Vicki Lawrence comes to Women for Women of Pitt County
Marsha & Becca to see Vicki Lawrence
Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of joining my wonderful mom, Marsha Fleenor, at the Women for Women of Pitt County for their “Power of the Purse” annual luncheon. The event was held at the Greenville Convention Center Hilton (oddly enough where I had my first job at the Greenville Hilton)) and the featured speaker was Vicki Lawrence. Vicki Lawrence was invited to speak to the crowd of over 1,000 women (and a few men) because of her energy, enthusiasm and passion for helping others. I LOVED watching Vicki Lawrence on TV as the played the role of ‘Mama’ on the show “Mama’s Family”. I also watched her when she hosted Win, Lose or Draw. Vicki shared her incredible story of following in the steps of the famous female comedian/television star, Carol Burnett (simply because she looked very much like Carol).
Vicki Lawrence at Women for Women
One of my favorite things that Vicki said was “As a woman in your 20’s, you are so worried about what others are thinking of you…as a woman in your 40’s, you don’t care what others are thinking of you…and as a woman in your 60’s you finally realize that no one was thinking of you in the first place!!!!” She also mentioned her personal motto several times, “Life is much too serious to be taken seriously, so let’s have fun!” She said that motto got her through some really tough years during her career. Who knew TV & comedy could be such a stressful & grueling industry!?!?
Jewelle & Charles Rogers
I had a wonderful time at this event with my mom and the mission of Women for Women of Pitt County is so very powerful! Women for Women is a non-profit group comprised of women committed to helping others in the community through the power of giving. They award annual grants to program and organizations that offer hope, knowledge, support, opportunities, care and most of all, EMPOWERMENT to women and girls of Pitt County. Women for Women of Pitt County is very similar to the Cary Women’s Giving Network, of which I am a proud member. We had a delightful time meeting a couple at our table, Charles and Jewelle Rogers (from Washington, NC). They were the most adorable couple and have a long history of supporting programs & events in Pitt County. Mom and I enjoyed chatting with Charles and Jewelle after the program. I’d like to say a very personal thank you to my father, Michael Fleenor, for purchasing the tickets for us to attend. Nothing like spending a great afternoon with your mom laughing together while celebrating the accomplishments & empowerment of women!
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Filed under Cary, CPA Firm Raleigh News, CPA in Cary, Non-Profit Organizations, Raleigh CPA by on May 9th, 2013. Comment. 
ECU Women’s Roundtable
ECU Women's Roundtable
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the 2ndAnnual East Carolina University Women’s Roundtable Conference in Greenville, NC. I went with my best friend and mom, Marsha Fleenor. We planned to attend this conference months ago and were really excited about the whole weekend, not only being able to spend it together, but also being able to meet some other fantastic women who care about ECU as much as we do! The WRC (ECU Women’s Roundtable Conference) was better than we ever thought it would be and there is so much to tell, just not sure I can do it only one blog post, but I’ll try!
- Marsha with Dr. David White
The WRC was founded in 2003 and stands on the motto of“Encouraging Leadership and Philanthropy” and acknowledges the contribution of women to ECU’s legacy and encourages new levels of commitment by women to the university’s future. I’d love to tell you more about it, but I’ll let you read more on the home link HERE. A majority of the weekend was planned and organized by Marcy Romary, Senior Gifts Officer and Director of Women’s Philanthropy for ECU. We kicked off the conference on Friday afternoon April 20th and adjourned late in the afternoon on Saturday, April 21st. It was a fun-filled and tightly packed activity weekend, but each part was wonderful and well planned.
- STEMM
The first activity on Friday involved hearing about STEMM careers by Dr. Evelyn Brown of the College of Technology and Computer Science. Dr. David White, Dean of the College of Technology and Computer Science made the opening introductions. I’ve heard several presentations on STEMM before, but this one really dug in deep and talked about ECU’s role in STEMM programs. STEMM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine and is focused on Elementary to Middle School aged girls. After the STEMM program we heard from a student panel from the Honors College.
Honors College Panel
Wow…the three students we heard from were SOOOO impressive! We were jealous of the Honors trips that they get to participate in, WOW they sounds like fun and great learning experiences!!! Their advisors, Dr. Connor and Dr. Baxter (Associate Dean of the Honors College) also participated in the presentation. The Honors College Students that we heard from were: Hetal Patel from Cary, NC; Kevin Kearney from Wilmington, NC and Karina Dierfol from Bervard, NC. After the Honors College panel, we did a walking tour of campus led by none other than the ECU Ambassadors!
Campus tour with ECU Ambassadors
I was a proud ECU Ambassador for all four years of my undergraduate degree at ECU and totally loved the experience! Our tour guides did a fabulous job of showing us all around campus and pointed out some new things. Some of the ladies in our group hadn’t been back to campus in years and they were excited to see all of the new buildings, changes and upgrades. It was fun to hear the stories of “When I was at ECU we (fill-in-the-blank)”. At the end of the walking tour, we had a nice snack and shopping adventure at the ECU Student Store on campus.
Dinner at the Croatan
I got a nice new PINK ECU hat (thanks MOM!!) and cool new t-shirts for my little boys. We then heard presentations from the College of Education about how they work to 1) Prepare Educators, 2) Attract Educators, 3) Assess Educators, and 4) Teach Educators. This was a fascinating part to me because I was never in the teaching department and they showed how technology now lets them work remotely with teachers all over the world because of online learning and web-based courses. We then had a nice break before dinner. For dinner, this was a treat! We met with the other ladies at the Croatan on campus.
- Titanic Dinner Menu
The Croatan was one of my favorite hangouts during my years at ECU and it has been totally torn-down and rebuilt! I was shocked at the change! It now has a Chili’s restaurant upstairs (ECU students have it made….let me tell you). Our dinner at the Coratan was a tribute to the Titanic anniversary. The chef prepared a menu that was entitled “The Last Dinner of the Titanic” It was a true experience! During dessert, we heard from three women of the East Carolina University School of Music Voice Faculty. Their voices were lovely and very unique! So that concludes Friday. Whew! Now to Saturday!
ECU Boat
We woke up BRIGHT and EARLY and joined the group for breakfast at the Chancellor’s House at 7:45am. It’s always a treat to be invited to meet with the Chancellor, let alone to their house for a meal. They had a beautiful breakfast buffet set-up for us in their dining room and tables beautifully set all over the lower level. After breakfast, we were divided up into two groups of our choice for afternoon tours. The first tour was going to be touring the Athletics Facilities and the second tour was going to the Underwater Archaeology Lab. This was a really hard decision for my mom and I to make…we wanted to do both! But decided on the Archaeology Lab and WOW…it was soooooooooooooo cool!
Archaeology Lab Tour
We were taken to see the treasure from Blackbeard’s shipwreck!!!! I had NO IDEA that we were going to get to see all that we did. I’ll break it down to you like this: not just anybody can go to this site and see the stuff that they’ve pulled off the bottom of the ocean, right off the coast of North Carolina! They are excavating it from the ocean floor and then taking it here in Greenville where it is being documented, cleaned and preserved. Each piece can take YEARS to get ready before it can ever go to a museum! That was really one of the coolest experiences and I’m so glad I got to share it with my mom! I made lots of good pictures and could honestly spend a week there watching them work and seeing what all they are doing. It’s like this: they find a big rock/chuck of ‘dirt’ off the wreck site, bring it back to the lab, run it through the x-ray and can tell what’s inside of that ‘rock’!
With my buddy, Blackbeard the Pirate!
One example had a cannon ball, goblet and fork! But to me it looked just like a rock! They also had the cannons and anchor in the lab. Really cool stuff! After that, we met back up with the other group (they had a nice tour of the Athletic Facility) and heard from Dr. David Loy in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies on a presentation called “Scentsible” Solutions for Health. It was about aromatherapy and the way it is being used to help patients. We also heard from Dr. Lucas Carr, Associate Professor with Department of Kinseiology on some really cool athletic equipment for office space (whoever knew you could do an exercise bike while at your desk!).
- ECU Women’s Roundtable Murphy Center Lunch
For lunch, we headed over to the Murphy Center where the College of Business did a presentation on a professional leadership course that is offered to students. It takes them through all of the skills that they need to know in order to be successful in the professional world (mock interviews, business dinner, professional dress, etc.) Again, we had such a wonderful time and met some really remarkable women. That concludes our weekend with the ECU Women’s Roundtable! We are looking forward to next year!
Our CPA firm in Cary is growing and we are currently welcoming new clients. Please check out our website for more information http://www.smithandsmithcpa.com We are never too busy to help a small business owner with their accounting/tax needs. We welcome referrals!
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Director of Marketing
Smith & Smith, CPA, P.C.
1150 Executive Circle, Suite 5
Cary, NC 27511
(919) 380-0600 p
(919) 380-0919 f
Filed under Cary, CPA Firm Raleigh News, CPA in Cary, Raleigh CPA by on May 7th, 2012. 1 Comment.
The Cary Chamber hosted their final Business of Women meeting for the 2011-year this past week. Delancy Carroll, Vice President of the Cary Chamber, was excited to tell us that the Business of Women was going into their 10th year of luncheons! So exciting!
Dorcas Shop in Cary
- Volunteers working the Dorcas Shop Donation dock
I stopped by Dorcas Shop after the luncheon and delivered a large box of toys & other items at their donation center. The two volunteers that helped unload my car were so friendly. This is a wonderful place to volunteer if you are looking for an opportunity to serve our community. Deirdre mentioned the quote during the presentation “Think GLOBALLY, but act LOCALY” and volunteering with Doras is a prime example of making that into a reality! I was pleased to have my friend, Beth Dehghan, Owner of Village Cleaners, attend the luncheon with me. Some of the other fabulous ladies that we met at the luncheon included: Pat Richardson, Director of Community Relations for Galloway Ridge in Pittsboro, NC, Tracey Gritz, Owner of The Efficient Office, Christy Carver, Owner of Bella Bridesmaids, and the mother/daughter team of Print 2 Promote – Sara Adcox and Brittany Brinkley.
I am so pleased to share this ECU Christmas card that was put together by my lovely mother, Marsha Fleenor and her co-worker, Millicent Thomas. Marsha and Millicent are part of the staff for the Office of Continuing Studies at East Carolina University. They sent this card/picture via email to over 200 of their co-workers/friends. I LOVE it! Marsha and Millicent are big supporters of my blog, so this is a fun opportunity for me to give a shout-out back to them! Don’t you just love the big wreath they are holding up!?! So festive! And I love my mom so much, she’s my best friend!! If you are thinking about returning to school to complete an undergraduate degree or if you would like to earn a graduate degree online, the contact email address is Options@ecu.edu Degree programs online that are offered through ECU make it possible for working adults to complete their degrees without returning to the classroom. What are you waiting for….GO FOR IT!
It’s FRIDAY!!!! Happy weekend!!!!!!!
Our CPA firm in Cary is growing and we are currently welcoming new clients. We have a BRAND NEW website http://www.smithandsmithcpa.com We are never too busy to help a small business owner with their accounting/tax needs. We welcome referrals! Please note that our office will be close at 5pm on Friday December 23rd and will re-open on Monday January 2nd 2012.
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Director of Marketing
1150 Executive Circle, Suite 5
Cary, NC 27511
(919) 380-0600 p
(919) 380-0919 f
Filed under Cary, Cary Chamber Of Commerce, CPA Firm Raleigh News, CPA in Cary, Raleigh CPA by on Dec 16th, 2011. Comment.
