Alpha Kappa Alpha member Nancy Andrews said one of her sorority sisters had a dream that a fellow sorority sister was going to sell her home and the sorority would end up using it as a meeting place. The woman who had the dream was talking about it when Andrews remarked, "I'm selling my home."
Andrews and her husband, longtime physician W.W. Andrews, had decided to look for something a little bigger, but they had not put out a for-sale sign. Andrews said if the sign had gone up, she's sure her neighbor would have been interested, and the house likely would have sold.
But news of the dream changed all of that. The chapter formed a corporation, Gamma Theta Omega, and the house, once the childhood home of the late Columbia restaurant matriarch Adela Gonzmart, became the AKA House.
On Saturday, Andrews gathered with other sorority members to celebrate the opening of the Ivy AKAdemy, a renovated home next to the AKA House, which will help the sorority continue to stage various educational programs for youths and adults.
Carolyn House Stewart, committee chairwoman for the new AKAdemy, played a significant role in helping the sorority acquire a community development block grant for renovation of the home. It will include a computer room, meeting room and kitchen.
Most importantly, it will continue to inspire youths like Ivana Carley and Christina Tyler, members of the Precious Pearls program, to come back and continue the community giving.
"You have to contribute to the community when it's invested time in you," said Carley, a senior at King High.
Carley and Tyler even promised to give me a job after they make their first million.
I'm looking forward to that dream.
* * *
It was just a coincidence, but it was a nice one.
Nine days after Tampa Hillsborough Urban League president Joanna Tokley was one of the honorees at the NAACP Hillsborough Branch's annual Freedom Fund Dinner, local NAACP president Sam Horton was recognized at the Urban League's 81st anniversary celebration.
Tokley said she was not repaying Horton, and had planned to honor him with the league's Whitney M. Young Jr. Memorial Award long before she knew she was going to receive recognition from the NAACP.
Other winners from Saturday's dinner at the A La Carte Pavilion: School District of Hillsborough County (Black Economic Development Award); Capital One (Corporate Volunteer of the Year); Busch Gardens and the Tampa Tribune (Outstanding Employer of Urban League Constituents); USF student Rubens Fineus (Carla McKishnie Memorial Scholarship); WTTA-Ch. 38 news anchor Susan Casper (Blanche Armwood Beatty Award) and Kristine DiGiovanni (outstanding philanthropy).
DiGiovanni won for the second consecutive year. In 2002, she received the Volunteer of the Year Award.
* * *
Make plans now. U.S. Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick of Michigan will be the keynote speaker at the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs' Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Breakfast on Jan. 19. The annual event, one of the city's most highly anticipated, begins at 6:45 a.m.
Trust me, it's worth the early wakeup call.
* * *
I'm a Honey-Do, and I didn't even know it. While interviewing Nancy Andrews on Saturday, I explained I grew up in Tallahassee and my parents taught at Florida A&M.
Andrews suddenly gave me a hug and explained she was the woman who pinned my mother oh so many years ago at Talladega College in Alabama.
You see, my late mother was an Alpha Kappa Alpha, and the children of AKAs are Honey-Dos.
It was a touching moment for me, and I guess I've become one of the first people to gain something special from the new Ivy AKAdemy.
