Hayti Heritage Center

804 Old Fayetteville Street

Durham, NC

7:00 PM

Admission:  $10.00

The ceremony was rescheduled because of bad weather in January.  All tickets purchased will be honored in March.

The official hotel of the 2005 Mahogany Dime Awards

Call  919-383-8033 to reserve a room.

Tickets available at the Hayti Heritage Center

Hosted by Gayle Hurd of Radio One Raleigh

Theme:  "Women of Influence:

Celebrating North Carolina's Crème de la Crème"

Sponsored by:

Genworth Financial

Waymakers Inc.

Celebrations, Inc.

The Durham Hilton

The St. Joseph's  Historic Foundation

2005 Honorees

April Turner- The Arts

April Turner, native of Charlotte, is an accomplished writer, actress, producer and dancer. Among her produced writing credits are C.O.T.O.: Chocolate on the Outside, Starlight and Moonshine Times, Pickle & Lil'Junior and Nikky's Gone. Ms Turner has had roles in the made for TV movies, Ditch Digger's Daughters, The Perfect Daughter, Her Deadly Rival, Stephen King's The Night Flier and Texas Cadet Murders among several others. She co-starred in the major motion pictures, Morning and Other Voices, Other Rooms. Turner was also featured on the hit NBC drama, ER, in an episode titled "Middle of Nowhere."

Currently, Turner is promoting cultural concerts (The African Spirituals) and producing Reservations, a play she penned after three residency experiences on a Native American reservation.  In addition to being a prolific playwright and thespian,  Turner is a passionate dancer. For the last fifteen years her dance performances and workshops have enlightened, entertained and promoted cultural awareness in thousands of schools, theatres, learning programs, churches and civic organizations from North Carolina to Los Angeles.  Turner has also gained international renown as a guest performer at the Demba festival in The Gambia, West Africa and later as a dance workshop facilitator in Brazil.  In all things, this UNC-Chapel Hill graduate seeks to be an asset to the local and world community as an artist and citizen.

Dr. Annie McCullough  Chavis- Service

Dr Annie McCullough Chavis, of Fayetteville has been giving the community her service for many years.  Through her sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, she has given countless hours to the development of high school women who were a part of the sorority’s mentoring program, the Archonettes.  She served as an advisor for the group for 13 years, helping to facilitate an enormous wealth of annual projects including  the yearly debutante ball, the Blue Revue.  Aside from the Archonettes, she also served as the Regional Youth Director for the Sorority from 1982-1992.

Never tired, Chavis’ service to the greater Fayetteville continues.  She currently sits on the Joint Senior Citizens Advisory Board for the City of Fayetteville and Cumberland County, the City of Fayetteville Personnel and Review Board, the Cumberland County Department of Social Service Care Domestic Violence Board, and Fayetteville’s No. 2 State Employee’s Credit Union Advisory Board.    A former Miss Fayetteville State 1969, Chavis is still committed to Education.  Presently she is employed as the Director of Field Education and  as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Fayetteville State University.

Lori Gibbs-Leadership

Lori Gibbs is a resident of Durham.  Gibbs is the Director of Affordable Housing/Industry Affairs for Genworth Financial’s mortgage insurance business.  A 20-year industry veteran, Gibbs held various positions at GE Mortgage Insurance (now a part of Genworth Financial), Peoples Bank, Mechanics and Farmers Bank, the North Carolina Community Development Initiative and SELF-HELP Credit Union prior to joining GE in 1998.  She is currently responsible for developing strategies to increase home ownership in diverse, under-served markets nationwide, specifically targeting low-to-moderate income, ethnic minority and New American constituencies.  With this objective, she helped facilitate a national initiative through her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta.  GE Mortgage Insurance teamed up with the sorority to help close the homeownership gap between African Americans and the U.S. population as a whole by working with local and state chapters of the sorority to provide training and coaching on all aspects of homeownership. 

Over the course of the last year, Gibbs traveled across the country providing coaching sessions on the Homeownership Initiative to sorority members.  In addition to the coaching sessions, she has held several seminars on the importance of homeownership.  Still a work in progress, over 100 loans have been closed as a result of the project totaling 21 million dollars.

Gloria Sawyer-Entrepreneurship

Gloria Sawyer, founder and executive director of the Mission House for Women and the Almost There Program for Women lives in Raleigh.  As executive director, Sawyer is committed to “walking the path of recovery” with acceptance and love for each resident who suffers from either substance abuse, mental illness, physical or emotional abuse, and post-incarceration adjustment issues.  She also strives to direct each woman to secure the professional and personal help required to continued success.  The “Almost There Program for Women” is an extension of the Mission House for Women.  This program is designed to continue strengthening independence and enhancing the living skills of the women in recovery.  It also helps to provide positive living in a supportive and supervised environment.

Dr. Eunice Dudley-The Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole Living Legend Award

Dr. Eunice Dudley is the CFO of Dudley Products in Kernersville.  Dr. Dudley helped co-found the multi-million dollar hair care and cosmetics company, with her husband.  She also serves as Managing Executive for the Dudley Cosmetology School System, a network of 6 general cosmetology schools across the US.

Dr. Dudley got her start in the beauty industry by selling Fuller Products door to door while she was in college.  By the early sixties, she and her husband were working full time selling those products in Greensboro.  However, during the late sixties the Fuller Products Company experienced problems providing enough merchandise to them and the Dudleys began making their own products to satisfy customer demand. 

During the mid seventies, the Dudleys moved to Chicago to work for Fuller Products.  Yet, less than a decade, later they resumed residence in North Carolina and began developing their own business.  In 1989, with husband Joe, Dr. Dudley helped launch Dudley Cosmetology University, flagship of the Dudley Cosmetology School System.  Through her tireless dedication, she has helped build the company to a world renowned part of the beauty industry. 

Performances by:

Mocha

Lucky Strike Jazz Trio

Harmonyx