Another year is about to come to a close and we will all soon look back on 2023 and wonder “where the time has gone?” It seems as though 2022 just ended.

While I usually focus my President’s message on the state of Tabor 100, I’d like to move to another topic, one we all contemplate regularly, especially as we mature and continue to strive to achieve, and, in some cases, survive. What will your legacy be? What will you leave behind to make the world, your community, better?

I contemplate this topic regularly and periodically question others about it. I am reminded of service when I think about how a 26-year old preacher was asked to lead a bus boycott in Birmingham, Alabama and stepped up, successfully leading the city’s Blacks to desegregate the buses and ultimately make him, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, a national civil rights icon.

So, I ask that you consider serving Tabor 100, as a Board member (we have a couple openings), a volunteer or a contributor in any way you see fit. We are fighting a good fight to ensure that Black businesses specifically, and minority businesses in general, thrive, which means the Black and minority community thrives. We want our members and other Black and minority entrepreneurs to benefit from the huge amounts of public and private expenditures this region generates. You can actually enhance your business prospects as an active Tabor 100 member.

We must do everything we can to address the ugly fact that the latest assessment of the wealth of Caucasian families in this region is about 20 times that of Black families ($23,000 vs. $500,000+). This inequity is shocking, but true. Your head, heart and hands in service of Tabor 100 will help to address this inequity. We welcome your commitment to service and hope you find Tabor 100 a good place to take action on it.