By ANGELIA DAVIS, The Greenville News
davisal@greenvilleonline.com
Kimberly Witherspoon got a taste of what it means to give back to the community from her parents.
She's retained an appetite to do likewise over the years. One way she is currently satisfying that hunger is by serving as the 2015 chair of United Way's African- American Leadership Greenville Council (AALG).
As the AALG chair, Witherspoon, an associate at Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A., is charged with continuing the mission of United Way of Greenville County and tailoring it to the African American community, she said.
Her goals are to continue to grow membership within AALG so that there are more people contributing at the Palmetto Society level to help "really make Greenville a great community by helping those who need help in terms of financial stability, in terms of early childhood education, in terms of high school graduation," she said.
A native of New Zion in Clarendon County, Witherspoon earned undergraduate degrees in history and political science from Furman University. She received her Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center.
"I was preparing my personal statement for law school, the lynchpin in that was to whom much is given, much is required," she said. "Having come from a very economically depressed part of our state and now having the opportunity to see the other side, essentially, I know personally from friends and family what it feels like to be financially insecure."
Witherspoon said now she's in a position to provide assistance both monetarily as well as in leadership direction to how funds from philanthropic organizations are used.
"I know that there are actual lives - one person, 10 people, 100 people - being touched my efforts and my giving."
She also saw lives being touched by her parents' giving.
Edna and Willie James Witherspoon, she said, are pillars in their community and families.
"Most of my memories of middle school and high school are of us going out into the community and giving back, visiting the elderly, the nursing homes...doing a lot of volunteering with church," she said.
Education was also "paramount" with her parents.
They not only focused on ensuring that Witherspoon was well educated and doing well, but that her friends and peers were getting the support they might need as well, she said.
Witherspoon said her parents are working-class and did not receive a college education. The segregated schools they went to didn't have the resources others had.
Her father went to the Air Force after high school, she said, but he was always struck by, not withstanding the facilities they were educated in, how prepared he felt because "he knew that his teachers cared about him and his peers and that they gave them the best education possible," she said.
Witherspoon's practice focuses on public finance. She said she's found that skills she's learned in law school - how analyze a problem and spot issues to effectively and efficiently solve those issues - are transferable to giving back in nonprofit work.
She said her law firm is one that promotes community involvement and supports her numerous volunteer roles and responsibilities.
"Everyone in my department, shareholders of the firm, are either volunteering with organizations in Greenville or are on boards of organizations," she said.
Witherspoon hopes to inspire similar involvement among new members as the AALG chair.
The group has a number of networking events, with a new members reception held in the summer.
"We also have a fantastic event where we kick-off for our campaign which starts in the fall," she said. "It is a way for us to try to recruit new members and new givers."
"Greenville, unlike many other places is very receptive to younger voices being involved," she said, "and frankly the organizations I'm a part of, all kind of actively sought out a diversity in terms of age and level of profession in the boards and in the volunteers."
As she was preparing to lead AALG, she looked at other United Way organizations across the country to see if there were other similar groups.
What she discovered is that the United Way of Greenville County is "probably in the forefront of having unity groups such as AALG, Women's Leadership and Young Philanthropists Group.'
"I think it's a multi-or two-fold goal of United Way to make sure they have a diverse group of people at the table when decisions are made as to how funds are used," she said. "It's also just making sure they have the diverse givers as well, so that when decisions are made about where funds are going, ... all of the voices are heard."
