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Tuesday, June 09, 2009 6:13 PM Students, young and old, seeking help By Janelle Clevinger | Times Staff Writer Elaine Guthrie decided to pursue her dream of earning a college education while in her mid-40s and saw Barton's weekend college program as the perfect vehicle to earn that degree. Guthrie, an employment consultant with BB&T here in Wilson, is scheduled to graduate in May of 2010 with a degree in business management. "I'm a senior in more ways than one," she laughed. She is also a member of Phi Beta Lamda, the collegiate arm of the Future Business Leaders of America, and is one of nine Barton students traveling to Anaheim, Calif., for the June 20 - 23 National Leadership Conference. These students have all won state titles in contests such as macroeconomics, computer applications, accounting principles and network design. Guthrie is representing the state in the client services and human relations management categories. "I'm amazed that I'm doing it (representing Barton at the conference) and there was a lot of competition at the state level," said Guthrie. "But I've had a lot of support from Barton." The interesting thing about these nine students, aside from the fact that they will represent Barton College and the state of North Carolina at this conference, is that they range in age from 20 to late 40s. And yet they share one problem - finding the money needed to get them to California. "We've had such a short time to raise our funding, since we didn't know who would go to California until early April when the state leadership conference was held," said Guthrie. "We've held a Chick-fil-A fundraiser, a 'Clown Your Professor' contest, a raffle, and a yard sale, but we're still very short in the money needed to get us out there." The college's student government association has made a donation of $2,500 to split between the nine students going to California, but that just puts a dent in what they need. "We are literally out of time to fundraise," said Guthrie. "If anyone is compelled to give, donations are welcome." Donations can be made out to and mailed to Phi Beta Lambda, P.O. Box 5000, Wilson, NC 27983. A Sad Note On June 1, I wrote about Wilsonian David Batts, his struggles with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- often called Lou Gehrig's Disease -- and his daughter Francis Lewis' attempts to draw awareness to and raise money to combat this disease. I received an e-mail on Sunday from Lewis, who now lives in Raleigh, that her father had taken a turn for the worse the day the article came out and had passed away on Saturday. "My mom read him the story and he was still able to speak that day to tell me how proud he was," Lewis wrote. I never met David Batts, as many lucky people in Wilson did, but I felt that I connected with him through Lewis' eloquent and brave descriptions of her father and his struggle with ALS, and I thank her for sharing his story. Lewis is still fundraising for ALS, and contributions can be made through the web site http://web.alsa.org/site/TR/Walks/NorthCarolinaWalk?team_id=120140&pg=team&fr_id=5400. ON THE MAP runs on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. If you have a story that you want to share, e-mail jclevinger@wilsontimes.com or call 265-7811. If you have an event that you would like to enter on our community calendar, go to www.wilsontimes.com and click on the link for submitting information to the calendar. |
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