It is with honor and excitement that we recognize Soror Cynthia Ashby as the 2021-22 Bloomington-Normal Alumnae Chapter’s Soror of the Year!

Soror Ashby is committed to the work and business of the Sorority.  She is present at the majority of chapter meetings and only misses if she is out of town or has a conflicting priority within another organization. Soror Ashby also attends Regional Conferences and National Conventions annually.  She willingly shares the knowledge obtained to ensure others growth and development continues within the organization. Soror Ashby has attended State Clusters, Statewide Founders Day Celebrations and regularly supports the events of surrounding Delta chapters. Soror Ashby is present and prepared for exec board meetings and regularly attends committee meetings where she contributes ideas and steps up as often as needed to coordinate and complete tasks.

Soror Ashby works tirelessly within the Bloomington-Normal Alumnae Chapter and also in other community organizations. She is a member of Mount Pisgah Baptist Church where she currently serves in a number of different ministries.  She is the Sunday School Superintendent, 25+ year member of the Adult Choir Ministry, volunteers weekly in the food pantry and serves in the kitchen during 1st Sunday Fellowship Dinner.

Soror Ashby is one of the steering committee members of the Mentoring and Providing Scholarships (MAPS) group and has served for many years in this role. She helps to organize the enrichment sessions for the students throughout the year. She is also instrumental in coordinating the end of the year celebration that brings all of the local African-American social and service organizations together to award scholarships to African-American students.

Throughout the pandemic, Soror Ashby continued to volunteer weekly at the food pantry to ensure food insecurities were being addressed by serving food to those in need. Many volunteers remained home during this time which put additional demands on the volunteer crew. Soror Ashby spent additional hours each week in the food pantry stocking shelves, packing food items for families and organizing inventory.

Soror Ashby is very giving and overly generous with others in both the Chapter and in the community. During the pandemic, Soror Ashby stepped up to assist our ERT Coordinator with shopping for and delivering groceries, cleaning supplies, and hot meals to Sorors and their family members who were directly impacted with COVID 19. Soror Ashby willingly offered financial assistance throughout the Sorority year to help with a number of different efforts.

In all of her community involvement, Soror Ashby is always looking out for the well-being of others and being a blessing to them. As Sunday School Superintendent, she agreed to deliver Sunday school books and other study material to her fellow church members throughout the pandemic. Her willingness to do this minimized the number of people having to travel to the church and decreased their risk for exposure to the virus.

There has only been one period of time, in over 25 years that I have known Soror Ashby, when I have not seen her dedicated to causes greater than herself.  Just a few short years ago, Soror Ashby suffered a stroke and lost some of the abilities that we take for granted daily.  During her recovery and as she continued to progress, she remained grounded in her Christian faith.  When Soror Ashby couldn’t physically “Walk by Faith” she did so spiritually, by praying and pressing her way, all while believing in God to be healed. While there is so much more that can be said about Soror Ashby and how she exemplifies the nine Cardinals virtues in her daily walk, one thing that you will hear consistently from her, her friends and family, is that she is a child of God and a proud Delta through and through.

Over the years, Soror Ashby has served in a number of leadership roles and supporting roles within the chapter.  She is eager to assist wherever it is possible and ensures that anyone coming after her is set up for success. Soror Ashby does an excellent job with documenting committee plans and actions by creating written processes and procedures for the work she has done within committees which is extremely necessary when transitioning roles and responsibilities. Over and over, she has proven to be a trusted, reliable and valued Soror and leader within our Chapter.

Soror Ashby is one who is willing to do many of the tasks that others shy away from, and she does it cheerfully. She currently serves as sergeant-at-arms within our chapter and maintains the chapter properties as the Chair of Ritual and Ceremonies. Because maintaining the chapter properties requires great dependability, it was very easy to agree that Soror Ashby would be best suited for this role.  She’s required to arrive early for all meetings and ceremonies to ensure the set-up is done prior to the start of meetings, and she stays late to gather the properties at the end.

Soror Ashby stepped forward once again during this year’s officer elections because the chapter is in need of an Internal Audit Chair for next sorority year and no one in the chapter had expressed an interest.  Although Soror Ashby is currently serving as a Committee Chair and on several different committees, she willingly complied and worked with the nominating committee to be slated on the ballot.

One of Soror Ashby’s greatest community achievements is being one of the founding members of the of the Mentoring and Providing Scholarships (MAPS) group that provides structured programming for high school seniors. Monthly enrichment sessions are coordinated and led by members of the Divine Nine organizations as well as college/university professionals. Soror Ashby’s involvement was instrumental in coordinating the end of the year celebration that brings all of the local African-American social and service organizations together to award scholarships to African-American students. While the total amount of scholarships awarded increases every year, this year students were awarded over $80,000 in scholarships.

Help us congratulate Soror Cynthia Ashby on this well-deserved honor and recognition as the Bloomington-Normal Alumnae Chapter’s 2021-2022 Soror of the Year!