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Awards to
honor Influential Black Women
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Angela Ray
Phone: 919-302-2129
Email: amahoganydime@aol.com
Mahogany Dime LLC announces its annual Mahogany
Dime Awards, to be held on Saturday, March 12,
2005, at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham.
The program will begin at 7:00 PM. This year’s
theme is “Women of Influence: Celebrating North
Carolina’s Crème de la Crème.”
Now in its second year, the Mahogany Dime Awards
is North Carolina’s premiere ceremony honoring
Black women. Nestled between Martin Luther King
Jr.’s birthday and Black History Month, this
annual event attracts people from across the
Triangle area and the surrounding metropolitans.
A reception will follow the program.
Awards will be given to four dynamic African
American women from across the state who have
made significant contributions to their
community and/or industry. Awards will be
presented in the following categories:
Leadership, the Arts, Service and
Entrepreneurship. One woman will also be honored
with the Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole Living Legend
Award.
Lori Gibbs of Durham will be recognized in the
area of Leadership. Gibbs is the Director of
Affordable Housing/Industry Affairs for Genworth
Financial’s mortgage insurance business. A
20-year industry veteran, Gibbs held various
positions at GE Mortgage Insurance (now a part
of Genworth Financial), Peoples Bank, Mechanics
and Farmers Bank, the North Carolina Community
Development Initiative and SELF-HELP Credit
Union prior to joining GE in 1998. She is
currently responsible for developing strategies
to increase home ownership in diverse,
under-served markets nationwide, specifically
targeting low-to-moderate income, ethnic
minority and New American constituencies. With
this objective, she helped facilitate a national
initiative through her sorority, Delta Sigma
Theta. GE Mortgage Insurance teamed up with the
sorority in an effort to help close the
homeownership gap between African Americans and
the U.S. population as a whole by working with
local and state chapters of the sorority to
provide training and coaching on all aspects of
homeownership.
Over the course of the last year, Gibbs traveled
across the country providing coaching sessions
on the Homeownership Initiative to sorority
members. In addition to the coaching sessions,
she has held several seminars on the importance
of homeownership. Still a work in progress, over
100 loans have been closed as a result of the
project totaling 21 million dollars.
April Turner of Charlotte is the Arts Honoree.
An accomplished writer, actress, producer and
dancer, Turner is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill.
She has had roles in the made for TV movies,
Ditch Digger's Daughters, The Perfect Daughter,
Her Deadly Rival, Stephen King's The Night Flier
and Texas Cadet Murders among several others.
She co-starred in the major motion pictures,
Morning and Other Voices, Other Rooms. Turner
was also featured on the hit NBC drama, ER, in
an episode titled "Middle of Nowhere."
In addition to being a prolific playwright and
thespian, Turner is a passionate dancer. She
gained international renown as a guest performer
at the Demba festival in The Gambia, West Africa
and later as a dance workshop facilitator in
Brazil.
Annie M. Chavis of Fayetteville will be honored
in the area of Service. Chavis has been giving
the community her service for many years.
Through her sorority, Zeta Phi Beta, she has
given countless hours to the development of high
school women who were a part of the sorority’s
mentoring program, the Archonettes. She served
as an advisor for the group for 13 years,
helping to facilitate an enormous wealth of
yearly projects including the annual debutant
ball, the Blue Revue. Aside from the Archonettes,
she also served as the Regional Youth Director
for the sorority from 1982-1992.
Never tired, Chavis’ service to the greater
Fayetteville area continues. She currently sits
on the Joint Senior Citizens Advisory Board for
the City of Fayetteville and Cumberland County,
the City of Fayetteville Personnel and Review
Board, the Cumberland County Department of
Social Service Care Domestic Violence Board, and
Fayetteville’s No. 2 State Employee’s Credit
Union Advisory Board. A former Miss Fayetteville
State 1969, Chavis is also still committed to
Education. Presently she is employed as the
Director of Field Education and as an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Social Work at
Fayetteville State University.
Gloria Sawyer, founder and executive director of
the Mission House for Women and the Almost There
Program for Women in Raleigh will receive the
award for entrepreneurship. As executive
director, Sawyer is committed to “walking the
path of recovery” with acceptance and love for
each resident who suffers from either substance
abuse, mental illness, physical or emotional
abuse, and post-incarceration adjustment issues.
She also strive to direct each woman to secure
the professional and personal help required to
continued success. The “Almost There Program for
Women” is an extension of the Mission House for
Women. This program is designed to continue
strengthening independence and enhancing the
living skills of the women in recovery. It also
helps to provide positive living in a supportive
and supervised environment.
The Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole Living Legend Award
recognizes a lifetime body of work. The honoree
for 2005 is Dr. Eunice Dudley, CFO of Dudley
Products in Kernersville. Dr. Dudley helped
co-found the multi-million dollar hair care and
cosmetics company, with her husband. She also
serves as Managing Executive for the Dudley
Cosmetology School System, a network of 8
general cosmetology schools across the US.
Dr. Dudley got her start in the beauty industry
by selling Fuller Products door to door while
she was in college. By the early sixties, she
and her husband were working full time selling
those products in Greensboro. However, during
the late sixties the Fuller Products Company
experienced problems providing enough
merchandise to them and the Dudleys began making
their own products to satisfy customer demand.
During the mid seventies, the Dudleys moved to
Chicago to work for Fuller Products. Yet, less
than a decade, later they resumed residence in
North Carolina and began developing their own
business. In 1989, with husband Joe, Dr. Dudley
helped launch Dudley Cosmetology University,
flagship of the Dudley Cosmetology School
System. Through her tireless dedication, she has
helped build the company to a world renowned
part of the beauty industry.
The Mahogany Dime Awards will be hosted by Gayle
Hurd of Radio One. A roster of some of the
state’s prominent men will serve as awards
presenters including Busta Brown of the Busta
Brown Show, Christopher “Play” Martin, and many
others. Scheduled performers include the Opeyo!
Dancers, Harmonyx, and the jazz trio, Lucky
Strike. For more information, please visit,
www.mahoganydime.com.
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