Welcome everyone, to the DRI Blog! We are a few local Davie County volunteers who have been super eager to support this amazing initiative and are inviting y’all along for the ride. Please share your own observations of Respect in your everyday life, as well as thoughts you’ve had about what RESPECT is. This will be fun and inspiring, we believe, for all who visit the website... maybe making more people want to be respectful to set that example for others. Thanks for being part of making Davie County an awesome place to live! Can’t wait to hear your stories and thoughts. You can even submit an article ~ that would be welcomed. Some musings from one of DRI friends: Lately, I’ve been thinking about the second annual Davie Respect Initiative Challenge (DRI) and wondered ‘just how respect could be witnessed in Davie County’? So decided it would be fun to be on the lookout to see what could be observed. These might be little ways that people showed respect in everyday life. Maybe folks do it without even realizing they are, or maybe it’s a conscious act – but could I spot respect in action? The first example blew me away. A substitute postman had delivered a package to our neighbors and found their keys in the front door. He knocked on the door, thinking they might be home, but there was no answer. So, he came to our house and asked if I knew how to contact them, explaining what had happened. First, I sent my neighbors a text, then went next door, removed the keys and locked them in their house. I thought, how beautiful and caring this young man was, showing respect for someone he didn’t even know. When I thanked him for his extra effort – he just simply replied, ‘it was the right thing to do, and I’d want someone to do that for me. Glad I could help.’
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Manager’s Message – Davie Respect Challenge Update See the original here. Last November my wife and I attended the Awards Celebration for the first annual Davie Respect Initiative (DRI) Challenge. The projects shared by the 10 winning applicants, who ranged in age from 13 to 21, were inspiring and all were designed to increase the amount of respect shown in our community and across Davie County. Each of the ten winning applicants received $1,000 and the opportunity to put their project idea into practice. Last week a few members of the DRI team met with me to provide an update on the status of some of the projects. Madi Rogers, a 13-year-old winner, has distributed Banishing Bias Bingo cards in the three county Middle Schools and many of those have already been returned. Each box on the card requires meeting someone who is different from you in some way. By getting to know more about each other we form respectful relationships with people we might not have known at all before. Kayla Roscoe and youth from her church are volunteering to do yard work for elderly who are unable to do this themselves. These are just two of the ten winning project ideas being put into action. We should all be proud to live in a community where young people are taking an active role in increasing respect. And now the Davie Respect Initiative is accepting applications for the 2019 DRI Challenge. If you are between the ages of 12 and 21 with an idea for increasing the demonstration of respect or if you have children or grandchildren, let them know about this awesome challenge where they could do positive things for our community and win $1,000! Groups and clubs as well as individuals can enter. Go online to www.davierespect.com and enter the challenge now. By Matt Settlemyer (Mocksville Town Manager)
Davie project inspires village in Africa... If today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders, this story brings a bright promise for the future. Two groups of teens, half a world apart, have taken it upon themselves to serve their communities in unique ways. At fifteen years old, Kayla Roscoe is a Davie County Resident and an award recipient of the first annual Davie Respect Initiative (DRI) Challenge. As one of the ten, $1000 local winners of that challenge, she is empowering her peers along the way. As winter turns to spring, these young adults are cleaning up the yards of seniors who need help. This volunteer effort was sparked by one question, “How can we increase the demonstration of Respect in Davie County?” It has given new meaning to both their hands and their hearts. On her DRI application, Kayla wrote, “My idea is to go out in the community and offer to do yardwork for those that cannot do it themselves or have difficulty doing it themselves. I think this will show respect for elderly people and also let them know that people are thinking about them and are willing to help.” Kayla’s DRI crew, members of her church’s youth group, were eager to give back by doing this yard work for free. Offering seniors a list of projects to choose from, they collected the supplies needed to fulfill those projects and got going! They've already completed a project for Lynda Seymour. She had just lost her husband, and did all of the yard work. "My friends were happy to help in any capacity that they could," Kayla said. "I asked friends at school and also the youth group friends. I go to a church that is very service oriented so it was not hard to find volunteers." Seymour's husband was a Vietnam War veteran, and predisposed to prostate cancer due to exposure to Agent Orange. "I know the Seymours and she mentioned being overwhelmed and wishing that her yard was fixed, but she did not have time to worry about it then. I asked her if she wanted us to come and do some yard work for her and she was so happy." Helping Kayla were: teens Sally Boger, Savannah Jones, Kaitlyn Roscoe, Logan Wagner, Jaxon Beaty, Connor Rains, Chandler Alford, and adults Amy Roscoe, Greg Baity and Robbie Roscoe. A few months later, who could have imagined that something similar would arise across the globe in Zimbabwe? Lamiel Phiri, the youth overseer at the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian, Rugare, has visited the US several times. He received a copy of the Davie Enterprise with the DRI story on the front page from a friend. Inspired by the idea of bringing respect into their small community, he refocused his efforts to inspire local youth. The Davie Respect Initiative has inspired the creation of the Zimbabwe Respect Initiative. The ZimRI began by cleaning up a church building and its grounds and other local projects. These young people are finding that service done for free can be energizing and inspiring. The church’s minister had difficulty getting help from his mostly older congregation. When the ZimRI offered to get involved, all he could say was, “I am humbled and short of words. In this era, I never thought we could find a group of young people who can come together and help out at my church and community.” When the young volunteers returned the next day, three of his youth members were already out slashing grass. The joyful work of raking leaves, pruning trees and helping seniors has given these young people, a world apart, an experience of serving others. Can we imagine where else this example of respect may lead? For more information about the Davie Respect Initiative, email davierespect1@gmail.com. This article was first published in Davie County Enterprise Records on 3/28/2019 Respect is more than a hit song by Aretha Franklin. It’s something we can never have enough of, and our young people are leading the way in showing us ways to respect each other a bit more. The Davie Respect Initiative held a contest last year in which young people could submit ideas on how to spread respect. Ten of those young people were awarded $1,000 each to carry out their respective project. Respect builds bridges. Respect is the fabric that binds us together. Respect is good for families, schools, business, churches . . . for all relationships. Respectfulness looks for the highest and best in others, opening the way for greater appreciation and positive relationships. "The initiative fits perfectly into the foundation's goal of supporting things that make the community better. We can't do it without respect." Jane Simpson (Davie Community Foundation President) "It's effortless to be an advocate for something that means as much as respect does. My hope is that the respect you give is contagious." Caroline Moser ( Davie Chamber of Commerce Executive President) "Respect is so important to every aspect of our lives, whether it is our personal relationships or business interactions. By shining a spotlight on respect, the DRI reminds us all that we are better people and a better community when we are respectful to one another." Carolyn McManamy (of the Davie County Chamber of Commerce) "Davie County is the perfect size to have this experiment (the Davie Respect Initiative) in that we will experience the results immediately as more respect is practiced. We don’t have to agree, but we can always be respectful towards one another.”
Terry Bralley (President Davie Co. Economic Development Commission) This article was featured in June 2018 issue of DavieLife magazine.
Respect. It makes everything better. That’s the philosophy of the new Davie Respect Initiative, and organizers are rallying Davie’s young people to come up with ways folks around here can show more respect for each other. And they’re offering $1,000 prizes to the young people who come up with the best ideas. “A few friends got together and we had this idea of what makes everything better,” said Julia Burazer. “One of the things that we came up with was the idea of respect … especially as it relates to young people.” Stephen Leighton, who moved to Davie County some six years ago, said he and friends just want to make Davie “a better place.” They were inspired by the story of the late Junior York, a Mocksville auto mechanic who fixed the rental car of a stranger for free. That gesture turned the corner for that stranger, who decided to locate his business here. “What could we do that might help to work with all the things that go on to be even better,” he said. “You can’t have too much respect.” |
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