Celebrating Charity Gambil Day in Alleghany County
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Corporate Communications, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, Phone: (828) 758-2383; Pager: 1-800-471-1323; E-mail: Renee Whitener
Sparta, North Carolina (June 25, 2001) – Charity Gambill has made it her life’s mission to help others, and to help her community as well.
So it’s not a surprise that holding Charity Gambill Day in Alleghany County is one of a number of honors she’s received in her lifetime. One of the most notorious was receiving a Nancy Susan Reynolds Award for her personal service and lifetime commitment to helping people. The Nancy Susan Reynolds awards are given annually by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to North Carolinians who have worked without recognition and outside of existing organizations.
One of her most valuable contributions to her community was the role she played in establishing one of the finest rescue squads in rural North Carolina. A charter member of Alleghany County Rescue Squad, Charity helped organize the operation over 25 years ago after a first aid course she took sparked her interest in emergency response and following a car accident that claimed the life of a high school student in Alleghany County. The student died because there wasn’t adequate emergency response equipment in the county, and Charity helped make sure that emergency response equipment, training and coordination has been available to county residents ever since. The emergency response field became a long-term interest for Charity, who served the squad in a hands-on capacity for 30 years.
Emergency response is not the only area that’s benefited from Charity’s involvement. The members of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation have received the benefit of her leadership, as she’s served for the past 25 years as director -at-large on the board of directors of the cooperative utility. As part of the board, she’s provided input and direction that has helped Blue Ridge Electric remain a fiscally healthy rural electric cooperative providing affordable energy with no rate increase to members in eight years. She’s also helped guide the cooperative to diversify and prepare for a changing environment by forming its Blue Ridge Energies subsidiary, which has recently expanded into Alleghany County.
The total list of organizations that have benefited from Charity’s involvement is long. The list includes Charity serving: on the Alleghany County Board of Education, as a member of the Alleghany County Board of Commissioners, as a member of the Regional Library Board, on the Alleghany
County ADAP, as a State EMS Advisory Council member, as a member of Region D EMS Council, as a board member of New River Mental Health Agency, with the Special Olympics program, as a volunteer on the board of directors of Alleghany Connections, and in economic development and long-range planning for Alleghany County.
Even when Charity has experienced low points in life, she’s turned it into a volunteer effort to benefit others. When she was diagnosed with lupus in the ‘80’s, she formed the Lupus Support Group in Alleghany and Ashe counties. And later, when her son tragically drowned in Winston-Salem, she responded by devoting time to the Bereavement Support Group.
The second of seven children of Treva Simpson Carter and the late Eliga Carter, Charity was raised in the Ennice community of the Blue Ridge Mountains. An active member of White Plains Baptist Church, she works as Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator for Sparta Industries.
Charity is beloved in her community and esteemed for her many accomplishments and countless hours of time, energy and the gift of her heart. Celebrating Charity Gambill Day is a fitting tribute to a woman who has given so much to Alleghany County and its people who will benefit from her presence now and in the years to come.
