THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701150152
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 159 lines
WHEN SABRINA VINSON was pregnant with her first son, she didn't pray for him to be handsome or brilliant.
She just prayed for a gentleman.
People who know her son would say her prayer was answered in bundles.
Friends ask her where she got such a paragon of endearing behavior, and she answers: ``I think he dropped out of heaven with a tag on him.''
That isn't just motherly pride talking.
At 12, Rodney Eric Vinson already has been summoned to Richmond twice to be honored for his achievements and community involvement.
He was nominated for those honors through friends and mentors he has come to know through the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program of the Portsmouth Sheriff's Office.
Last year, he was one of 30 young people across the state who lunched with the governor's wife, Susan Allen.
Those students were selected as top DARE participants.
Rodney, who plans to be an artist, never will forget the opportunity to look at the historic artwork in the Governor's Mansion.
The first lady probably never will forget the one youngster who presented her a hostess gift.
This year DARE officers accompanied him to Richmond again - this time to see him receive a YOUTH Award from Attorney General James S. Gilmore.
The award, an acronym for Youth and Old Uniting to Help, was sponsored by Gilmore and the law firm of a former attorney general.
The award came with a $1,000 savings bond, and only two youths in the state were selected.
The other recipient, a 16-year-old Forest, Va., high school senior planning to attend West Point, accepted his award first and went over to join his parents.
Then it was Rodney's turn.
But he wasn't in a rush to go back to his seat.
He asked the attorney general if he could say a few words, said Lt. Brenda Lundy, coordinator of the DARE program and one of several Portsmouth representatives at the ceremony.
``It just threw me for a loop,'' Lundy said. ``All of a sudden he looks at the attorney general and says, `May I speak?'
``I was proud, and I was shocked, too. I was like, `OK, Rodney, what are you going to say?' '' she said, laughing.
Rodney thanked God, his mother and the DARE officers for helping him to get the award, as well as those who were presenting it.
After that, the 16-year-old came back and followed the younger recipient's lead, saying a few words.
The two youths' backgrounds are completely different. Rodney is the oldest of four children raised by a single mother in the Washington Park public housing neighborhood.
``It struck me . . . you've always got the stigma these kids in the projects are not going to amount to anything - they're always going to be in trouble,'' Lundy said. ``And this kid in front of all these strangers and distinguished people . . . just broke the ice.
``It did something. I guess it shook everybody. And to give homage to God, that really said something. It says he believes in something.
``We are definitely proud of this child.''
The one person it didn't surprise was Rodney's mother.
``If anybody ever gives him anything, he's going to tell you thank you, and he's always going to thank me and thank the Lord first,'' Sabrina Vinson said.
The YOUTH Award he received was given on the basis of achievements and community involvement.
The nomination letter, submitted by Lundy, praised the youth's willingness to help with the DARE program and to serve as a mentor for other young people.
The DARE coordinators also pointed out Rodney's habit of checking up on neighbors and lending them a helping hand.
According to their nomination letter, when the resident manager needed someone to baby-sit her parakeets, she turned to Rodney.
``Her greatest concern was that Rodney would spoil her birds before she returned from vacation,'' the letter said. ``This statement alone says a great deal about Rodney's character.''
Rodney loves training birds, drawing, football, school and people in general. He's tall for his age - about 5 foot 11 - so people mistake him for an older teen.
The oldest of four children, he acts older for his age, too. The generation gap is not a concept he understands, according to his DARE friends.
The first time Deputy Paul Ewing worked with the youth individually was when he was conducting an Identa-Kid program at Brighton Elementary School and the parent volunteers didn't show up to help.
Ewing asked the principal, Pomar Tootoo, for a student who could help, and that's where Rodney stepped in.
``I was really surprised for someone his age to be that mature,'' Ewing said. ``We were fingerprinting kids for their photo ID at the school, and he was helping to keep the little kids in control.
``He would get them, bring them down and take them back, and by the end of the day we had him doing a lot more. He was very task oriented.''
Now Rodney is a sixth-grader at Cradock Middle School and a graduate of the DARE program. But he still calls deputies to ask if he can help out.
Last week, he accompanied Ewing to a Churchland community center where he helped to put on a safety program.
``He did a good job. He helped me set up . . . and clean up after the program,'' Ewing said. ``The lady who invited us out could not believe he was 12. She thought he was a deputy in training.''
Rodney's stature makes him a natural role model for other children.
``Rodney told me that a lot of kids at his school wanted to know how they could be put in for that award to get the money that Rodney got,'' Ewing said. ``But Rodney did it not knowing there was going to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.''
Deputies are also proud of the fact that he is a youngster who comes from a crime-ridden neighborhood who is rising above the problems around him.
``If he keeps on the track that he's on now, I think he's going to be whatever he wants to be,'' Ewing said.
What Rodney wants to be is a college graduate and an artist. But for now he's pretty happy with the achievements he's making as a 12-year-old.
``It felt great,'' he said of the award he received.
Sometimes, other kids give him a hard time, ``like you want to be, Mr. Goody Goody,'' he said. ``I don't really pay that any mind.''
He likes helping people out, he said.
He carries things for neighbors or helps them clean their yard or paint, he said.
``It's something I'd rather do than be on the street or be in trouble and give my mother a hard time. So I'm just trying to make it easier on her.''
He credits his mother with giving him the guidance to stay on the right track.
They talk a lot, he said.
``Some kids can't do that - they always get in a fight,'' he said. ``Me and my mom, we talk our problems out and handle them very well. We don't fuss and fight. We just sit down and talk.
``If I have a problem, she'll just try and handle it. And I listen to what she says. When she talks to me I look her straight in the eye. I look at her face to face . . . that's when she knows I understand what she's saying and I know what she's talking about.''
Actually, the Portsmouth youth is the kind of young person a lot of adults think of when they want to put their best foot forward.
Pomar Tootoo, the principal of Brighton Elementary, remembers last year when the school had a Thanksgiving Parent Day. Rodney was one of the students assigned to greet parents and lead them to the cafeteria.
``Parents were commenting, `Who was the young man who greeted us at the door?' '' Tootoo said. ``They just couldn't get over how polite and helpful he was when they came in.
``It represented the school very well . . . this tall and handsome young student who presented himself with dignity and knew what he was doing.''
He did know what he was doing. He was being a gentleman. ILLUSTRATION: Photo [including color cover photo] by GARY C. KNAPP
Portsmouth Deputy Paul Ewing, right, first worked with Rodney Eric
Vinson in the Identa-Kid program at Brighton Elementary School.
Graphic
Mayor to honor Rodney Vinson
Mayor James W. Holley will be presenting Rodney Vinson a
proclamation on behalf of the City Council at the Jan. 28 council
meeting.
Vinson recently received the YOUTH Award, a state honor.
The YOUTH (Young and Old United to Help) Award was presented for
the first time this year.
The award program was started by Attorney General James Gilmore
and Anthony F. Troy, a former attorney general. The two adapted the
program from a pilot program they learned about at a conference of
the National Association of Attorney Generals.
The attorney general's office will administer the program, and
the law firm of Mays & Valentine will continue to raise funds for
savings bonds to be presented to future winners.
Troy is a senior partner of the Richmond-based firm.