WS Chronicle

The Winston-Salem Foundation hosted its annual Community Luncheon with a sold-out crowd of over 1,200 community members in attendance. The Foundation announced the recipients of the 2018 Winston-Salem Foundation Award and the 2018 ECHO Awards as follows:

2018 Winston-Salem Foundation Award goes to Retired Police Chief Barry Rountree, who is considered a visionary leader, dedicating his life to both law enforcement and relationship-building.  With this recognition comes a $10,000 Foundation grant, which Rountree designated to two organizations – the Winston-Salem Police Foundation and the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church Scholarship Fund.

2018 ECHO Award winners –  Each recipient is uniquely connecting and building trust among people in order to make the community stronger and each received $1,000 to grant to a nonprofit organization of their choice.:

*Shereen Abdelfattah: Abdelfattah is a social entrepreneur. She founded a nonprofit catering company to provide jobs for Syrian refugee women. Abdelfattah also leads an Interfaith Winston-Salem team made up of Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, and others, and she was instrumental in organizing Women of Worship, which brings together women of multiple faiths to break barriers and build friendships. Abdelfattah emigrated from Egypt in 2002.

*Hospice & Palliative CareCenter Veterans Outreach: Hospice’s We Honor Veterans program has not only enhanced their direct care of veterans, but the outreach component brings together a community of veterans who have come to treasure one another.

*Rebecca Williams and Amatullah Saleem: Rebecca and Amatullah are the founders of Happy Hill Arts, a collaboration between the Happy Hill Neighborhood Association and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. The program engages neighborhood children in diverse arts experiences including dance, drumming, and photography, instilling a sense of community pride while also supporting their academic success. The program encourages relationship-building among the neighborhood children and their parents, and it has also built connections among Happy Hill residents and UNCSA faculty, students, and alumni, helping to cross the invisible boundary that has separated the neighborhood from the University since it opened in 1965.

*Venture Café: With a mission of “connecting innovators to make things happen,” Venture Café hosts weekly Thursday Gatherings at Bailey Power Plant which can draw crowds exceeding 150 students, CEOs, artists, inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs. The Gatherings are among the most diverse in the Triad and serve as a platform to create connections that will build a more resilient and inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship community.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Gregory C. Ellison II, co-founder of Fearless Dialogues and author of the recently-released book “Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice.” Fearless Dialogues creates unique spaces for hard, heartfelt conversations that change the way people see themselves and the world around them – helping communities move forward together.

At the May 2 luncheon, Ellison and his teammates facilitated an interactive program designed to help us “fear less” and to see the unseen in our community.