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To the editor:

It is another political season, and we often see the best and the worst out of people. In most cases, we see the best of the candidates and the worst of the campaigns. I was first intrigued with the political scene while taking high school government. Our teacher, Mr. Haws, made it so interesting and taught us to look at the candidate and the facts at hand and how the facts are being portrayed by the candidates.

I currently live in the Sleepy Hole Borough of Suffolk. On the ballot for this fall’s election is an empty, vacated school board seat. I am proud to see on the ballot a former shipmate, whom I served in the U.S. Navy with, Mrs. Ebony Wright. Ebony was a young, passionate sailor on the USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71. She had a lot of drive, and I told someone, she is going to do something great one day, because she has passion and puts forth her best whenever she does something.

Many may not know Ebony’s passion for helping young people succeed started way before running for a seat on the school board.

Other than the fact that her children attended Suffolk Public Schools from elementary through high school, she has spent countless hours preparing students for entry into college. When parents could not take their children on college visits, she would put together teams to help her get those students to the campus visits.

Her passion for students led her to establish a 501(c)3 foundation in 2013, the S. Delois Mayes Scholarship Foundation. The foundation is named after her late sister, who passed away in a car accident shortly after graduating from Old Dominion University. The foundation has an annual scholarship banquet, where all proceeds go to Suffolk Public School seniors in the form of scholarships to attend the university or trade school of their choice. Three years after the establishment of the foundation, she added the Rosie Ellis-Fields Scholarship. This scholarship is for Suffolk Public Schools students who are going into the medical field. To date, if my research is correct, she and her foundation have given out just north of $65,000.

Ebony’s background in policy, budgeting and non-profit management in my eyes make her the perfect candidate for the School Board position. We have educators already on the board and they do the best they know to do; however, adding someone who has experience in the above areas mentioned will give a balance to the board.

I hope when we go to the polls on Nov. 2, that we will make the “Wright” choice, because this is the “Wright” time, to put someone on the board who is just “Wright” for the advancement of our children.

Cordel L. Garrett Sr.

Suffolk