THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 3, 1995 TAG: 9512020118
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
It was only after Donald C. Mills lost nearly everything he had that he decided it was time to give back.
Starting Wednesday at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Channel 13, Falcon Cable will air an hourlong show, ``Suffolk's Community Forum,'' hosted by Mills. Funded by private donations, the show will repeat on Fridays at 6 p.m. and 10. On Mondays, a new show will be taped.
Mills said he hopes the show will bridge gaps within the community and find ways to improve housing and find jobs for Suffolk residents.
This longtime Suffolk resident has had a long climb, from success to failure to success again. Through his own life experiences, Mills hopes to be a positive force in helping others attain economic stability through the show.
``We're trying to pool resources in the community. We're trying to unite people around a common cause,'' he said. ``We've got so many collective, splintered groups doing the same, good thing, but we haven't been unified in a goal.''
The show will feature various people from the community, including civic leaders and housing and real estate officials. Mills hopes to inform residents on job training and housing opportunities.
The first show will feature businessman Terrance Bowers, who is organizing the Black Man-Black Woman Rally on Dec. 23 at Constant's Wharf. Mills welcomes other residents working within the community to be guests.
Mills said he wasn't always committed to civic service; it took a personal downward spiral to realize just how important community is.
Mills, 41, a builder, filed personal bankruptcy in 1993. He lost the two Corvettes he and his wife drove. He lost the $300,000 estate on Horse Shoe Point Road. He blames his financial problems on the price of lumber quadrupling in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew hit Florida.
He fell three months behind on payments to the Internal Revenue Service, and the government seized his personal assets and business assets of his building company, Consolidated Building Services, Inc.
He and his wife, Ernestine, went from being millionaires to being flat broke. They now live in a two-bedroom, two-bath mobile home at the Magnolia Lake Trailer Park and are working hard to start anew.
``In everyone's life, there is a funeral,'' said Mills in an earlier interview. ``For me, it was my finances. It was embarrassing. It was humiliating. It was my faith that wavered, but hers (his wife) never did. I felt I had failed the family.''
``But you've got to keep coming up to bat, you've got to keep on swinging to hit that home run,'' Mills said.
His personal home run came through a lot of prayer, family loans and hard work.
Between 1993 and 1994, he established a new building company - Help-U-Build and Remodel Inc. and he currently has a number of jobs constructing houses and churches. His wife also started a hair salon, Changin Faces, on North Saratoga Street.
Mills approached Falcon Cable advertising manager Bill Cloughly at Peanut Fest this year about doing the show. Cloughly, 48, said he's worked with a several groups about community shows but was sold on Mills' effort.
``The main thing I want to see happen is change,'' said Cloughly. ``I don't want to see a lot of lip service.'' MEMO: For more information about Suffolk Community Forum, call Donald Mills at
538-0116 or Benford Hunter at 539-9400.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Donald C. Mills hopes his program, ``Suffolk's Community Forum,''
will bridge gaps within the community.
by CNB