The 12 th National Founders’ Day Observance Ignites the Spirit of Phi Nu Pi
A gainst the backdrop of a high of 31 de- grees followed by a low of 21 degrees on the evening of January 7, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway, Thomas L. Battles, Jr., the 33 rd Grand Polemarch knew a fire was about to burn, sufficient to awaken within each member a high ideal to achieve during the new calendar year. Perhaps it is more accurate to say it was as if “…there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” More than 700 men gathered together with a unity of purpose. Despite the harsh, bitter wind just outside the door, the men of Kappa Alpha Psi ® were bonded together with a spirit of fra- ternity to honor the 10 men who first sowed the seeds of achievement, during the 12 th Annual National Founders’ Day Observance.
Master of Ceremony, Grand Board Member Jimmy McMikle, presided over the gathering. E. Delane Rosemond, Esq., Southeastern Province Polemarch, moved the audience with a stir- ring greeting which was met by The Honorable M. Kasim Reed (Atlanta (GA) Alumni 1999), Mayor of Atlanta and The Honorable Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (Pi 1966), U.S. Representative of Georgia’s Second District. As Grand Board Member Deion L. Garner provided the occasion, the melodious sounds of the Kappa Chorus soon followed. The other Province Polemarchs joined Brother Rosemond in a thundering Province Roll Call, which was followed by a comprehensive reflec- tion on the work of the fraternity under the leadership of the 32 nd Grand Polemarch, William “Randy” Bates, Jr., Esq., led by Grand Board Member Linnes Finney, Jr., Esq.
10 | SPRING 2017 THE JOURNAL
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