Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504270006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANN DONAHUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Beverly Sills, renowned soprano and humanitarian, prefers to speak from the heart about her experiences.
"My husband says 'Wind her up and she'll talk,'" Sills said in a telephone interview. "And that's what I'll do."
Four Roanokers will be honored at tonight's banquet, which will be at Hotel Roanoke. They are Abe Jacobson, Peter Allen Lewis, Barbara Surrusco and Richard Surrusco.
Sills is a 1984 recipient of the NCCJ award, which is given to those who exemplify the organization's goal of fighting "bias, bigotry and racism in America."
Sills, who is Jewish, said her marriage to a Christian man helped her to understand discrimination.
"We had to raise our children to feel like a member of the human race," she said. Sills is the national chairperson for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and has helped raise almost $80 million for the charity. She also serves on the board of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
For the banquet, Sills said she intends to talk about her career and how the arts have no boundaries. Earlier in the day, she will speak at Hollins College on the connection between education and the arts.
Hollins President Maggie O'Brien is honorary chairperson for the NCCJ dinner.
Abe Jacobson, one of those to be honored tonight, was a physician in the Roanoke Valley for over 50 years, and is now Medical Consultant for Disability Determination Services.
"I was very very excited," to be selected for the award, he said. "It reminded me of all my philosophies of practicing medicine - the humanitarian aspects." Jacobson had one of the first desegregated medical offices in Roanoke in 1939.
"I didn't have any trouble, really," he said. "People just accepted it."
Peter Allen Lewis founded Apple Ridge Farm, a non-profit, tax-exempt retreat with the mission of providing enriching outdoor activities for underprivileged children. He estimates that more than 8,000 youngsters, many of them from public housing projects, have visited the 88.5-acre farm in Floyd County.
"Everybody needs to be involved in making our communities a better place," he said. "Even those of us who don't have children, we need to be able to do something because we all share the problems that affect us all."
Barbara Surrusco is a registered nurse in the Coronary Care Unit of Roanoke Memorial Hospital and her husband, Richard, is medical director of Emergency Services for Roanoke Memorial and the Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.
The couple helped found the Free Clinic of Roanoke Valley, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. In that time, the clinic has provided an estimated $7 million worth of medical service.
"In all honestly it would have been flattering just to be nominated - but to win is just spectacular," Richard Surrusco said.
Twenty years ago, when Mrs. Surrusco was about to have her second child, she was part of a group that saw a need for inexpensive medical care for the working poor and devised a plan to provide it.
"I've watched the free clinic grow and my children, too," she said. "I'm proud of them both."
In 1994, over 10,000 people went to the Free Clinic.
It offers full medical services, including cancer screening and a pharmacy. It is one of the few free clinics in the country that offers comprehensive dental services.
There are 400 unpaid volunteers. The clinic was declared a "Daily Point of Light" in 1990 by President George Bush.
by CNB