Kinston attorney Jimbo Perry is known for his work helping children.
So, Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., pegged him to deliver the keynote address for the representative’s 12th-annual Youth Summit. The event, to be held Monday at Southeast Community College in Whiteville, will bring together 45 students from 12 Eastern North Carolina counties.
“Young people are the future of our great country, yet this population is rarely given a forum in which to discuss issues that they feel are important,” McIntyre said in a statement. “This Youth Summit will provide students with the opportunity to voice their opinions and give input on the issues that our leaders are faced with every day.”
Perry, who’s been profiled about his involvement in children’s causes in the North Carolina magazine Our State, also works with children at Southeast Elementary School, with the Boy Scouts, in a project called The Refuge and other activities.
He said McIntyre’s vision with these summits is to get high school juniors engaged in their communities at least during their senior year, to be proud of the place where they are and try to make it better.
“I’m not doing anything particularly important, other than trying to help one or two people at a time,” Perry said. “But I think that vision is a vision he would like to convey to the students.”
He knows McIntyre through his wife, who was in the same program in college as McIntyre.
“I actually heard him speak years ago — he gave a talk called ‘Servant Leadership,’ which really models what his philosophy of leadership is,” Perry said. “… his talk, actually years ago, impacted me in a way in which my wife and I have sought to invest ourselves in our community — which is to try to not necessarily try to change the world, but try to help a few people who you come in contact with. And through that, each of us are doing our part.”
Perry said Thursday hehadn’t finished writing his speech yet, but he knows the direction he wants to take it.
“I’m going to be talking about the importance of the students knowing who they are and how they’re made — that is, their gifts and talents,” Perry said. “And then, on recognizing the needs of the community around them, and how they can make a difference in their communities based on the way in which they’re made and what their gifts and talents are.”
He continued, “And I’m going to really try to challenge them to practically look at it from a perspective of next year, take some time to think through it and gather some people around them who would be like-minded. And then, try to have an impact in their community in the next year.”
Locally, South Lenoir High School’s Kalyn Jones, Bethel Christian Academy’s Carley Sanderson and North Lenoir High School’s Justin Ward will be attending.
The summit will last from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and feature breakout workshops on youth issues, one of which will be led by Miss North Carolina Arlie Honeycutt, who formerly was Miss Kinston-Lenoir County.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.