Maximizing Our Impact Through Leadership, Service and Friendship
Ms. Breon Walker has been appointed to the Richland-Lexington Airport Commission and will represent the City of Columbia on the Commission. Ms. Walker is a litigation attorney and partner with Gallivan, White & Boyd, P.A., in the firm’s Columbia, South Carolina office. Her practice includes defense of personal injury claims, products liability defense, commercial litigation and government relations.
Mrs. Alice Hurley (center) poses for a photo with Dr. Hiram Spain (left) and Columbia Urban League President/CEO J.T. McLawhorn.
The Columbia Urban League recently celebrated it’s “50th Anniversary Equal Opportunity Gala by recognizing the Leagues founder Alice Wyche Hurley, a member of the Columbia (SC) Chapter of The Links, Inc. and her late husband, Anthony Manigault Hurley. Just three years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, they worked together to establish the first League in South Carolina, with a mission to empower communities and change lives. The Columbia League eventually chartered both the Charleston and Upstate Leagues. Mrs. Hurley stated that “It was natural that I started the Columbia Urban League due to the current issues at the time. The NAACP had its place, but when the issues are brought to the surface, organizations like the Columbia Urban League make the mission consistent and ongoing.”
By: Mary G. Elam
Columbia (SC) Chapter, The Links, Inc.
Members of the Health and Human Services Facet of the Columbia Chapter of Links recently collaborated with the Women at Heart at its annual forum and exhibition at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. The facet team, chaired by Dr.Deborah Davis, and co chaired by Dr.Felicia Goines, conducted the drive where it facilitated donor registration and provided education about the importance about donating organs, tissue and bone marrow.
Linkages to Life: Organ, Tissue and Bone Marrow Donation Awareness, is the signature program of the Health and Human Services Facet. Its mission is to promote and facilitate programs that support the maintenance of good health and the elimination of chronic health disparities in communities of color through education, health advocacy and optimal utilization of health resources. The Columbia Chapter of Links is actively engaged in promoting awareness about the critical need for organ donors in the African American community. A linkage to Life is truly the ultimate community service. It fosters working in collaboration with other organizations to increase awareness and participation by African Americans in organ donor programs in various venues. The full measure of what the Links, Incorporated will be able to accomplish with this program will not be realized for some years to come. The combined efforts of its national membership in informing and mobilizing African Americans to become bone marrow and organ donors will provide a great legacy and public health enhancement.
Founded in 1946, The Links Incorporated, an international women’s service organization is among the most prestigious associations of Black Women in the world. From its modest beginnings with nine women, the organization born in the wake of world war 11 has expanded and refined its mission and membership and today has a membership of 12,000+ women of African descent in 275 chapters in the United States and in the Bahamas. The members of the Links, Incorporated are physicians, dentists, judges, attorneys, engineers, educators, entrepreneurs, elected officials, non profit executives, authors, corporate executives and homemakers. They use their considerable resources to improve thee quality of life for others.
The chapter’s president, Mary Miller McClellan, believes that with continued education, our community will become galvanized and more responsive to the needs of African Americans waiting for transplants by becoming donors in order to make the ultimate gift, the gift of life. This program initiative was facilitated by Beryl Dakers, the chapter’s program Chairperson.
For additional information, please visit the chapter’s website: www.columbiasclinks.org
The Columbia Chapter of Links is extremely pleased to announce its 2012 Links Scholarship recipients. The students selected to receive its scholarship are among America’s best and brightest and have all demonstrated exceptional achievement and academic excellence.
The members of the Columbia Chapter of Links, Inc. recently met and honored their scholarship recipients at an elegant scholarship luncheon celebration at the Capital City Club in Columbia. The 2012 Columbia Links Scholar recipient’s are: Nathanial Abraham III, a graduate of W.J. Keenan High School, who will attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the fall; Niya Anderson, a graduate of Lower Richland High School will enroll in the Honors College at Claflin University in August 2012; Franshawn Mack, a graduate of Lower Richland High School will enroll in South Carolina State University and Aleya Faulks, a graduate of Dreher High School will matriculate at the University of South Carolina/Columbia. Certificates of congratulations were presented to all of the dynamic recipients.
The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation, established in 1946. The membership consists of 12,000 professional women of color in 274 chapters located in 42 states, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of extraordinary women who are committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry. The members of The Links, Incorporated are influential decision makers and communityuu leaders. The Links, Inc. has attracted many distinguished women who are individual achievers and have made a difference in their communities and the world. They are business and civic leaders, role models, mentors, activists and volunteers who work towards a common vision by engaging like-minded organizations and individuals for partnership. Links members contribute more than 500,000 documented hours of community service annually.
According to the chapter president, Mary Miller McClellan, the Columbia Chapter of Links is proud of its rich legacy of meaningful and purposeful services for the residents of the magnificent midlands. The Columbia Chapter was founded in 1952 and is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
The Links Scholarship Committee was chaired by Lorin Palmer and co chaired by Jill Davis.
In May of 2011, the Columbia Chapter of the Links, Inc. was recognized at the Southern Area Links Conference in New Orleans for its “Links to a Healthy Lifestyle” and Childhood Obesity Prevention programs. The chapter received a Childhood Obesity Prevention Grant which is being used to promote healthy eating habits and increased physical activity among children.
In March of 2011, the Columbia Chapter of the Links, Inc.’s won a first place award for its Services to Youth program at the Anna Boyd Child Development Center. The award was granted on behalf of the WIS-TV and DHEC All-Health Team Award, for the 1st Quarter 2011 Childhood Obesity Prevention competition. Students and members of the Columbia Chapter of Links were filmed by WIS making a healthy salad from items harvested from recently planted school garden which was a Links sponsored project for the school. Links members also contributed by partnering with the students and school to sponsor a walking club.
Also in March of 2011, during a Links Day at the Capital event, the Columbia Chapter provided speakers on Childhood Obesity Prevention. Speakers included: Phyllis Allen, a state nutritionist, Debbie Hunter, Principal at E.E. Taylor Elementary School, and James T. McLawhorn, President of Columbia Urban League.
In December of 2010, the Southern Area Commission of the Links, Inc., awarded a $2,500 grant to the Columbia Chapter for its “Links to a Healthy Lifestyle” initiative. Through this initiative, the National Trends and Services to Youth facets collaborated with E. E. Taylor Elementary School to provide 5th graders with six sessions designed to reinforce the importance of healthy eating and regular exercise. The teams organized activities designed to increase participation in active play and organized discussions around portion control and the benefits of increased intake of fruits and vegetables.
In 2010, the Columbia Chapter invited the Nassau Bahamas Chapter of the Links, Inc. to engage in a collaborative alliance to reduce Childhood Obesity and to promote healthy living for children. Through collaboration with Richland School District I, SCETV and the Ministry of Education in the Bahamas, the chapters successfully organized a ‘real-time’ webinar for students in Columbia and Nassau to talk with each other and learn about fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods grown and consumed in their respective countries.
Also in 2010, through its Legislative Linkages Facet, the Columbia Chapter of the Links, Inc. supported HB 3297, a bill banning high-sugar, high-fat foods from being sold to South Carolina students during the school day. The legislation is aimed at curbing childhood obesity in a state with one of the nation’s highest rates of overweight and obese youth. A survey released by the state Education Department showed one in six high school students in the state are obese. Bill sponsors state that giving students only healthy options could save lives and money.
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