Our own Priscilla Parker hosted and organized our first-ever Black History Month Lunch and Learn in Rochester today.
My inspiration for wanting to have a Black History Month Celebration is to provide the opportunity for the organization to come together and celebrate a day of fun, festivities, and feast through the Arts and Education. My hope in having this is to create an atmosphere of unity and strength for everyone while raising awareness of how effective Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are in the workspace when we function as a unit we are more powerful together. As I reflected on the colors of Africa, green, black, and red. Of the three colors, my thought process shifted to the color red as we are all one. We all bleed the same blood and breath the same Oxygen regardless of our ethnicity or skin color.
When I thought of this idea I went to Dan Rudd, my awesome leader, and presented the idea to him and he instructed me to speak with our Operations Manager, Kristina Watkins, who in turn instructed me to present the idea to Tera Dileo. Tera got back to me and was 100% on board and through the support of the leadership team, I moved forward and organized our first company lunch and learn in Celebration of Black History Month. I look forward to taking this lunch and learn on the road next year to be inclusive of all three cities in the VFG organization. 😊
Parker was also joined by Robin Wilt, from the local Brighton NY town council to share some local history.
BIO: Robin Wilt has been a licensed real estate professional for 18 years, and is currently the Principal/Owner of a proprietary real estate brokerage firm located in Brighton. In January 2018, Ms. Wilt began serving as the second African American ever elected to Brighton Town Council. She was re-elected to her second term in November, 2020. Ms. Wilt is married to her husband Nicholas. Together, they have three sons, Benjamin Harris, Samuel Taylor, and Gregory Thomas. She is a founding Board Member of the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby Club, serves on the Board and Racial Justice Initiative of Citizen Action New York, and is currently active in the Rochester Chapter of the National Organization for Women, as well as a member of the Brighton PTSA, Brighton Chamber of Commerce, and Brighton Believes Council. Ms. Wilt is an alumna of Dartmouth College, where she studied Government and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Academic Honor Society
Kathy Sprague-Dexter a representative of the collaborative efforts of Teen Empowerment and the Clarissa Street Reunion Committee spoke regarding the real estate history of Rochester.
We were also treated to two poems from a friend of Priscilla’s, Stacie Warren, an artist, and a Nurse.
Lunch was provided by a Black-owned business, The French Quarter… Creole and Cajun deliciousness was had by all!
