach teens about getting along with people of other races, of the opposite sex or even with their families.
Instead of canoeing and participating in other traditional camp activities, the students attend a series of workshops designed to help them identify with their own cultures and people of other cultures.
Intensive exercises designed to help students discover their own feelings about a number of issues, include camp fire discussions, open debates and one-on-one opportunities with counselors.
"These kids were selected, not necessarily because they were the smartest or best athletically, but because of their leadership potential and ability to influence others in a positive way," said Marty Woodward, president of the Roanoke regional chapter of NCCJ.
Woodward said five students were selected for this year's conference, held each year at the Blowing Rock Assembly Grounds in the rural North Carolina mountains.
The sponsoring chapter pays all the students' expenses, including transportation to the one-week conference.
"I learned you can't judge a person by color or race. You have to judge what's on the inside," said Jones.
"Before I went I didn't think I was prejudiced. But everybody is a little prejudiced, and we need to erase that," he said.
Korey Moore, who attends Patrick Henry High School, returned from Anytown brimming with enthusiasm.
"It was exciting, educational, meaningful," he said.
Moore, who hopes to be an attorney, said the conference helped him acknowledge "that racism affects everyone."
Northside junior Leland Keeling called the conference "the funnest thing you can go through. Better than an amusement park."
Keeling said he benefited from learning about family relations and how to solve problems in positive ways.
Eric Phelps, from Salem High School, learned many things about cultural stereotypes and fighting peer pressure.
"The most important message I got is not to be a person who says `I was gonna' or `I should have' but a person of action."
Phelps said he cried and laughed with people he had never seen before and left the conference feeling he had made many new friends.
"I will tell all of my friends that they really need to go," said Phelps.
As the only female in the Roanoke group, Adrianna Withers, a senior at Cave Spring, learned some things she didn't know about the male gender.
"We really feel the same way about most things. We just handle it differently," she said.
Withers said when she was called to the principal's office about Anytown she initially thought she was in trouble.
"And then I thought - camp - no, I definitely do not want to go."
But she said she accepted the challenge and is glad she did.
Each of the five students said the experience was so profound that they will apply to be counselors at next year's conference.
Woodward said the five-person delegation is the largest ever sent to Anytown in the five years the Roanoke chapter has participated.
"These young people are very outstanding, with the influence to impact their friends in very positive ways," she said.
Anytown conferences are held nationwide each summer. In other areas of the country students apply and are put on waiting lists.
The program is becoming more popular here as students attend the conference and return the following year as counselors, said Woodward.
Funds for the annual conference are raised during what NCCJ calls "United Nations Day," where members of the business community from a variety of cultural backgrounds assemble for fellowship and to meet students who have attended the conference.
The fund-raising event will be held Oct. 24 this year, at Shanghai Restaurant in Salem, 5 p.m.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***