Searching for servants

They are the servant generation, the hundreds of Wayne County residents who populated the community’s service organizations — leading them, guiding them, and supporting them.

But they are getting older — and tired. Their numbers have dwindled, and now a core of names circulates around those boards.

The problem is, they are the same names, and the memberships are getting older and older.

They are waiting for the next group to take the mantle, to lead the organizations they have nurtured — and in some cases founded — into the next 50 years.

But they aren’t there.

The world has changed. 

What used to be personal interaction is now a click and a small post on Facebook.

The ease of social media and the progress that has made it easier to communicate have stolen one of the community’s biggest assets, local leaders say — a sense of community.

But those who are finishing their service are challenging the next generation to experience what they have learned.

Those personal interactions, that service above self, it changes lives.

And they are making it their mission to pass on the lessons they learned from the examples of those who have forever left their mark on Goldsboro and Wayne County.

Little Norman Lee Evans has a big name to live up to.

First, there is Norman Lee.

That was his great-grandfather — a kind, dedicated, family man who never met a stranger and who made it his life’s mission to serve his family, his community, and his church.

Little Norman Lee is already there, his family says.

The 2-year-old is a charmer and a giver, his grandfather, Geoff Hulse said.

“He is such a sweet soul,” Geoff said. “He is always helping his friends.”

The rest of Norman Lee’s name has a legacy, too.

His grandmother, Lee, is an Edgerton — a name that has been synonymous with service in this community for decades.

Her father was local philanthropist Bill Edgerton’s cousin — and they were buddies.

So, Lee saw the example of her father and his cousin’s service — a legacy that she and Geoff have passed on to their daughters, Hallie and Lura, and now, Norman Lee.

Lee has served on many community boards, and currently works with Literacy Connections.

Geoff is extremely active in Goldsboro and Wayne County — a fixture in the theater community and serving on boards for the United Way, Wayne Community College, and on and on.

He serves wherever he is needed, he says, or whenever someone needs a “pitchman” to emcee an event.

He considers it an honor, he said — to pay something back to a community that he says has given so much to him, including a second chance.

Geoff says he wants Norman Lee to understand that connections are what matter — that hearing people’s stories up close and personal is how you build strong roots.

So, when he makes his rounds around downtown Goldsboro, when he can, Norman Lee goes, too.

It is a lesson about service and about people he learned from his own father and by watching others.

One of those people was Bill Edgerton.

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Geoff said Bill’s life was about service, not accolades.

“There was a sense about Bill that he was the real deal,” Geoff said. “He was always backing up his faith with action.”

Whether it was Habitat for Humanity, downtown Goldsboro, or building ramps with the Helping Hands Ministry, Edgerton was a force for good, a man who, along with his wife, Jan, made a difference.

“If somebody reached out to Bill, he was going to get a team together to get things done,” Geoff said.

He was one of the founding members of the Optimist Club and was instrumental in the efforts to revitalize downtown Goldsboro.

When the volunteers needed help revitalizing a city building, they asked Bill for help.

He agreed to be a contractor for the work, but only if he could donate his fee.

“So, he served two organizations,” said longtime friend and admirer, Sherry Archibald, who now serves as the executive director of the United Way.

“Bill was never about the credit,” she said. “He was a man of deep faith and service. That’s what mattered — the service.”

Geoff said Bill understood that not everyone wanted to be in the big clubs.

That’s when he started the Optimist Club.

“He enlisted a lot of people who weren’t necessarily involved in Rotary, but who wanted to serve. They found their home in the Optimist Club,” Geoff said.

One of those people was Gary Pender.

A longtime volunteer with the school district, Gary did not have the time to devote to another organization.

But Bill kept at him and one day, he convinced him to join.

That was more than 15 years ago.

Gary said Bill served tirelessly locally and as a state and international officer for the club.

For more than a decade, Bill led the Christmas tree lot — the annual sale that raised money for the club’s good works, which were specifically targeted at children.

Rain or shine, Bill was there.

“He was passionate about what we did, and helping the kids,” Gary said.

And when he became sick, he asked others to care for the lot.

But this year, they just couldn’t make it work — in part, because the membership is getting older.

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It is how many people like Norman and Bill Edgerton were raised.

“You worked hard and you gave back,” Geoff said. “If you saw a chance to lift someone else up who was struggling, you lifted them up.”

And you got to know your community, he said.

Bill was famous for that.

“When you saw Bill coming, you knew you weren’t going to just say, ‘Hi. How are you doing?’ and walk on,” Geoff said. “You settled in for a conversation.”

It is something that is missing today — the connections that people make and how they get to know one another.

“There aren’t many people like that anymore,” Geoff said. “People who make you feel better every time you run into them.”

It was about optimism and a little faith.

“If you close your eyes, you can still hear him, when you would ask Bill how he was,” Gary said. “‘I am absolutely marvelous,’ he’d say.”

It was a toughness learned from years of meeting problems, analyzing them, and then getting to work.

His generation was about getting things done — without fanfare, without attention.

There is another member of the community who learned at a young age that giving back was best done quietly.

Businessman and local philanthropist David Weil has been behind many of the steps forward this community has taken — but has done so without the desire for, or expectation of, accolades.

It is a lesson he learned from his father.

Once asked to donate $1,000 to a worthy cause, the senior Weil brought out his checkbook.

The grateful recipient said that his name would be on a plaque designated for donors who gave that amount.

So he took back the check, tore it up, and wrote another for $999.

His son never forgot that lesson.

Good works, Weil said, are their own reward.

“I have lived 88 years and I have been given credit for more than I have ever done,” he said.

He thinks about how big things can be accomplished by those determined to get them done — sometimes against incredible odds — when he walks by the Paramount Theatre, a building he helped save from the wrecking ball after a major fire nearly destroyed it.

“I wonder how I ever thought I could build a Paramount Theatre,” he said.

But he did think he could, and he did, with support and help from others.

“I knew nothing about building a theater,” he said. “It must have been a lot of misplaced hubris.”

But that is a life skill, too — the ability to conquer and to put into perspective problems and challenges that must be overcome.

He learned it from his mentor, a man who helped guide him after his father died.

“I was surrounded by people who just tackled big problems,” he said. “They didn’t moan about it. They did it.”

He keeps a “warts list,” a monthly catalogue of what he thinks he needs to get done.

When he reviews it, he will see some worries that are long gone and is reminded of what he still needs to do.

All of it, he said, is about perspective.

“Sometimes you don’t even start because the task is too daunting,” he said. “The answer is to try.”

He wonders what will happen to the community when the generation of doers is replaced by those who do not have the same calling.

But he is optimistic that those who, like him, learned the value of service from watching those they admire are still out there.

“What I do today is what I learned from my father and grandfather,” he said.

The example comes, he said, from connections, mentors, and families.

Those are not as easy to find today, he said, and the definition has changed a bit, but Weil said he sees hope.

“I can still go out and hire good people,” he said. “We are producing people who are as good as we’ve ever had. They have a good work ethic, and they are committed, smart and civic minded. But they are a tiny percentage. We need more.”

Today, it is harder than ever to get younger people to understand the power of connection.

Geoff knows that all too well.

He pointed to the local bar association — how it has been struggling to get people involved again.

And while local attorney Tonya Barber has been instrumental in revitalizing the group, not through parties and gatherings, but good works — the principle upon which the organization was founded in the first place — the problem is sparking the interest necessary to keep any organization alive.

“Younger people don’t see the value in the social gatherings, getting together and learning from and about each other,” Geoff said. “Or just being there for each other.”

Work, he said, is work.

Sherry agrees.

She said her community service has become an extension of her faith — modeled in the same way as the Edgertons and others who turn good works into a part of their worship, and who see their community as a mission field.

“(The next generation), they are looking at things so differently,” she said. “They serve in different ways, and they give in a different way.”

Gone is the desire to sit through a meeting each week, she said.

“They want to meet at a local restaurant for a drink, to decide on a project, and to go do it,” Sherry said.

So, she has experienced the same concerns on the United Way board, as it strives to achieve that age diversity.

“It is an effort to get new people involved,” she said.

And while she understands the “get it done” mentality, she said these young people are missing something.

“They are not seeing how being on a board can connect with their career,” Sherry said. “I can’t understand it. My career has benefitted greatly from the connections I have made and the people I have met. I have learned so much about our community, too. Things I never would have known.”

And it all goes back to the beginning, when she first met Bill and Jan 23 years ago in church and saw the impact they had made.

She is reminded of that influence every time she looks at the ceramic lighthouse the couple gave her early in her career after she helped them with one of their projects.

“They said I was a beacon to them,” she said. “For them to say that … it was something special. I will never forget it.” 

And that inspiration lives on.

“Their impact has been felt in so many places,” she said. “And the projects they started are still going strong. They have made such a difference and inspired so many in this community.”

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Geoff has a message for the young people who are sitting back and waiting to become a part of their community’s future.

They will get back just as much as they give.

He says the community has given him more than he can ever pay back.

“I don’t do it because I have to,” he said. “I get so much out of it.”

It is a tribute too — to all those like Bill and Norman and Hulse’s own father, all of whom took time out to serve their communities no matter how successful or busy they were.

And he looks to the example of Weil and others who are still giving their time, energy, and support.

“When you read the names of the people who have come before me,” he began. “It is a distinguished group.”

So, he challenges the next generation to learn those lessons, too.

“If you uplift your community, and we all come together, we all do better,” Geoff said.

And gathering on social media, or liking a Facebook post, is just not enough, he added.

Big things get done when people get together, work together, and talk.

Like the Paramount Theatre and the downtown Goldsboro revitalization effort.

“That did not happen because we sat around and pushed a bunch of buttons on our phones,” Geoff said. “It took a lot of talking, planning, and making connections. The community got that done.”

He said that there are signs that the message is getting through, but perhaps not quickly enough.

“There is good stuff going on,” he said. “I see it. But there are still not enough people stepping up to serve on the boards of these organizations.”

That’s why so many of the same names keep popping up on board after board. Many of them are involved in the nonprofit world and know just how much the work of these community organizations changes lives. But there are not enough of them to make sure that groups like Rotary, the Optimist Club, and even the United Way survive.

And if they don’t step up, if the next generation continues to ignore the call, well, there might not be enough people left to save them.

“I’m not sure we will ever understand what we are going to miss as a community if these organizations die,” he said.

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