Most of us at any given point in the day, see Van Dobbins, Jr. driving around Riverview and South Central Kingsport, delivering items to folks, volunteering his time to help neighborhood residents and take part in various programs in the community. He has helped many people and organizations in the community through his time, expertise, and occasionally, muscle.
Now, another Kingsport agency will be taking some of his valuable time.
Van Dobbins, Jr. has been named Community Volunteer, an Executive Committee position with the United Way of Greater Kingsport.
Along with Mr. Dobbins, the 2008 other United Way officers are President Charlie Floyd, Vice President Rick Witt, Secretary Greg Neal and Treasurer Thomas Kennedy. New board and executive committee members are Jack Bales, Sullivan County Board of Education; Beulah Ferguson, First Tennessee Development District; John Campbell, city of Kingsport; Greg Neal, Wellmont Health System; Ron Nussman, Domtar; Ted Fields, TriSummit Bank; Lorrie Cooper, AGC Flat Glass; Greg Boehling, Tennessee Electric; Barry Steadman, Steadman Design; Doug Bounds, Eastman Chemical; Terry Cunningham, Kingsport Housing and Redevelopment Authority; Dennis Spurgeon, Hertz; and Morris Baker, city of Kingsport. Returning board and executive committee members are E.G Souder, Phil Belcher, Alice Pope, Ron Bennett, Carolyn Pierson-Cook, Nigel House, Andy Wampler, Edna Kinner, Wanda Valentine, Mike Paulonis and Jim Nanney.
The Kingsport United Way will soon be the newest resident of Riverview, with new offices housed in a three-story office tower planned for the auditorium end of the old Douglass School-V.O. Dobbins Sr. Community Center.
The new board of directors of the United Way recently adopted a new mission, vision and core values for the organization. The new mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of the community to effectively address local health and human service needs. The vision is to be a model of excellence in achieving community health and human service solutions. The core values of the organization are caring, collaboration, excellence, integrity and service.
As folks in Riverview and South Central Kingsport already know, Van Dobbins, Jr. already fits these core values, and has for many years. We are proud of him. He is a fine example of volunteerism, humanitarianism, and philantropy in the community, but then as we remember, so was his father.
