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Volunteer group still makes a difference
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- At one time their group was known best for debutante balls, sumptuous affairs of respectable young ladies resplendent in billowing white gowns. Much has changed in the decades since the last debutante made her promenade on the arms of a painstakingly hand-picked college man. These days, the St. Petersburg Chapter of Links Inc., an international volunteer organization of black women, concentrates on nurturing young minds, aiding the poor and fostering harmonious relationships among all people. Shirley M. Davis, a former president, recently recounted some of the local chapter's achievements. "We've given out a number of scholarships to young black women. We have tried to get involved with young children. We've done things for the Sanderlin Center and for CASA and for eight or nine years we co-sponsored the Martin Luther King Breakfast," she said. Most of the group's efforts are not on a grand scale, she said. "There was a young lady studying in Florence, Italy, doing an art project. She asked if we could help her with art supplies," Mrs. Davis said. "So, there are a lot of things we do that don't get attention." The past few weeks, the local Links chapter has been promoting Thom and Sally, a musical about the controversial relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, one of his slaves. The play, which will be performed today at 2 and 7:30 p.m. at the Palladium, 253 Fifth Ave. N, is by Gulfport playwright Gil Perlroth and will be directed by Bob Devin Jones, a St. Petersburg director, actor and playwright. An important goal of the Links, said member Cheryl Elver Garnes, is to encourage the appreciation of arts in the black community. "It's like reading a live book, where you open a book and see people," Ms. Garnes said. "How more intimate can you be than by sitting in a theater and receiving this information? And it's enjoyment." Today's performance of Thom and Sally, said Mrs. Davis, also will recount history that is of particular interest to blacks. "Even before there was DNA testing, in our oral history, it has always been told to us that Thomas Jefferson had sired Sally Hemings' kids. We feel that it should be presented in a nice way and not just as a slavery issue," said Mrs. Davis, who has been involved with Links for 27 years and with the St. Petersburg chapter for almost 15. The local group got its start in January 1951, when it was known as the St. Petersburg-Tampa Chapter and included women from Tampa, St. Petersburg and the Sarasota-Bradenton area. The chapter, whose founding president was the late Helen Viviane Ayer, held the first debutante ball for young black women in the Tampa Bay area in 1953. Mozell Davis is the current president of the 26-member St. Petersburg group. The parent organization was founded in 1946 in Philadelphia by Margaret Roselle Hawkins and Sarah Strickland Scott, who recruited their friends to help their charitable efforts. Today, the volunteer group that began with six women more than half a century ago boasts a membership of 10,000 women in 40 states; the District of Columbia; Nassau, Bahamas; Frankfurt, Germany; and Johannesburg, South Africa. "The reason it became the Links is because it was a link to friendship," Shirley Davis said of the name the group's founders chose. "They decided that they had friends across the country and they decided, "Let us link together across the country.' " In St. Petersburg, Links members support such causes as the Ebony Scholars Program, the Boy Scouts and the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center. They have supplied back-to-school kits and medical examinations to children and presented workshops for students entering college. Like other national chapters, the local group supports the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund. Mrs. Davis said membership is by invitation only. Acceptance is based not on class but on volunteerism, she said. "It is a whole process. We look at a person's involvement in the community and not what they are getting paid for. We don't consider that," said Mrs. Davis, a retired educator from Syracuse, N.Y., current chairwoman of the St. Petersburg's Board of Adjustment and a member of the boards of the Tampa Bay Black Business Investment Corporation Inc. and SEEDCO. Daughters of Links members are guaranteed a place in the organization. Yvonne Matt's mother, Florine Jones Abel, was a former president of the local chapter. Mrs. Matt said she knew that it was her duty to join the Links. "Let's say, in my case, it was expected," she said. Other Links members whose names might be familiar to readers of Neighborhood Times' On the Town column include Dr. Theresa Goss, Dr. Angela Ayer, Dr. Nancy Bryant, Jacqueline Cotman, Donna MacRae, Joyce Thornton, Anna Walker, Dr. Mendee Ligon, Dr. Deborah Flanagan and Terri Scott. Spouses and children also are an important part of the Links community and commonly accompany members to national and area meetings. In the jargon of the civic group, husbands are known as Connecting Links, and children as Heir-o-Links. Early in the Links' history, though, husbands and children were alternately known as Missing Links and Bob-o-Links. Mrs. Matt remembers those times. Then, the debutante ball was the "the main event" and the balls became so well-known that parents from other Florida cities clamored to get their daughters into the festivities, she said. Then, the Links were caught up in grooming, inspiring and promoting the debutantes. "It was a different day," Mrs. Matt said.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Letters |
