THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408040197
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 155 lines
OUT OF THOUSANDS of sheriffs' deputies in Virginia, Lt. Brenda M. Lundy stands out from the crowd.
She's still trying to figure out why. But people who know her have no problem figuring how she became Deputy of the Year for the state.
Energy, they say. The 45-year-old has it in bundles, and for several years she's channeled most of it into keeping people out of jail.
Young people, to be exact - tens of thousands of them who, year by year, have been lovingly walked through the doctrines of the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.
From 20-minute sessions with kindergarten students to the 17-week curriculum for older students, Portsmouth's students get to know Lundy and other DARE officers who show up spiffy in their deputies' uniforms week after week, year after year.
Lundy considers it a privilege to be there.
``Something happens within that class,'' Lundy said. ``Your whole outlook about everything changes. You know that you're that positive role model for these kids.''
Years later, those former students remember Lundy by name. She recognizes their faces. They call out to her at the shopping malls and sometimes she sees some in places she'd rather not.
``I've seen kids come to the courts,'' she said. ``Course, they're in trouble. They see you and they know that you taught them DARE, and they will hide their faces because they don't want you to know they got in trouble.''
Lundy doesn't give up on them or lose hope in the program she now runs for the Sheriff's Office.
``You can guide your children, but if they stray there is nothing you can do about it,'' she said. ``You just have to hope that they don't go out there and get in trouble. You give them the ground work.''
And according to Lundy's law, you keep up the faith. She believes in second chances. She believes in her kids.
She pulls out the graduation announcement she received a few weeks earlier for one of the first children she ever taught in DARE.
``That really did something for me, to think that it's been since 1987 and I'm still that positive person in her mind,'' she said. ``I think I did have some type of impact on her. So the program does work.
``Not only do we deliver a curriculum to them, but we deliver ourselves to them. We become a part of that kid's life.''
Lundy actually came full circle when her law enforcement career took a turn from the jailhouse to the classroom. After graduating from Norfolk State University, she spent several years teaching emotionally disturbed children.
``I think it got next to me,'' she said.
So at 36 she decided she needed a career change.
But, ``I guess you never really get away from (teaching),'' she said.
She spent about a year working in the jail and as an intake officer, before Sheriff Gary Waters looked at her way with people and her educational background and decided to tap her for his new DARE program.
Waters had heard about the program at a Virginia Sheriff's Association conference and immediately went to the school superintendent to start it in Portsmouth.
``I think (we were) the second city in the state of Virginia to enter into the DARE program,'' Waters recalled.
He sent Lundy and three other deputies to the second training session at Longwood College. About a year ago, Waters promoted her and put her in charge of DARE and other crime prevention programs.
The office she heads now serves every public school and most private elementary and middle schools in the city. It also offers support and programs to high school anti-drug efforts such as Students Against Drunk Driving.
Her headquarters, tucked in a Fairwood Homes house, also is stocked with the materials they use for a Kid-Watch bicycle safety program and Ident-A-Kid fingerprinting.
Lundy also oversees an Elderly Watch program for senior citizens who live alone. Staff members call seniors daily to check on them, and if the staff doesn't get an answer a deputy checks on them.
The DARE office calendar also is filled with civic league meetings and events planned by neighborhood crime fighters such as the Cavalier Manor Police Community Relations.
``Our people are crazy about her,'' said Joseph Wright, the organization's president. ``She just seems to go out of her way.''
Both Lundy and Waters have been made honorary members of the neighborhood watch board because of the work they have done on the group's behalf, Wright said.
Lundy coordinated the organization's annual National Night Out picnic last weekend.
She brought a grill and several deputies to cook hot dogs and hamburgers. She hooked up the pop corn popper to the generator in her DARE van and played gospel and jazz.
She also brought a dozen of the senior women from the Elderly Watch program with her and made sure they were well-fed and entertained.
``All of those women acted like they were just tickled to death,'' Wright said.
So was Lundy. She puts older folks right up there with children.
``I guess because I associate or hang out with the elderly I get a lot of wisdom from them,'' she said. ``If you sit and listen and take what they give you, you can apply it.''
It's the kind of thinking that makes her what colleagues refer to as a ``people person.''
And it's the same personality that makes her a champ at coming up with donations from businesses and organizations for her DARE kids and events such as DARE Family Day.
She furnished the DARE office in Fairwood Homes with donations. She provided the hot dogs and popcorn and cotton candy that fed thousands at the annual DARE Family Day with donations.
``She's the type of person, when she asks you to do something, she's so energetic and she does such a creative job of everything that it draws you in,'' explained E. Ann Horne, assistant principal at James Hurst Elementary School.
Horne has known Lundy for about eight years and worked with her on the annual DARE Family Day at the park. But mostly she gives Lundy high marks on her work with children.
Although Lundy is now in the supervisory role of the DARE office, she still spends time in the schools.
``She's excellent,'' Horne said. ``She talks on their level and she breaks everything down. She throws in comical things, but it always comes out on a serious note.''
And Horne is always amazed at the enthusiasm that pours from Lundy.
``She never stands still,'' she said. ``I've often asked her, `Where do you get all this energy from?' She tells me `I have an inner drive. I want to reach as many children as I can.' ''
That approach to her work won Lundy one other award this year.
In March, she was one of six deputies and police officers presented the Virginia DARE Association's Michael Bentoski Memorial Award.
The award is given in memory of the Big Stone Gap police chief who promoted the program throughout the state, even as he was dying of cancer.
Lundy doesn't mind enjoying her year in the spotlight.
``I've been floating,'' she said. ``I just wish that Mom had lived to see me where I am.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo on cover by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Lt. Brenda Lundy speaks with Cornelius Woodley, 13, left, and his
brother Edwin Woodley, 15, about the DARE program during the
National Night Out picnic.
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Lt. Brenda M. Lundy has ``an inner drive'' to reach as many children
as she can to keep them out of trouble and out of the jail she
serves.
Brenda Lundy helps Albert Jackson Sr. into the rec center. She
brought seniors from the Elderly Watch program with her and made
sure they were well-fed and entertained at the annual National Night
Out picnic.
Brenda Lundy guides Jason Bryan, 6, during the annual National Night
Out picnic that she organized last weekend. She brought a grill and
several deputies to cook hot dogs and hamburgers. She hooked up the
pop corn popper to the generator in her DARE van and played gospel
and jazz.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT COMMUNITY PROGRAM by CNB