Minds Matter is a program for WHC members who want to
Share Your Expertise. Participants work on short term
projects that last approximately 4-6 months to help non
profits achieve their missions more effectively.
Minds Matter is completing its second year of activity
and is looking to you to broaden its volunteer base. The
projects provide several avenues to Share Your
Expertise. For example, one avenue is consulting with
non-profit organizations in the Washington metropolitan
region on one of the following service lines: board
development, strategic planning, fundraising or
restructuring of the non-profit organization. A team of
4-6 volunteers are usually involved in each project.
The time commitment for volunteers is about 3-5 hours
per month. Individuals with business and/or non-profit
background and experience would be ideal, but this is
not required. No previous experience is necessary as
training will be provided. Our current projects include
board development for The ARC of NOVA, lawyers working
with the Legal Clinic for the Homeless on a 6-month
rotation and a data base project for WHC. Volunteers in
our group report tremendous satisfaction, ease of
participating and are grateful to be involved in
building our community in a positive manner. Most
volunteers state that meeting and making new friends
among their fellow congregants has been particularly
rewarding!
Please join us in this exciting, fulfilling and
worthwhile endeavor. Your commitment may be for just one
project or whatever fits your schedule. There is no long
term obligation.
For more information, please contact one of the Minds
Matter coordinators, Joan Greenbaum at 301-320-2435
or jsgrnbm@verizon.net or Bobby
Lipnick at 202-223-1080 x105 or at
RNLipnick@aol.com.
On September 23, 1957 Ernest Green and eight other
teenagers walked into their high school. For most, this
act would have been unremarkable --- just another part
of a daily routine. But for these Black youth, who
became known as the ‘‘Little Rock Nine,’’ entering
Little Rock, Arkansas’ Central High School was an act of
courage and a defining moment in our nation’s civil
rights movement. On Friday, January 14, 2011 at the MLK
Shabbat Service, Ernest Green addressed our congregation
to discuss the historic year during which he attended
Central High School and how those events have impacted
his life.
Racial tensions were high in the 1950s South, and
despite the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v.
Board of Education that declared segregation illegal,
many schools remained closed to Black students. Although
protected by the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S.
Army, these nine students endured harassment, threats
and abuse throughout the school year. Against odds,
Green graduated from Central High that following June,
the first African-American to do so. He then went on to
receive his BA and MA degrees from Michigan State
University as well as honorary Doctorate degrees from
Michigan State, Tougaloo College and Central State
University.
At the age of 17, Green was the youngest recipient of
the NAACP’s Spingard Medal; and in 1999 President
Clinton presented Green, along with the rest of the
Little Rock Nine, with the Congressional Gold Medal, the
highest honor that can be given to a civilian for their
outstanding bravery during the integration of Central
High in 1957.
Prior to the service, WHC members, local churches, and
invited guests gathered for a festive dinner to honor
Mr. Green and remember Martin Luther King, Jr.’s fight
for civil rights.
For more information, please contact
Layne Weiss at 202-895-6307 or
LWeiss@whctemple.org
