FORMER WTVM NEWS REPORTER INVITES COLUMBUS TO SAN FRANCISCO Community Leadership Reception & Fundraise honoring Jackie Wright will benefit charities. (San Francisco)-It’s the year of Jubilee for San Francisco community leader, Jackie Wright. Instead of having a self-focused party, Wright asked friends to help plan a party that will benefit the City she loves.
The 1984 University of Georgia graduate in both broadcast journalism and drama and former reporter for WTVM, Channel 9 invites Columbus to San Francisco. Fundraiser will be held August 15, 6-8:30 p.m. at Lavash Restaurant, 4 Embarcadero Center, to raise fund for charities Wright has been involved with since her arrival in San Francisco June of 1990. Janice Edwards of KNTV, NBC 11 will be the emcee. Visit www.celebratejackiewright.com for details.
“Jackie is opening the celebration to benefit the community,” said Belva Davis, a Bay Area news media icon. “It’s a chance for the friends-old and new, and associates to pause a moment and contribute to organizations they support. The fast pace of life often keeps us from taking the time to write that check. So as Jackie says ‘we’re pausing to party with a purpose.’”
Davis went on to say that Wright characteristically finds ways to enhance people and expand projects. As president of the Golden Gate Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television, Wright increased the sponsorship and support level of the organization by setting a fund raising standard that was six times higher than the organizations previous support level. Additionally, she established the AWRT Belva Davis Diversity Scholarship, in recognition of the fact that Belva Davis was the first woman of color in the nation to join the organization.
Wright, a graduate of Baker High School, returned to Columbus to join WTVM after working at the NBC affiliate WJKS TV in Jacksonville, Florida. “I went to Jacksonville in August 1984 after getting my second degree so that I could be near my father’s elderly aunt, Mary Davis. She died within four months after I arrived and just over a year later, the Challenger exploded. I’ll never forget that bitter cold January day in Florida. I looked in disbelief at the television and then walked out of my Baymeadows apartment door and looked up and saw the pitch-fork like plume in the sky, some 90 miles from the Kennedy Space Center,” said Wright.
“I went to work at 2:30 p.m. for my usual night shift and was only able to come home for dinner from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. to be with my middle school age daughter. By the end of February, I moved back home to be near family to help raise my daughter, Tiffanie Chiles. The death of my aunt and the Challenger explosion spoke volumes to me about the importance of relationships as you engage in a big vision and of course my most important vision was to raise my daughter around family and not alone in a big City.
” Wright said the value of community service hit home for her as she and her daughter began a mutual volunteer experience with the “Taste of Columbus.” “I had that t-shirt for years,” said Wright. “Frankly, I think I still have it packed away. I believe we were a part of the inaugural celebration of that event. Their passion for community service was birthed in Columbus. Tiffanie’s first job was as a volunteer candy stripper at the Columbus Medical Center.
The organizations benefiting from the San Francisco fundraiser include: African American Shakespeare Company, Afro Solo Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theatre, American Red Cross, AWRT Belva Davis Diversity Scholarship, Booker T. Washington Community Center, Christian City Church San Francisco Axis Café, Enola D. Maxwell Education Fund, Kamala Harris for District Attorney Campaign, KALW 91.7FM, Leadership San Francisco, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Muscular Dystrophy Association, SFUSD Every Child Can Learn Foundation, Sophie Maxwell’s Re-election Campaign or Volunteer Center of San Francisco.
Wright a broadcast journalist, who drove cross country in 1990 from Athens, Georgia without a job, landed her first position as a public affairs associate for the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter during the one-year anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake. She worked her way through the organization ultimately becoming the Executive Officer for San Francisco County and along the way she did radio and TV interviews from places like Kill Devils Hill, North Carolina, Birmingham, Alabama and Salt Lake City, Utah after a tornado or hurricane blew through town.
The most time Wright has spent in Georgia since moving to California was two weeks in 1994 when she was assigned to the Albany, Georgia Tropical Storm Alberto disaster relief operation. The flooding at the time was the most the area had experienced in a 100-year period. “I still have the t-shirt shirt from that assignment that says ‘We rose above the floods,’ Albany, Georgia 1994.” “I flew into Columbus before being ‘deployed’ and as I remember, I believe WTVM did a short interview about my work with the Red Cross. I barely had a chance to see my granddad and family before I was off again to San Francisco. I came back through on a Sunday morning and I stopped by Allen Temple A.M.E. Church in Phenix City where our family worshipped for a few minutes and off I went. I hadn’t’ realized how beautiful Georgia is until that trip. All the green trees overwhelmed me. California can give you a great appreciation for foliage; just drive down I-5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles, if you don’t believe me. The Georgia pines are so glorious. ‘There’s no place like home.’”
Over her decade of working for the Red Cross, Wright worked with many non-profits. “Jackie says the non-profit arena is also like an alma mater and having this fundraiser is paying tribute to the mom that helped her know herself and grow in ways she could never have imagined. The concept of community leadership was branded for her when she went through the year-long San Francisco Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership San Francisco Program in 1996,” said Bernice Brown, former Dean of San Francisco City College. The fundraiser is not only for close friends and associates but for anyone who would like to support community, just send in a check to support the organizations.
For any Columbus residents visiting San Francisco that week or that may take advantage of an internet flight, Wright says you have an open invitation. The Crowne Plaza Hotel Union Square has provided a limited number of rooms for the Community Leadership Fundraiser guest at an incredible rate of $99.00 per night, when most rooms in San Francisco even in tough economic times are over $200 per night. Your presence at the event is preferred, but if not possible, you can send in a present; not to Wright of course. The goal is to generate funding for worthy organizations during these tough economic times.
Individuals or companies can give in several ways which include 1) Giving at a sponsorship level by making a check payable to the Community Leadership Fundraiser with net proceeds going to the organization, or 2) checks can be made directly to one of the named charities. All checks should be mailed to Community Leadership Fundraiser c/o Freda Leeper, CalWorks Office, City College, 50 Phelan Avenue, B-609, San Francisco, CA 94112 by August 15th. For more information call 415 705-0557. Online giving is possible at www.celebratejackiewright.com. Call in advance to confirm, if you are bringing your contribution with you.
The Community Leadership Fundraiser planning committee members include: Kelly Armstrong, Bernice Brown, Kelly Castagnaro, Belva Davis, Shirley Howard Johnson, Joan Kelley-Williams, Michelle Ortega, Marsha Pendergrass, Cheryl Ward, Marian Wilson Sylvestre.