THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604260213
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Twenty-one little girls, somewhere around the ages of 10 and 11, now have a better idea of ``women's work.''
They participated in a Girls Inc. program as part of the ``Take Our Daughters to Work Day.'' However, they were not going to work with their own mothers. Instead, they were going with women who work in fields they said they'd like to know more about.
Before they went off to ``work'' on Thursday afternoon, I talked to some of them at a luncheon at the Max.
Carrie Williams, a 10-year-old student at Deep Creek Elementary, was going down to the Portsmouth Police Department with Capt. Alice Holmes, now the department's highest ranking female officer.
``I want to be a police officer - one that doesn't shoot guns,'' Carrie said. ``But I want to be one.''
Holmes said she looked forward to having Carrie go to work with her.
``I have two boys so this is a change for me,'' she said.
Chela Williams, 10, a Westhaven Elementary student, was getting a special afternoon outing. Her mentor was Bernice Spencer of Virginia Beach, a financial consultant with Merrill Lynch in Dominion Towers on the Norfolk waterfront.
``When we leave here, we'll go over to my office and let her see what it's like,'' Spencer said. ``I'll let her sit right at the desk with me as I talk to clients.''
Spencer said she really has gotten excited about the Girls Inc. programs.
``I knew I could do only one volunteer thing and I was looking for an organization I could relate to,'' she said.
Girls Inc. filled the requirements.
``We are helping little girls become responsible humans,'' Spencer said. ``That's important.''
Jessica Boone and Danielle Health, both third graders at Westhaven, went off with Gloria Creecy to her husband's business, Sales Systems Ltd.
``I wanted them to get to do something while they were there,'' Creecy said. ``So we're going to work with quality assurance testing bolts. They'll put on goggles and lab coats and actually participate.''
Creecy, like Spencer, is really sold on the Girls Inc. programs. She believes it is important to girls because it gives them ``confidence that they can do anything.''
The program to have the youngsters go with mentors from jobs not traditionally women's work makes sense. Among the mentors Thursday were women in the Coast Guard, women on television, women doctors and veterinarians, judges and lawyers, bankers, emergency medical technicians and City Clerk Sheila Pittman, who took her charge off to Rotary Club for lunch.
Children with real goals tend to do better in school and to look forward to college and to jobs. They are less likely to become teen-age parents or to do other things that could interfere with their goals.
Many of the children went home Thursday with a much broader view of what women do and how important women's work has become.
I sat down next to Sandi Johnson, a long-time member of the Girls Inc. board who has lost none of her enthusiasm over the years.
``You know my granddaughter was the fourth generation in my family to be involved,'' Johnson said. Her mother, Violet Vick, started a girls club on Dinwiddie Street, she said.
Girls Inc. is getting ready to build a fancy new facility on Portsmouth Boulevard, moving from an inadequate building in Westhaven.
``We really need the new place, the space, the swimming pool,'' Johnson said. ``We can help these young girls by providing a place for them to go after school.''
I personally was not too keen on putting the club on Portsmouth Boulevard, taking the land off the tax books in an area where much property already is commercial.
But my feelings about keeping the land on the tax books did not mean I was negative about Girls Inc. I once was briefly on the board of the Girls Club in Elizabeth City more than 40 years ago and I have been interested in how the organization has evolved over time.
Back then, most of the women on the board did not work because, during the 1950s, not that many women worked. Few women worked in professional jobs, working instead in jobs as secretaries and other supporting roles.
Things have changed a lot. Girls Inc. has changed with the times. Now they're moving out front to lead these bright young girls to bigger and better jobs in the future.
If you want to be part of the movement, Girls Inc. always is looking for volunteers - and for money to help pay for their new facility too. by CNB