the newsmakers and welcome to Leona
Dotson the international communications
chair for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
thank you for being here thank you for
having us I gave a hint earlier about
lots of pink and green around Houston
you're wearing it's your colors and one
of your asuras gave me this bow tie
which I figured be appropriate for this
yes looking quite dapper Thank You boys
thank you very much
lots going on around town I've been told
that our population is gonna swell by
many thousands is yes yes it will almost
20,000 members of Alpha Kappa Alpha will
descend on your great city in just the
next couple of days we will be here for
a week-long biennial conference it's our
68th boules you have members come in
from all over the world will also have
thousands of our members from the
Houston area also here with us but we're
here to take care of the business of the
sorority but also make sure that we're
giving back to the community so we've
been doing 29 moments of service I read
about that and all it throughout the
Houston area all over and you have
others all over the world I understand
in various places
absolutely so are 29 Milnes of service
kicked off in January around our 110th
Founders Day 29 moments of service is in
honor of our current international
president dr. Dorothy Buchanan Wilson
she has put extreme emphasis on getting
back to our core of service and making
sure that we're impacting every
community we come into so as we came
into Houston we kicked off in January
we've been running through 29 moments of
service that will culminate here with a
variety of service projects that have
been going on for many many months so
for example tomorrow we are dedicating
to Habitat for Humanity homes in honor
of our 18th international president dr.
Mattei overgraze and our 21st
international president Miss Phoebe
Bryant who are both educators here we're
broke
prominent educators here in the Houston
area so we are looking forward to mean
that we're hosting an HBCU Expo on
Saturday morning where hundreds of
Houston children will have the
opportunity to learn about the HBC 8hp
see use and their significant impact
that they have made in the
african-american community so there are
many HBCUs coming out to provide
students with educational information
that they'll be able to take back with
their parents and have constructive
conversation
their future education goals now people
have an image about sororities and
fraternities from college it's our party
in a navigate ominous I think how is it
change from the college level to the
adult level and is there much of a
change because it seems to me that a lot
of aks and other sororities they have
priorities even as college students to
do things in the community
absolutely so our members vary in age
from eighteen all the way up to into
their hundreds and that commitment to
lifelong service is one of the
foundations of Alpha Kappa Alpha so on
the collegiate level you will see them
not only focusing on their academics but
they're also providing valuable service
to their collegiate community and they
will customize that specifically for
undergraduate student and then you will
see our members that are in graduate
chapters and those graduate chapters are
working in the local communities getting
out working in with the Alzheimer's
Association is working with seniors in
the area they're also working with
college students they're working with
high school students they're working
with anyone who is in need in their
respective community so you will see our
members moving all the way from those
collegiate years into active graduate
work where they are volunteering on a
very very consistent basis and they keep
that going through their lives and
continue to move that through the
generations and their family does your
organization take any kind of position
you put politically or socially active I
think there's two very separate things
clearly socially active yes politically
active no absolutely I'm on both fronts
so Alpha Kappa Alpha for a for decades
even going back even before the civil
rights movement we have been very very
active participants and what is
happening both from a social and a
political act
in a political atmosphere here in our
country that has not changed 110 years
later so you will see not only our
normal day to day for example we just
did 205 days in the Capitol across the
country over the last four years we were
going on speaking to legislators about
what was important we were talking about
gun violence we were talking about the
affordable care act and especially the
impact that it makes on the
african-american community we are
talking about tax reform we are talking
about things that were important to our
community especially around our children
especially around health so we're going
to our legislature we're going to our
governor's we're going to our elected
officials from the very local level
all the way up to the National by having
very constructive conversation it's not
just the conversation but we're getting
in the trenches we're making sure
registering voters we're making sure
that we're getting out there and talking
about the importance of issues that are
portent for kameen that they need to
have a voice around - and we're giving a
voice to them those that are
marginalized and who can't always be a
voice for themselves well I will tell
you that I have a little bit of a bias
toward the AKS and my mom was an aka so
I understand the aura my wife and my
daughter or in a different sorority
which shall not be mentioned here today
because this is aka day you're on this
date but we look forward to a great week
ahead going forward here there's this
show airs on Sunday morning the public
meeting is happening so that's gonna be
a big event everybody can come to that
it is open to the public and it's an
opportunity for members of Houston
members of the Houston community to hear
about the great work the Alpha Kappa
Alpha does but we're also honoring both
local and global leaders for their
outstanding work as well we will be
honoring your mayor mayor Sylvester
Turner that evening as well as other
local historians and ease that all this
is George our Brown convinced everything
is that the George our Brown yes
the owner Johnson thank you and good
luck to you this week and all of your
sorority sisters here aka s as they
visit this week pink and green all over
the place on behalf of the mayor and
Merchants all over the city Master Jess
lots of shopping