He Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of the male perspective I am your host Lana Reid and today is another one of these wonderful days I get to sit down with another one of the amazing men of five Beta Sigma fraternity Incorporated today I have with me brother dontario Perkins he is
With the Wilmington sigmas down in north kakalaki and uh in a minute we will learn more about the work that they’ve got going on in their community and a few other things but first and foremost sir as I always do I take a quick moment
To pause and say thank you to you for making time for me today time is a gift once we give it we can’t get it back so I truly appreciate you setting aside this time to talk to me and with that sir welcome welcome to the show thanks
For having me I appreciate it awesome well as I always open up i’ like to ask how long have you been a sigma man and where did you pledge I’ve been in Sigma for 20 years um I pledged at a North Carolina West in college the alphab L
The chapter in the fall of 2003 so yeah this past November I just celebrated 20 years in the fall awesome 20 years you look have a baby face when you pledged when you were 10 or something I pledged when I when I was 19 okay okay years old
Solo yes ma’am okay well um I was born in North Carolina uh Winston Salem to be more specific and uh over the years growing up I heard a lot about uh Wilmington here and there and I think a lot of people don’t know it’s it’s very rich in history in Wilmington what is
Something about Wilmington people might not know okay so what people may not know everybody always talks about like here recently everybody always hears about the uh the uh Insurrection back in uh well January 6 so the first time that that ever happened the first successful cou d’ Tha in his United States actually
Occurred right here in wom North Carolina you know November 1898 um yeah all right so we have some folks uh rising up against the uh great uh United States of America and okay all right now that was that was I was thinking you were gonna say something like Michael
Jordan or something like that but I mean those are all things that are like people know F know about that you know okay you gave me some history now I’m G have to go ahead and rehearse uh research that one because I didn’t know that one okay so how long is Willington
Sigma’s been around in so our child was ched in uh November 1962 so we’ve been around for a while okay a few years before me okay all right so let me get into the community work that you gentlemen have been doing I because I only have a short amount of time and I
See that you guys are doing a lot so I have a few things that I wrote down um and I saw you were involved with this first one you were reading to some um Young Folks I saw you we had a had a reading day um we get together in the
Communities at one of the local churches here you know just take some opportunities to uh read to uh local Comm the kids and I really get a kick out of it you know I have two kids myself my children they enjoy reading so um it’s like being being at home oh do
You guys do that often so it’s like once a month um times you know we you know my one of my fraternity Brothers I sh the president he’s a teacher as well so I often go to his classroom and read I mean it’s always something the cameras
Are not always on but we’re always working in the community okay yeah you know and that’s one thing I think the black Greeks get a bad rap because they see uh the parties in the stepping but they don’t know that one of the fundamental core values is community
Service and giving back and right you know and that’s kind of like what I like to Spotlight and point out uh here with that and and this is another thing that I saw you involved with to kind of stress the community service you were involved in getting some blankets for
Some people some very needy people recently did I see that correctly yes you did um so I I I had this idea of you know there is a homeless population here in North Carolina which I feel like that’s throughout the United States but here in women to North Carolina in
Particular you know um our homeless population I feel like you know it’s often neglected so I just took it upon myself you know I brought it up to the chapter I said you know what we need to do something um and these are things that that we’ve done before one of our
Programs I know I did this undergrad as well we did something called Sleep out for the homeless where we literally sleep outside collect donations for um homeless Community where I did this on campus we actually even did it here in wilington as well as far our grad chapter uh actually assist our
Undergraduate chapter the UNCW and I’m just making sure that you know like they know they are seen heard and um and still look belong here in this world so anything I can do to address that any type of way but that’s just a small portion of my time I have no no problems
At all serving and helping somebody homeless population in Wilmington is it um I mean I know we’re struggling with this across the uh Nation here but is it getting kind of prevalant there I I just really wouldn’t perceive it to be um I I think I think
It’s a little more prevent than what people may may think um women C is it has become a a growing and and bustling city um but but with that you know it’s also become like more expensive for people to live so um a lot of times I
Think with housing and all this Ty things there even more expensive folks to find housing affordable housing so you know a lot of folks they tend to get left out so um like said I want to do my part to make sure that whether it’s a
Blanket whether it’s a meal what can I do to to help out so awesome okay okay how how large is the chapter about how many brothers are in the chapter um about about 20 in in the CH oh you guys are okay all right so that would explain
Why when I saw the pictures of the uh MLK parade your sisters just really outnumbered you guys oh yeah yeah I was uh absolutely and normally that’s um that’s usually how how that how that goes a lot of our brothers you know we are just like spread all over the place
You know what I mean so if we couldn’t make the parade I’m pretty sure we’re probably doing something else whether working spending time with family but anytime we get opportunity to get together we try to take advantage of that too so awesome awesome so uh mentioning your sisters uh the Zas I saw
Also that you partnered with them um with the organization and I might not say this correctly samara’s Village did you do something with them um so they they did uh this is the correct thing I’m thinking it was in reference to a they did a a diaper Drive what they like
Okay um diapers for needy children um within the community so again like there our sisters always doing some amazing work as well um see time we can get get together to um join forces that’s always good always a good time too okay okay now let me be a little nosy about
Because you you you’re trying to be very humble uh you’re trying to be very humble and I’m gonna see if I can pull it out here uh what is this 40 under 40 thing Mr Perkins oh man U you did do your research so so um yeah
40 under 40 that was uh that was an award that I was able to uh um receive in the um September of last year um yeah 40 under 40 is a something that was started here by the O Chamber of Commerce where they acknowledge young professionals and their contributions to
The community um I was fortunate enough to to win that like with my wife um which was you know super dope have my two babies there as actually witness that so that was a super excited to actually U have have that moment so kids got kids got some big footsteps
To follow in pops are setting the path right try my best try my best to so kind of go back there again what were the qualifications why did why did you get nominated for that is it your business efforts or your community efforts or so a a little bit of both um
So my um actually my my chapter president uh brother Nathaniel Johns he actually nominated me for the war and what they do is basically know Bas based on like your contributions like to the community whether it’s like through U your your 9 to5 UM your um your actual job your volunteer opportunities and
Stuff like that all of that kind of like goes into and they as um okay what are these people doing to um contribute to the community so I I I was I was fortunate enough to be one of the foring to to be named okay great great okay
Awesome I like that and I saw that had uh one of your brothers uh for only be 20 I you know because as I was looking I said it has to be a whole bunch of you guys but uh now that I see it’s only 20 one of your brothers is actually mayor
Pro tip yeah uh Reverend uh Clifford Barnett he y’ doing it y’all doing it down there okay trying to no not trying to y’all succeeding y’all succeeding okay okay and I do want to Circle back uh to the MLK thing because I forgot I just want to mention um you’re the guy
That was wearing some Chucks like you from LA or something that’s my part time did I see you rocking some Chucks some Chuck convers yeah matter of fact that’s the only pair of Chucks I’ve ever owned in my life a pair of customized Sigma Chucks yep okay we got to get you in
Some more okay I said okay he’s got that West Coast cl to okay now uh let me Circle back to the community service because you guys are just putting it down and I I do want to stress that um that that is the foundation principle of f sigas giv back to the
Community now I saw you guys were doing a uh Highway cleanup right so you guys have adopted a highway so if any of us are in the Wilmington area and have some trash uh which street will we be traveling down so that we know to keep the trash in our
Pocket and so we don’t have the Wilmington Sigma following behind us nor North cerry Avenue in womon North Carolina yeah okay please please keep that clean definitely keep it clean nor North Curry North Curry k e r r k e r okay all righty so we might have to get down
There all right so do you gentlemen um I think one of the uh initiatives of five Beta Sigma is uh you mentoring the youth what is it the sigma uh Sigma Beta Club do you have some young men down there that you or is it just go ahead no so
That that is one of our national programs as far as um mentoring our youth we we current don’t have an active chapter but all of us um at some point we all like me Mentor Youth um matter of fact my job here at the community
College I I serve as a uh as as a Min as an advocate in my current role now I’m being the director of our minority Student Center here so whether it’s College age kids you know teenagers middle schoolers kindergar anything we can do to be a positive light to our
Youth we we’re all forward okay so you’re at the college you’re at the college level do you um does your chapter are you advisers to some of the college undergrad chapters in the area or yes so I’m actually um we do have a chapter at UNCW University North CL
Wilmington um and I’m actually part of the grad advisor grad Advisory Board um for that for that chapter yes UNC Wilmington wow okay so it’s just one of the UNC campuses I never you guys okay wilington has got some stuff going on we we need to get down there and see what
You guys got going on yeah come on down okay well we talked about this before we got going could you could you step back because you got some gear on here that we need to see you rocking here can we can we get a shot there we go y’all got
Custom gear wilmingon North Carolina oh all right so where will the next uh Gathering large Gathering of the camans be your last one was it down in North Carolina yeah so we we hold a state conference every year um our uh Southeastern Regional Conference will be in Columbia
South Carolina um coming up next month and then our uh National concave will be um sched for Tampa Florida next year 2025 we going to Florida that it looks like it but I I don’t know just yet I don’t know we we we may switch that up you know Florida I
Don’t really think that’s the place to be right right now know right right now right now so um speak speaking of that uh you gentleman will be out in the Wilmington area shortly getting folks registered to vote and all of that yes absolutely absolutely uh our chapter secretary he’s also the uh vice
President of the naac no I’m sorry the president of the NAACP new hle County Branch here so you know we’re going be I’m assisting him with those efforts as far as get people out the vote absolutely so it sounds like the sigas in Wilmington are just running the whole
City You’ got the mayor protemp you got the y’all y’all got the other divine nine brothers down there doing it I mean they they are but you know Sigma leave you know defin no bias at all right no not at all not at all okay all right all right so
Let me ask you this because at this point in time in 2024 five Beta Sigma is global just across the globe um everywhere you go you have a brother has there been an experience or a moment uh where you said to yourself like you know
Wow I really do have a brother no matter where I go yeah definitely um there there’s been times I think was um even more so like just just traveling you know what I mean when you decide you know like me and my wife we like to go
Places um you know we get together we travel I was uh on the plane to Mexico for our anniversary in um September and sure enough we um doing the plane other brother with a sigma hat on you know we say hello um we speak or whatnot and I
Talked to him and his wife once he actually got off the plan they were there for their anniversary too I think they’ve been married like close to F years awesome so definitely like some goals to look forward to but you know yeah anywhere we go we’re pretty much
Know we’re got fra from C Toc as we like to say yeah I see you recently charted a chapter in Ghana awesome worldwide world is the wife is Zeta no my wife’s AKA ah okay okay met on campus huh met on campus no we actually
We met in high school oh we met in high school we met in high school I was a class ahead of her and we uh we started dating my freshman year of college pretty much like her senior year of high school um you know was kind of you know
Just love story from there awesome so she pledged before you uh no she actually played after me oh okay so what was it about uh 58 Sigma when you were uh doing your your undergrad work you said this is the place where I belong yeah so I uh you
Know I’m like I said like I told you before we started I’m from a small town so I didn’t really know a whole lot about Greek life and um I initially started my my college Journey Down in um Atlanta and I remember being when I was
In Atlanta I went to the BR University and when I was there you know just being around the city I I was just uh I was down in the uh the Au and I just see like this sea of like blue and white it really seemed like family so I started like asking
Questions um more so just doing like my own research what like I knew about fraternities um more so about Masons I like a lot of my uncles and cousins who were like Masons and whatnot um but as far as like Greek life I didn’t really
Know a whole lot but once I started to really like dive into it and start like research for myself I realized okay you know what I I like the principles Brotherhood scholarship Services more so about what can I add to Sigma as opposed to what can Sigma do for me I was like
You know what I think I found my place here and um I said once I went to Westland one of the first things I saw was a sigma play I okay well I know they on campus I didn’t even look them up before I even went to school there um I
Got there I saw the tag and I reach out to um someone in the Greek like office and they was like yeah you know know we have a um couple Brothers here on campus I can give them your information and I remember uh my DP at the time like he
Called me say man you know I just got your information you got time to meet I jumped up right then and took off man like it’s been history like since then yes so you’ve been around in the Brotherhood for like 20 years you said and FIB bet Sigma has changed over the
Years yeah um what differences have you noticed um well I guess one of the things you know as you get older you realize that you know once you you have a family of your own and these different things you I mean I heard it as an undergrad student you know the sigma is
A business but that doesn’t really register you know more like the social aspect of it right but then like once I got older you realize the way that we move and things that we’re doing like we’re a business we’re a brand and you know you want to do everything you can
To protect the name of signal to protect that brand so um that’s one of the things that I personally noticed as far as like my own personal growth and when you when you mature about how it’s my responsibility to make sure that the sigma brand is is upheld at the highest
Regard to so yeah you not only represent yourself you represent a whole brotherhood of people yeah I mean and that I mean that’s just such a Learning lesson I mean for us as the black community I heard that as as a young girl you know when you step out in the
House you represent all of us so it’s good that it’s reinforced reinforced there how has uh F Beta Sigma helped you uh in your growth as a man oh man so I was actually having this conversation with one of my a couple days ago um I think just in the fact of
Like just helping me and like pushing me in um like leadership opportunities help mature like in that way um naturally I feel like I’m I’m an introvert which just being like in a in a fraternity or whatnot but like to my core I’m fine being in the background I don’t have to
Be front and center like of atten but every job I’ve had every career move I’ve made it’s always required me to be like front and center you know so I think just you know I was young in fraternity I became chapter president um you know immediately after I cross I
Became like the dean of the line the next semester after me um you know even like I uh I chopped eyes with Dr newerk you know just really like just pushed me as far as like just hey man you need to come over here man learn how to like
Network you know like Congressman would come on campus for like voting opportunities or like talking to us he would always make sure that I was there to Usher or there like to sit at the table during the meal just kind of just helped me like learn how to like
Navigate the room like I said to my core I don’t like doing that but that’s one of the things that I I learn how to do and like just seeing like the value in that um it definitely help helped me to uh to mature and just realize that um
Not only like am I leader but I also like know how to lead when necessary awesome awesome awesome so will you be moving up aspirations to being District something this or another um Mr introvert I I I don’t know I uh you know I’m I’m the uh immediate past president
Of of the chapter now I served as president my undergrad chapter 2 currently the chapter Treasurer so you know I think after you know this current term is up I kind of want to just serve I don’t want a title like immediately you know what I mean fut holds you know
We we we’ll see we’ll see okay now um all organizations whether or not you’re Greek or not are struggling with maintaining membership you know and I see all of the Divine n is doing really being proactive about uh welcoming brothers and sisters back in whove not
Been active for a while what do you think are some of the reasons why somebody might pledge undergrad and then they just kind of become inactive over the years what contributes to that um I I think it could be a number of factors um I know like my myself personally you
Know after I graduated college um I was just trying to figure out like you know what I mean where you know you’re in college you’re in this like sweet spot as I like to call it like you’re an adult but you don’t have adult responsibilities so like a lot of times
You know when you’re when you’re once you graduate oh man okay I got this degree I need to figure out like what I’m gonna do now and while signal was always like priority but now you I gotta pay this rent so I might not have time to like road trip and all these
Different things I put in some application and figure out what I’m going to do so I think a lot of times you know different circumstances can kind of like play play a part in that but I think um overall um I just think sometimes you know just responsibilities
Life be lifing yeah life be life absolutely you mentioned you have two kids boys girls boy and a girl boy so is uh he already expressing that he wants to be a sigma man absolutely absolutely I have to send you a picture of my I got him a little future Sigma
Jersey and all we wait how old is he he’s five he’s go to Sigma Jersey he does it says future Sigma on it definitely he knows the letters all that yeah okay I mad at that I ain’t mad at that that’s cute that’s cute so what projects do you
It’s the beginning of 2024 what projects does the chapter have on the table that we should be expecting to see oh man so one of the things that that we’re working on is um you know we do a scholarship every year I’m just making sure you know we can uh
Assist you know some young person out there going to college um you know we always get that scholarship out we try to do two um in the fall and and the spring um you know going forward you know we’ll be doing some other uh community service um events out here I’m
Looking out for the home actually just talked to the owner of a restaurant matter of fact just just a few days ago about how we can collab he heard about my our blanket event so he’s like look I got this food truck yall want to partner
Definitely know what we can do so I mean that’s that that’s easy so anything we can do to kind of make life easier for folks we having a rough time and that’s that’s really the the goal and the focus so so now you gentlemen are doing all this community service and helping uh
Others what do you guys do as far as a Brotherhood to make sure each of you are pouring back into each other yeah so you know we we do this thing we call Fr Fridays so you on Fridays and we we kind of get together where there’s some type of
You know social outing we sit down you know we break bread and sometimes you know we make it a family event you know hey brothers bring your spouses you know your kids and we just kind of all get together and just make a whole life Family Affair so anything we can do like
Up uplift each other um I started this initiative when I was a president um It’s s like a one touch you know just look somebody reach out to somebody you normally don’t talk to try to do that on a weekly basis so with text message phone call hey let’s let’s meet up for
Lunch um just making sure you know like we’re all here for each other D that is so needed I was reading an article last week about United States is in a u serious epidemic of loneliness so that’s you know those types of things are very important you know people are struggling
With stuff and you never know what they’re struggling with so you need folks to check out check in with you so um sir I think I’m gonna ask you my random question did I miss anything because you know hey you guys are doing oh did I talk yeah I saw you guys
Had the uh mental health Expo did I I didn’t talk about that oh yeah yeah so um that was a couple weeks ago um we had a uh M health awareness Workshop where it was had about 40 black males in there that were actually like discussing um just like their mental health journey
And one of my Fred Brothers is a is a therapist up in Jacksonville uh we had another one who who attended virtually and like just to kind of get all these things out and just let know that it’s okay and it’s that’s been like one of
The things like once I started my own mental health Journey a few years ago and I started going to therapy um I’m just doing everything I can to actually like push that narrative for I actually have an as far as like History Month here at the college that I’m doing on
Monday actually called The Power of your truth yeah which I’m going to be doing that and talk about you know like past trauma and how instead of holding things in once you actually get it out how helpful that can actually be that’s right yeah that’s right I I I like that
I like that a lot and I do want to say as I was roaming around the pictures all the brothers seem very active engaged you know write notes and really learning were receiving the information and I mean that was just that was so precious you know because being from the south
And dealing with you Southern Brothers especially my older it’s really uncommon I I did not grow up with that so to see that now being more open to mental health Wellness I just I mean just just much we have to you know I’m I’m preaching all the time about
You know we always hear about generational curses right but nobody tells us about how to be the generational cure yes but we are all the walking cure for whatever it is that we dealt with like in our families just going to take us to actually like be the
Ones that’s going to do the heavy lifting to do that and I know like for me um I lost my dad two years ago from a major stroke um one of my favorite people in the world right and this is not one of those things where you know I
Didn’t just meet that guy when I was 21 you know what I mean from the time I was born until he left like you know I didn’t realize how uncommon that was until I was um undergrad my dad would come visit me man like all these dud
They’re just clamoring to my room oh like yeah what you talking about I didn’t just meet this dude you know what I mean so but it’s one of the things that I never saw him cry I never saw him have have any type of emotion I
Personally feel like you know my dad had a therapist or he had like some type of outlets where he can actually get stuff out I personally like that would have helped him you know just have like a long life you know so I’m doing everything I can to make sure my son
Knows that and my daughter that hey it’s okay for you to feel your feelings it’s okay that’s right it’s okay to feel sad crime does not make you weak but it does make you human that’s right that’s right know as black men we don’t of know we
Don’t get opportunity to be human I’m trying to do everything I can to make sure to let you know the Next Generation know my kids my family my brother um that is it’s okay to be human that’s right that’s right you stop carrying that lad that that contributes to um
High blood pressure and the diabetes and all of these these things that we see manifest itself in Black Men because we’re not coping with the mental health so I mean I just I was just so impressed when I saw that because you just have this large I mean and everybody was on
Notes and you know you were presentent active in there so hopefully this will be something that will happen again often yes yeah we definitely plan plan on doing it again absolutely awesome awesome okay well let me ask you my random question and then I’m going to
Let you go we should have had a little man here with his Sigma shirt on I can’t can’t believe that let’s see what we got he ain’t gonna be crushed if he comes and says he wants to be something else right no that’s that’s not happen no no no see what we
Got uh if you could pick one celebrity to have lunch or dinner with who would it be One Celebrity uh D that’s that’s tough I’m I’m I’m GNA go I’m gonna go off on on the limb here all because you know when I go to this dude’s concerts
Go to the shows it’s it’s always I feel like I I got know him for real you know so bit crit is one of my favorite artists right um so so if I could pick anybody to like sit down with have been with it probably be him yeah get out of
Here y that adds a whole another layer to Mr Perkinson okay well dear tell us how we uh connect with the Wilmington sigmas and your Facebook page that you have there um so we can find out more of what you guys got going on yeah so um just
Just that you know on Facebook womon signals Believe by Instagram handle is womon sigment as well so you can find out anything we have going on um on those two outlets as far as social media is concerned um yeah anything we have going on you just where you can find us
Here awesome awesome well sir I appreciate your time I more so appreciate the woman to sigas in my home state picking it up and putting it down and I will make sure I keep my trash in my hand the next time I’m down there on the what is it C appreciate that because
I ain’t gonna have you Brothers chasing me down no but anyways I appreciate you give my love to the rest of the chapter and I I just continue to doing amazing things you guys are doing in the community and um Kudos from Little me your North cakan absolutely thank you so much for
Having me today I appreciate it that is all for this week’s episode of the maale perspective I’m your host Lana Reed and I will see everybody next time n
source
