A couple of high-profile volunteers and advocates, Rick Fleetwood and Virgil Miller, received praise and medals May 29 at the 51st Humanitarian Dinner for Just Communities of Arkansas.
Fleetwood was introduced by Craig Reinhardt, owner of CustomNeeds, LLC, and a technology director at United Cerebral Palsy who himself has the impairment. Reinhardt said that Fleetwood "shows respect for all individuals, with or without disabilities," and that he's genuine with everyone he meets, so genuine he could be called Rick "Genuine" Fleetwood.
The honoree, for his part, said Reinhardt is a fine reminder for everyone that one group often omitted from discussions of discrimination is the disabled.
"This organization has been a champion for so many causes in regards to people who have been discriminated against, whether it's religion, race or sex, or sexual orientation, whatever the case may be, but all too often, people with disabilities are somewhat left at the lower end of the scale in terms of getting [recognized] in terms of being discriminated against," Fleetwood said.
"The young man, the young man who introduced me here tonight almost didn't get a job because they saw his disability, not his abilities. He is one of the most respected, called on, depended on -- he's received national awards -- and he almost didn't get a job. Think about it."
Miller was introduced by his daughter, the Rev. Ravyn Miller, who told some embarrassing but uplifting stories about her father. Miller, when he took the microphone, said he's tried to live by the golden rule, and that Fleetwood is "someone I have molded my volunteer activities on."
He recalled a time in school, "I was in Berkeley, Calif., and we were integrating schools there, and blacks were in the majority.
"I had friends who didn't treat the white students very well. They bullied them. They took their lunch money. They made them do their homework. I did not have the courage to speak out. It wasn't right. It was not right. Don't be like me. Have the courage to speak out when you see injustice happening, because your silence quite frankly is a tacit approval."
Later, "we moved to Arkansas, and I went to Fuller Junior High. It was just being integrated, and I was in the minority, and I suffered from the hands of the white majority, with names I'd never been called before, and bullied, and the shoe was on the other foot.
"How I wish that someone would have had the courage to speak out against the injustices that I was facing at that time."
Some 500 people were in attendance; the dinner raised close to $143,000, with another $18,000 raised for the Ourtown for Teens leadership program, thanks to two $5,000 matching gifts from Legacy Termite and Pest Control and an anonymous donor, according to Kerri Sernel, JCA Development and Marketing Director.
-- Story and photos by Bobby Ampezzan
High Profile on 06/08/2014