Donyell “DJ” Jones, CEO of the local Boys & Girls Club, has received one of the organization’s highest awards for honoring the values of diversity and equality.
Although scheduled to accept the Herman S. Prescott award at the 2020 BGC National Conference, COVID-19 restrictions intervened.
Jones had been at his new job of CEO of the North Central North Carolina Boys & Girls Clubs for a few weeks before the pandemic struck, said Xavier Wortham, chair of the BGCNCNC corporate board. Wortham said Jones has done a great job of navigating the challenges of the pandemic and looks forward to the clubs’ continued success.
“This is a great time for him and even a better time for our club and our children,” Wortham told WIZS News Tuesday. “We’re really excited to have DJ as part of the North Central North Carolina Boys and Girls Club,” he said. “His level of experience and expertise can clearly be seen” by his receiving the Prescott award.
He was nominated for the award by Kimberly Boyd, CEO of the Coastal Plain BGC, Jones said in a statement to WIZS.
“What makes this award so humbling is that my peers and colleagues see something in me that I often overlook,” Jones said in the statement. “I work each day to empower club professionals to achieve their very best through opportunities that will pull out their greatness.”
The BGCNCNC includes clubs in Vance, Granville, Franklin, Warren and Halifax counties. Wortham said Jones has done a wonderful job of shifting focus during the pandemic to make sure staff was “motivated to keep everyone safe and trained and better prepared as we’re coming out of COVID (restrictions).”
The Herman S. Prescott award is presented each year to a member of The Professional Association of BGC “whose service emulates that of one of the Movement’s great visionaries, Herman S. Prescott,” according to information on the BGC website.
Criteria include being “an advocate for the rights and dignity of all and belief in the principles of diversity, equality and empowerment must be the hallmark of their work within the Boys & Girls Club’s Movement.”