Bolton native Dr. Pamela Robinson, who’s a current school board member out in Colorado Springs, Colorado for Harrison Schools, District 2, didn’t know her community was going to name an education building after her. She said she cried when she realized what was happening.
“I kept seeing these people, and I'm like, why are all these people at this board meeting? And my superintendent pointed, and she had a picture of the sign, [...]; My husband was there, but I didn't know. My daughters knew, and so the district told them; I had lots of former teachers there, my secretary, just all the staff. It was wonderful,” she said.
Robinson has been in education for over 30 years. She realized the value of it from her grandmother and her parents.
“Mama finished, I think it was 11th grade, but she was an avid reader. She loved reading. She loved all things newspapers back then, and my grandfather was a longshoreman, but he also farmed,” she said.
Both she and her family wanted something different for her.
“In the spring, after school, everybody had to go set out tobacco and so on, and I'm first generation college, so, in the 1970s, 1980s, blue collar [workers], in our area, were pretty prominent.”
Robinson said Federal and DuPont were some of the main companies providing those jobs in Columbus County.
After graduating from Fayetteville State University, she and her husband eventually made their way out to Colorado – and she started her career in teaching and eventually became a principal. She stayed in that position for 19 years.
“We hovered between 87% and 90% Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL), so it's a Title I school, with lots of needs, but my motto was, ‘neighbors make the neighborhood,’” Robinson said.
She thinks one of the reasons she was recognized was because of her outreach to the community. Robinson said she made a concerted effort to support the families who lived in the nearby apartments and tended to struggle with making ends meet.
“We made it a point to know the manager. We would do home visits. If parents needed phone calls; if they worked at night and needed a phone call to get up so we can get those babies to school, we were calling, ‘Hey, time to wake up.’ You know, grandmothers raised some of the children so we would go over and just help get them ready and get them to school,” she said.
Robinson said she thinks it was her Columbus County upbringing that connected her to those families.
“So I think sharing my story of coming from humble beginnings, as well as doing home visits, but home visits that supported them, not [ones] to say, ‘You need to get them to school,’ but really building positive professional relationships,” she said.
While her elementary school did close about two years ago because of declining student enrollment, it eventually reopened as a Career Academy for 6th-12th graders.
And even when the school’s closure was announced, the surrounding neighborhoods, she said, really rallied behind it.
“They came out, and they argued in a very informative, educated way, about closing Black and Brown schools. They were just very impressive, and I think it truly surprised our administration, and we had so much community support,” she said.
Through tough times, Robinson has a message for all students.
“Don't let a closed door stop you, because one closed door may mean two will open. And so what I would tell them to do is just do the work, and the legacy will come if you are truly passionate, push through, because if you are passionate enough about that dream, it will come true,” Robinson said.
She adds that while she lives in Colorado most of the year – Bolton, NC is near and dear to her still.
“When my husband and I go home, because Colorado Springs, we're growing, but then when we go home, everyone is just so relaxed. And I just love that, feel that, but I also I'm starting to feel a vibe of young people starting to step up and have a voice, and that's what we need,” she said.
Robinson said she hopes she can come back for the Pine Festival next month. Her grandfather used to fry the fish, but now the torch has been passed to one of his sons. She might have to stay behind to help one of her former colleagues, but either way, she wants to return home this fall.
