By Carole Copeland Thomas, MBA, CDMP, CITM Clients I lost in planes that hit NY twin towers. Shock and pain on the faces of those clients left behind. The faces of my clients and the calm I had to exhibit here in Boston when fate forced me to end my training workshop that morning. Going on the radio later that afternoon after navigating the chaos on the streets of downtown Boston. And the emotional pain and suffering we all faced for weeks, months and years afterward. Those are my personal memories of September 11th. New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. Some 15 years later we all shall never forget that day.
-Carole Copeland Thomas Special Recognition To My Clients Who Lost Staff Members On September 11, 2001: • The TJX Companies (TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods, Etc.) • Verizon
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By Carole Copeland Thomas Dear Colleagues:
It’s with joy and excitement I announce my TWO international group tours for 2017: India in February and Cuba in June. Hurry and Register before September 30th and get ready for an adventure-filled new year! Limited Space…Register Today Everything is detailed at my brand new travel website: www.msstravelandtours.com India: February 17- 25, 2017 During The Massachusetts School Vacation Week Cuba: June 23-30, 2017 Following the End of School For Massachusetts India: The sights, sounds and beautiful people of India will captivate your heart and soul. Experience the breathtaking scenery with an array of colors. Try foods with new textures and tastes. It's a trip you will remember for years to come. It will provide wonderful opportunities to learn from the Indian people about their rich history and culture. St. Augustine, Florida to Cuba Most people don't realize that there were many slaves who escaped Georgia and the Carolinas and fled SOUTH...ending up in St. Augustine, Florida. They were freed and later left Florida with the Spaniards for Cuba in the mid 1700s. We'll trace this bold and daring route with our June 2017 trip to CUBA. It's an experience you won't want to miss! Read about these great locations and explore the complete trip agendas at the website. www.msstravelandtours.com Bring your friends, family members and colleagues on these amazing trips. Both trips originate from BOSTON. However, you can join our trips from anywhere in the world! Call me at 508 947-5755 or email [email protected] Travel is the BEST way to become a cross-cultural ambassador and explore the world. It’s educational, inspiring and puts new adventure in your life. Both trips are OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. A $300 deposit reserves your spot. Deadline is September 30, 2016 Monthly payment plans are available. All major credit cards accepted. Visit www.msstravelandtours.com for complete details. See you in India AND Cuba! -Carole Copeland Thomas Certified International Tour Manager Move Ahead…Move Forward…Move Up with Multiculturalism!
I am pleased to announce that our November 3rd Multicultural Conference registration is NOW OPEN. This is our 10th conference since 2008 and we are proud to have our 13+ sponsors onboard. This includes our host sponsors, UMass Boston and theCommonwealth Compact. 10th Multicultural Conference Thursday November 3, 2016 University of Massachusetts Student Center - Alumni Lounge 8am to 3pm High Impact Networking. Bring your Business Cards. Our theme for the conference is “Innovation Interconnection Impact.” Those concepts are essential to expanding our goal of advancing multiculturalism, global diversity and inclusion throughout our country and the world. We will kick off our morning with a compelling message from the President and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce James Rooney. Up next will be an engaging and though provoking Distinguished Panel, moderated by the Massachusetts President of People’s United Bank, Patrick Sullivan. In the afternoon our luncheon keynote speaker is a rising star and Senior Vice President and Regional Manager at Eastern Bank, Roxann Cooke. Special Thanks To Dr. Keith Motley, Chancellor or UMass Boston, who will bring a special welcome message during the conference. Back by popular demand are the highly interactive conference Roundtable Discussionsfeaturing several of the region’s leading advocates who will address diversity and multiculturalism from their own areas of expertise. It’s a Multicultural Conference designed with YOU in mind where you can learn more and implement new ideas and techniques as soon as you return to work. Registration is $125 per person through September 30th. On or after October 1st, registration increases to $175. Register Early and Save!!!! The Multicultural Symposium Series (MSS) is a face to face, online, and broadcasting endeavor designed to further the advancement of worldwide multiculturalism and global diversity. This upcoming conference is a signature event of MSS. There are several SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES for companies who believe in supporting African American led initiatives like the Multicultural Symposium Series. Call us at 508 947-5755 or email [email protected] to find out more. This will be a golden opportunity for YOU to connect with regional, local and world leaders all advancing the cause of multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion. The ideal event for organizational leaders to BRING YOUR TEAM to the conference and demonstrate YOUR commitment to multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion.www.mssconnect.com Affordable. Engaging. Action-Oriented. For More information about the conference, visit: www.mssconnect.com For Online Registration visit: http://mssconference2016.eventbrite.com Bring Your Team And Register Today!! -Carole Copeland Thomas, MBA, CDMP, CITM
Focus On Empowerment can be heard every Thursday at 1pm Eastern.
Log Onto: www.blogtalkradio.com/globalcarole Listen LIVE or Download Anytime At This Blog Post. Each broadcast can be replayed immediately following the show. ======================== With the political conventions nearing an end, it’s time for you to develop a comprehensive, defendable AND rational perspective on the presidential campaigns. Please don’t say, “I don’t get involved in politics.” That’s a copout! You don’t have to broadcast your political opinion to the next reporter you meet. And I am aware that some of you are in sensitive positions at work that prevent you from “speaking your mind.” What I know is that if you are an American citizen you must VOTE and you must become informed about the issues. That is your requirement for citizenship and a small price to pay for the freedoms we take for granted in this great land. Today Carole will share FIVE WAYS to strengthen your political perspective so that you will become an informed citizen. Not just for the upcoming November 8th General Election that will either make Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump the winner…but a strategy that you can use for EVERY election in your town or village. Take out your pen, paper or smartphone and let’s design a political gameplan that’s right for YOU and the candidates of YOUR choice! ================== ELECTION DAY 2016 The United States presidential election of 2016, constitutionally prescribed to occur on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, will be the 58th quadrennial U.S. presidential election. Voters will select presidential electors who in turn will vote for a new president and vice president through the Electoral College. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016 Click below and listen anytime to today's video streaming broadcast. Length: 1hr 27 min. Learn about Brexit and what it means for the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Why You and Your Wallet Should Care.
Join me today, Wednesday June 29, 2016 at 12 Noon EDT (5pm UK Time-Greenwich Mean Time) for a fascinating discussion about Brexit (British Exit) and its impact on your wallet. You might live in the United States, but Brexit definitely has some impact on America, our economy and even our politics. Last Tuesday the United Kingdom passed a controversial referendum that formally allows them to leave their strategic alliance with the European Union. The vote sent shockwaves around the world and tanked stock markets across the globe. We’ll talk about this issue with lawyer and diversity professional Garth Dallas LIVE from Liverpool, England. Join us in the discussion on BLAB, a live video streaming platform on the web. For future shows, all you need is a Twitter Account to log onto Blab. Use your laptop or smart phone to participate. You can watch the archive above anytime 24/7. Just click on the arrow. Watch. Listen. Learn and Gain New Knowledge about this Important Topic!! Carole's Father Tuskegee Airman Wilson Copeland Honored at The March 3, 2016 Black History Breakfast3/1/2016 His stories and expansive capacity to understand world issues were unrivaled. From an impoverished background to graduating from college and survived the bitterness of American racism and discrimination, my father, the late Wilson A. Copeland, was indeed a unique individual. I yearn to travel and understand the world just like him. I navigate the world as an entrepreneur because of him. Our relationship was sometimes topsy turvy, but he was my dad and I loved him. He was a Tuskegee Airman, and we will honor him at Thursday's Black History Breakfast. =================================== The Late Wilson Albert Copeland was born in 1917 in Clinton, South Carolina to Carrie and Bradley Copeland. When his parents divorced he moved to Bel Air, Maryland with his mother and older brother, Eugene. (His mother eventually remarried John Brown in Bel Air, Maryland. Brown was a World War I Veteran.)
Mr. Copeland was enrolled in the then segregated Bel Air/Harford County school system, a system which at that time only provided educational opportunities for Blacks through the ninth grade as further education and training were discouraged beyond that point for people of color. Because of those circumstances, his brother sought employment, soon married his sweetheart Marguerite, and had one son, Charles (now all deceased). Encouraged by his mother and driven from within, he rented a room from the Marshall family who lived in Baltimore directly across the street from Douglass High School, some thirty miles from Bel Air. Working in Baltimore during the week and hitchhiking and working back in Bel Air on the weekends, he graduated from Douglass High School in 1937 and won a scholarship to Virginia State College for Negroes. He went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the college in 1941. After a brief period working in Maryland, Wilson Copeland joined the military as America entered World War II. Mr. Copeland trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps during the war. He would later be known as one of the Tuskegee Airmen. (An ulcer prevented him from completing pilot school, although he continued on in a leadership role in the US Army Air Corps.) A bitter remembrance of racism for him was traveling with other Black soldiers on a military train in the South. Arrangements had been made with restaurants in the region to feed the soldiers. On one occasion the Black soldiers were brought cold box lunches and were forced to eat their meals onboard the trains. In another car, the German prisoners of war were escorted off the train and were allowed to eat hot meals inside of the restaurants along the route. Later he served as the Adjutant Officer assigned to the B25 Bombers at Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan. Following his honorable discharge, he found employment and moved to Detroit, renting a room in a boarding home in the Black section of the city. The owner of the building, Rev. James A. Charleston, lived next door with his wife, Nora Dean and school teacher-daughter Gwendolyn. One thing led to another when Wilson and Gwendolyn met. They married on December 22, 1946. From this union two children are born, Wilson A Copeland II in 1949 and Carole Dean Copeland in 1953. (Carole was named after both grandmothers—changing Carrie to Carole and using “Dean” from Nora Dean. Instead of a “Junior,” the son became Wilson A. Copeland II.) Active as a Trustee at St. Paul AME Church (pastored by his father in law, Rev. Charleston), Mr. Copeland was engaged in successful business ventures in Detroit including co-ownership in Blue Flame Oil Company. Despite that success, he yearned to build a business in one of the newly independent and developing nations on the African continent. His widespread travels throughout Africa led to marginal and less than successful business projects in Ghana (West Africa) in 1959, shorty after its independence. One of his American business partners was Rev. Albert Cleage, father of the celebrated writer Pearl Cleage. Sadly his marriage failed and he divorced in the early 1960s. Although he married briefly years later, he would never lose affection for his beloved Gwendolyn. He was eventually recruited by the United States Department of State and spent twenty years working for various posts at the American Embassies in Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia. His last eight years of government service were in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Copeland retired in 1979, lived briefly in Pennsylvania near his daughter and her family before relocation to Los Angeles. He enjoyed telling stories of his numerous adventures, which included safaris, participating in several historical events, including the first meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Ethiopia in 1963. Mr. Copeland also rescued an American diplomatic pouch and was stranded in Accra, Ghana in the middle of a military coup. At great risk to himself, Mr. Copeland was able to get to the airport, extract the courier and the pouch, and in spite of having to get by several army road blocks and being shot at and chased by rebels, was able to safely return the courier and the pouch to the American Embassy. For this act, he was awarded a State Department Commendation and was made an honorary member of the Embassy Marine Corp Guard. Travel was second nature to Mr. Copeland and the world was his living room. Even after being diagnosed with lung cancer in the late 1980s, he continued to live life to the fullest, frequently driving cross country from California to the East Coast to visit friends and family. He enjoyed his 50th college reunion in Petersburg, Virginia in 1991 and then traveled to Detroit, where he visited with his son and his family and attended the Tuskegee Airmen Convention. His travels took him to Costa Rica in October 1991, before returning to his home in Los Angeles. Wilson A. Copeland departed this life on October 31, 1991, with his spirit, pride and dignity intact. He was buried in the family plot at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit. Years later in 1998 his first wife, Gwendolyn would be buried next to him. Wilson Copeland was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, the Masons and the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. The Black History Month Breakfast will be held on Thursday March 3, 2016 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel from 8:30 am to 11:00 am. He was a barber to the stars, and won a Purple Heart during World War II. He lived to be 104 years old before passing away last December 2015. We will the late James Guildford, Jr. at the March 3, 2016 Black History Breakfast. Lest we forget.... ======================== Article Source: The Boston Globe by Byran Marquard A master barber, James E. Guilford Jr. was a stylist to stars of a storied era in Boston jazz, when a shave and a trim cost barely a buck at his Tremont Street shop. He could also spin stories as elegant as the fine lines that filled his sketchpads after he traded scissors and razor for the pen and a paintbrush of an artist later in life. Mr. Guilford, who died in December 2015 at 104, liked to tell how singer Billie Holiday performed a run of shows at Boston’s famed Storyville club in April 1959 “and gave beautiful performances. I was there every night.” After Holiday’s Saturday show, less than three months before she died, a party was thrown in her honor at another Boston club and “I drove her from Storyville in my Cadillac,” he recalled in a 2005 Globe interview. “She was wearing all black. Her lips were black and her nails were black. We were sitting at a table with about 10 people having cheese and crackers, and they wanted her to sing, and she says to me, ‘Jimmy, what do you want to hear?’ I said, ‘Well, “Lover Man,” ’ and she got up, took the mike, and sang it right next to where she’d been sitting.” A Roxbury resident since birth, Mr. Guilford was the oldest living graduate of Boston Latin School when he died in the Laurel Ridge care facility in Jamaica Plain after his health failed. He began barbering at age 12, cutting hair from 1923 to 1979, and he was awarded the Purple Heart after being injured while serving as an Army sergeant during World War II. When the war ended, he returned to his Roxbury barbershop. “People who were traveling could always come to Boston if they wanted their hair done and have a do. They could come to Jimmy Guilford’s hairstyling salon,” he said in an interview for the WGBH program “Basic Black.” “I had acquired quite a name where I was called ‘the hairstylist to the stars,’ ” Mr. Guilford said. “In my business were such stars as Sugar Ray Robinson and Duke Ellington. Nat Cole and Oscar Peterson. I even did Sammy Davis’s father, but Sammy, he did his own hair. A lot of show people that came to Boston came to me.” Over the years he also sold real estate before devoting much of his time to art. His portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled in January 1982 in the Central Square branch of the Cambridge Public Library, when Mr. Guilford was 70. “I think the creative part that comes along with being a hairstylist started to express itself on canvas,” said his daughter Marsha Guilford Davenport of Owings Mills, Md. “My home is filled with his artwork. He’s worked in every medium – charcoal, acrylic, watercolors, oil. He even does pen and ink sketches. Art is just something that blossomed in him.” One of four children, James Edward Guilford Jr. was born Oct. 7, 1911, in a third-floor apartment in Roxbury. “He would tell you he grew up in what they called a cold water flat,” his daughter said. His father, James Sr., was from Petersburg, Va. His mother, the former Nannie Belle Haskins, was from Lynchburg, Va. At Boston Latin, Mr. Guilford was the only African-American on the track team in 1926 and was part of a relay squad that set a record while defeating Boston English in late March. His teammate fell behind on the first leg, “but on the back stretch of the second lap James Guilford of Latin passed M.I. Linsky of English and handed over a four-yard margin,” the Globe reported. Latin’s anchor runner held on to win by inches. The Black History Month Breakfast will be held on Thursday March 3, 2016 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel from 8:30 am to 11:00 am. We will celebrate the military achievements of Rev. Dr. Carlita Baldwin Cotton at the March 3rd Black History Breakfast. Rev. Dr. Carlita Baldwin Cotton has combined her love of ministry and the military to serve others throughout her career path of achievement and excellence. An only child, Carlita was born to Rev. Carl L. (deceased) and Dr. Alexinia Y. Baldwin in Birmingham, Alabama. She was baptized, converted and joined St. John AME Church while living in Birmingham.
Carlita first heard the call to the military, joined the United States Air Force in 1980 and served a variety of positions until her retirement in 2000. She was a manager, supervisor and educator and served as a Russian linguist, a strategic debriefer and a combat interrogator during her years of service. She received numerous military awards and citations, including the Joint Service Meritorious Service Award, Joint Service Achievement Award, Air Force Achievement Award and was recognized by the Director of the National Security Agency. Since retiring from military service, Carlita has a permanent listing on the wall at The Women in Military Service Monument in Arlington, Virginia. Carlita is a lifetime member of the American Veterans (AMVETS). She is a lifetime member of Disabled American Veterans and a lifetime and founding member of the Berlin, Germany chapter of the American Legion. Carlita graduated cum laude from State University of New York at Albany in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in Russian language and literature. She received her masters of divinity degree from Howard University in 2000 and received a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Connecticut in 2008. She is a clinician/counselor and professor of psychology at Goodwin College in East Hartford, Connecticut. Carlita holds memberships in several organizations including Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Women in Ministry/New England Annual Conference, Pi Lambda Theta Honors Fraternity and Altrusa International, Inc. Rev. Dr. Carlita Cotton is also an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She is happily married to Rev. Hollis M. Cotton, pastor of St. James AME Church in Danbury, Connecticut. The Black History Month Breakfast will be held on Thursday March 3, 2016 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel from 8:30 am to 11:00 am. Resourceful, resilient and transformational, Vietnam Era Veteran Haywood Fennell knows how to reach out to the community with gusto. We look forward to honoring him at the March 3rd Black History Breakfast. =================== Fusing Compassion and Community, Learning and Literacy, Haywood Fennell, Sr. continues to add dimensions to his writings. Born in New York City, the now Boston resident recently self-published the first book from The Coota Experiences Trilogy, Coota and the Magic Quilt, (ISBN No. 0-9720404-0-4) and has completed writing the second book, Coota and the Challenge. (ISBN 0-97204046-3).
A well-respected figure in Boston, Haywood is often called a Renaissance Man because of his prolific writings, which draw upon our history for his source material. He is an ex-offender who has refused to allow his past mistakes to hold him “hostage.” He is well known throughout the City of Boston as an advocate for prison reform. A great deal of his work centers around transitional services. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Stanley Jones Clean Slate Project; an ex-offender think tank working to educate and to empower those marginalized by the CORI Laws. Haywood advocates for professional social/mental health services as soon as the person enters the prison system. He helps by visiting jails and prisons and talking about the importance of opening up to change the mindset from wanting to be a smooth criminal to become with skills development a taxpayers a opposed to tax-burden. Also, a Vietnam Era veteran, who served nearly six years in the US Army as a clerk, photographer, and information specialist, Haywood founded The Tri-Ad Veterans’ League; a veterans’ rights advocacy organization where the members incorporate their military skills with program development for educational/cultural programs, particularly around incarceration and HIV/AIDS. The League recently partnered again with The Boston Local Vulcans Society of African-American Firefighters to produce the annual (televised) 9/11 Memorial Service. Presently, the veterans’ organization he founded works withNortheastern University to improve health care services. Their current project focuses on health disparities for African-American veterans that seek health care from the Veterans Administration Medical Centers. Haywood co-hosts a popular weekly cable television program called Speaking About, which welcomes a weekly guest list of community champions who have updates to share and ideas to discuss. This soft-spoken author/playwright has written, produced and staged eight annual performances of the cultural education play,The Harlem Renaissance Revisited With a Boston Flavor (the show’s title will change in the 2007 season toA Story from the Harlem Renaissance.) Haywood attended public school in Wilmington, N.C. and on to Boston University where he studied Urban Planning and U/Mass Boston’s College of Community and Public Service studying Urban Issues. He is the Boston Editor for Unity First, a Springfield, MA based diversity community newspaper. Haywood received the prestigious Boston Neighborhood Fellow’s Award in 2003. He serves on the Advisory Board of the William Monroe Trotter Institute at U/Mass Boston and sits on the board at Boston’s Urban League. He is a lecturer on the Harlem Renaissance Era and its importance to American history and served as a member of the Judging Committee for Reflection in Action; Building Healthy Communities, sponsored byThe Harvard Medical School Office for Diversity and Community Partnership and as a Presenter for theCommunity Enrichment Fellows 2004 and as a member of Roxbury Community College Community Advisory Group. He was named as Boston Herald Literacy Hero in 2005. He was honored on November 4th, 2005 as one of the 100 Distinguished Black Men sponsored by ThePrince Hall Masons of Boston, MA. When speaking to youth, and especially on prison visits, Haywood talks about his going from stealing books to writing books and how is life was changed by other people praying for him, when he would not pray for himself. Haywood’s second Coota book, Coota and the Challenge, will release in early 2007. In 2006 he completed This Man: Thoughts About Our Times, an anthology of his of poetry and prose. He also enjoys freelance photography. The Black History Month Breakfast will be held on Thursday March 3, 2016 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel from 8:30 am to 11:00 am. Pat Odom is a renaissance woman who has pushed her career boundaries throughout her life. We'll honor Pat at the March 3rd Black History Breakfast and celebrate her active role as Massachusetts Army National Guard's first black female recruiter. ================== Patricia Odom is a graduate of Washington Senior High School in Pensacola, Florida and a graduate of Washington Senior Vocational School of Cosmetology also in Pensacola.
Pat began her career as a flight attendant for Mohawk Airlines based in Utica, New York, and was the second black flight attendant who was hired in the early 1970’s. Later she worked for New England Telephone Company as an operator and clerk for two years and bid on jobs to explore different job opportunities. From 1976 through 1987, Pat served her country in the United States Army and served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard. She becoming the first black female recruiter for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Pat also achieved the rank of Sergeant First Class (SFC - E-7) while serving in the army. Pat was honorably discharged from the army. She is a proud member of the 60 Plus Veterans Group. Pat earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Massachusetts, Boston and a master’s degree in moderate special needs from Eastern Nazarene College. She retired from a twenty year teaching career in the Boston Public School system. As a special needs teacher, she was voted in as a union representative for teachers. For more than seven years, Pat has owned and operated a landscaping business. Her community activism continues to this day. She has served on the board of the Clark Cooper Community Garden in Mattapan, Massachusetts, and is a neighborhood advocate and supporter of the East River Neighborhood Association. Pat’s talent as an artist has expanded to her latest business venture. She currently sells her paintings throughout the Boston area, and is a member of both the Roxbury Open Studio and the Hyde Park Menino Art Center. She is the mother of one son, Idrissa Johnson, a grandmother of three beautiful girls. Pat is a longtime member of Bethel AME Church-Boston and serves as a church greeter. The Black History Month Breakfast will be held on Thursday March 3, 2016 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel from 8:30 am to 11:00 am. |
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©2024 All Rights Reserved Carole Copeland Thomas • (508) 947-5755 • [email protected]