Student of the Month:  Eighth grader Emery Matthews was introduced as our Stanton Middle School Student of the Month.  The son of Dan and Erin Matthews, Emery maintains a 3.99 GPA despite participating in many extra curriculars.  Stanton Middle School Principal Anthony Horton said Emery leads by example and treats others with kindness and respect.  He has participated in choir for two years and is a member of the Art Club and wants to major in Art Education in college.  Through Boy Scouts he has given back to the community by helping pack Birdie Bags for the Ben Curtis Foundation and helped do yard work at the Hebrew Cultural Garden in Cleveland and trash pick-up in downtown Kent.  Helping build picnic tables with a peer enabled him to earn his Eagle Scout Award.  He said his favorite motto is “Be Prepared” and said that his parents have inspired him to do service. 

 

Anthony Wilkerson, a designer and inspector for Dominion Energy, traveled all the way from Lima to Kent to tell us his story at the invitation of our May program co-chair, Bill Childers.  The two have been friends 50 years from St. Charles Elementary School and both attended Lima Central Catholic High School, graduating in 1979.  Wilkerson said his parents’ decision to join the Catholic Church was fateful because it required him to accept Church discipline to enroll in a Catholic school. As a youngster, Bill invited Wilkerson to visit his family and Wilkerson said he was struck by Bill’s mother asking if he preferred to be called Anthony or Tony saying no one had ever asked him that before.  He became a fixture at the dinner table at the Childers family and Bill’s father learned it was okay to have someone who did not look like the family being included in family activities.  Bill’s father welcomed and embraced Anthony and Wilkerson said Bill’s father “always had my back” despite a brother-in-law of Bill’s father saying he did not want an African American in his home.  After Bill’s father died, that brother-in-law at the funeral admitted to Wilkerson he was wrong.  Wilkerson said one of his friends in school, a bespectacled, short, young man with lots of freckles suffered bullying in school.  At the age of 13 the boy’s mother committed suicide and then three years later, the classmate died the same way.  Wilkerson said he made up his mind to never tolerate bullying.  After graduation, he served in the U.S. Army for six years and after that accepted a job with Dominion Energy making it a career that has lasted 33 years.  He then asked who is responsible for diversity and inclusion.  “We all are,” Wilkerson said. Wilkerson is a member of Lima City Council and Kent Rotarians gave him a standing ovation.

 

Response:  Roger Sidoti, in giving the response, said Wilkerson’s stories are similar to stories he has experienced in his own life and then witnessed as an educator.  He said being 6 ft. 8 in. tall gave him an advantage.