Carolina Strong: Former teacher serves as longest volunteer at Harvey B. Gantt Center

It takes a lot of support to keep Charlotte’s museums and cultural centers up and running. One of the major components is support from volunteers.

Doris Boyd is one of the longest-serving volunteers at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture .

The Charlotte native spends time as a docent, a natural fit for the former teacher. She said she enjoys doing tours with students the most.

“I’m a teacher, and once a teacher, always a teacher,” Boyd told Channel 9.

She moved back to Charlotte around 2008 after time in the DC area and was looking for an arts and culture opportunity.

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“I was having some difficulty with, ‘Where’s the art? Where’s the museum?’” She said of looking for a place. “I knew about the Afro-American Cultural Center ... so I started volunteering there.”

That center, then housed at Little Rock AME Zion Church, would eventually become the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture.

“It is almost like she’s a staff member,” Carla Jarrett with the Gantt Center says, “she’s able to truly, you know, lift us up in the eyes of the community.”

Boyd says she sees her work here as a mission.

“Yeah, it is because I’m imparting information ... I’m giving out facts about life and art—the whole purpose of it is to transform or to change, and it changes individuals in some kind of way.

Every day, there are people across the Carolinas doing extraordinary things. They’re giving back, they’re helping each other, and they’re making a real difference. We’re highlighting the best in our community in our series, Carolina Strong.

Know somebody who’s making a positive impact? Let us know here .

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