Frank Beamer speaks at new community center

BY JOHN R. CRANE
Danville Register & Bee
Published: May 22, 2008

CHATHAM - The grand opening gala for the new community center here brought a sellout crowd Thursday night, with some groups paying up to $5,000 a table for a chance to see Virginia Tech head football coach Frank Beamer, who was the guest speaker.
“We’re absolutely sold out,” Chuck Warnock, president of Chatham Cares Inc., said just before festivities began. “As a matter of fact, we’re oversold. I may not even have a seat.”
Chatham Cares is the nonprofit organization operating the Community Center at Chatham. Warnock said 324 individual and group tickets were sold for the long-anticipated event. Attendees filled almost all 320 seats at the 40 tables for the dinner reception held in the center’s gymnasium. 
The gala also included a silent auction, a photo reception with Beamer, where participants had paid $100 to have their pictures taken with the popular football coach, and a general reception just before the dinner.
Some came from out of the area to meet Beamer.
Yanceyville, N.C., resident Ronnie Nines, 27, brought his friend, Paul Vernon, after Nines’ girlfriend bought two tickets but was unable to attend.
“So I got the extra ticket,” Vernon, 25, of Danville, said while waiting in line to be photographed with the coach.
Nines’ girlfriend bought the tickets as a birthday present for him, he said.
“I’m a longtime fan,” Nines said, adding that meeting Beamer is “pretty exciting.”
During the general reception, Gavin Saunders, Chatham Middle School seventh-grader and Boys & Girls Club member of the year for its Chatham unit, gave comments. Don Nodtvedt, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club for the Danville area, gave a presentation on the organization.
The Chatham Boys & Girls Club will move into the center in early June and be its anchor tenant, Warnock said.
During his speech, Beamer cracked a joke about one of the items up for auction.
“Was there one single bid for that N.C. (University of North Carolina) helmet?” Beamer said.
He also told a joke about the time when he was 7 years old and an Electrolux vacuum-cleaner salesman came to his family’s house in rural Fancy Gap. The man spread manure on the floor and said if the Electrolux can’t clean it up, he’ll eat it, Beamer said.
“My mother said, ‘You better get your knife and fork because we don’t have electricity in this house,’” he said. 
Beamer admonished attendees to rise above adversity and to remember that the amount of money one makes does not define success. He cited Tom Brady as an example, who once said that he didn’t need to be the highest-paid quarterback, he just liked playing for a team that allows him to win. 
In addition, winning is not the most important thing in the world, Beamer said.
“We all have the potential to be winners,” he said. “If you give it your best, that’s success.”
In addition, when it comes to leadership, building trust is paramount, he said.
“When the crisis comes, they better trust you,” Beamer said.
He also alluded to the April 16, 2007, shootings at Virginia Tech as an example of bouncing back from tragedy. Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react, he said.
The Danville Regional Foundation awarded a $3 million grant to Chatham Cares in 2006 to fund construction of the 16,000-square-foot building. Operating funds for the center will come from program fees, facility rental, grants and corporate and individual donations. Donations are tax-deductible.
A free open house was held for the public Monday. 
Contact John R. Crane at or (434) 791-7987.