In 2019, John Almond was building beds in Columbus, Dickie Bryan was opening up a recovery home for addicted or homeless men in West Point and Evie Vidrine was joining the Columbus Young Professionals.
The three were strangers then, each working independently.
Tonight, their paths are likely to converge as a local organization rebrands itself to serve the community.
When Columbus Chamber President Wilson Beck, Golden Triangle Development LINK Chief Operating Officer Macaulay Whitaker and Vidrine, now the president for Columbus Young Professionals (CYP), met this summer to talk about the future of the CYP, they quickly agreed on one thing: CYP could do more, perhaps much more.
Founded by the Chamber in 2014, CYP was originally conceived as a networking group for young professional people in the city.
But by the time Vidrine joined in 2019, the energy of the initial group seemed to have dissipated.
“At the time, and certainly during COVID, it seemed like we were missing something in our goals as a group,” Vidrine said. “I thought maybe we should be more of a service-based group.”
It was an idea Beck embraced immediately.
“I said, ‘Listen. We have some talent here and I think it would be a benefit to us if we re-energize the program, make it a complete overhaul,’” Beck said.
Originally, CYP was limited to professionals ages 21 to 35. As part of its rebrand, CYP will make membership available to anyone over 21.
“We really couldn’t think of a reason why we should have an arbitrary age restriction,” Vidrine said. “Hopefully, doing this will open it up and help us grow our organization.”
Tonight, from 6-8 p.m. at Courtyard by Marriott, CYP will hold a meeting to discuss how it intends to change its mission. The meeting is free, with food provided by The Peachtree Group, which operates the hotel.
The meeting will serve as an opportunity to explore ideas for the new group, particularly its new service-driven focus. Almond, founder of The Golden Triangle Dream Center, will discuss volunteer opportunities for the group in many of his programs.
Founded in 2019, Almond’s faith-based organization started by building beds for needy people in the community, especially children. As of this week, his Bedz4Kids program has built and delivered 311 beds throughout the Golden Triangle, relying on volunteers, churches, civic clubs and area businesses to fund the project.
Since then, the Dream Center has expanded its programs, partnering with The Mission. Founded by Bryan, a local pastor, in 2018, The Mission started its residential program for men in 2019 on property formerly owned by Bryan Foods in West Point. The Dream Center has relocated its operations to the property, which includes two buildings with more than 32,000 square feet. Since then, the residential program has expanded from its original seven beds in 2019 to 20 beds. There are plans to increase the facility to 52 beds in the near future.
The Dream Center is also operating an Adopt-A-Block program used to identify and meet the needs of poor residents.
“We’re a faith-based organization and, two years in, it feels like we’re living in the midst of a miracle,” Almond said. “God has exceeded my expectations at this stage, although my expectations are far greater than what we have achieved.”
For Vidrine, it seemed like a perfect fit for CYP as it changed its mission toward service.
“It just seemed like a natural fit for us,” she said. “They’ve done a ton of work in our community, so we invited John to give us a rundown on what they’re doing at our meeting (today).”
Almond said working with CYP addresses two problems.
“We are volunteer-based,” Almond said. “There are a lot of things we would like to do, or do more of, but we need volunteers. The young professional group has the volunteers, but they don’t have projects. I definitely see some synergy developing here.”
Both Vidrine and Beck believe the new focus of the group also will build membership in the CYP, which currently stands at 87.
“I do think the vision of the CYP to get involved in these projects and be advocates for the community will bring more people into the organization,”’ Beck said.
“I think it will energize our group,” Vidrine said. “I’m eager to see where it goes from here. (Today’s) meeting is just the beginning.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.