ABBEVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 18, 2024--
Heroes walk among us, and today YellaWood, a trusted manufacturer of pressure treated lumber, wants to celebrate them with the launch of its Five-Star Hero Contest.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240418322513/en/
From April 18 to Aug. 16, fans can nominate their “unsung hero” for a chance to win a VIP experience of a lifetime: a trip to Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on Oct. 6 for the YellaWood 500. The “hero” and their nominator will win a prize package complete with suite tickets, hot laps, and VIP garage tours, with the hero serving as the honorary starter, waving the green flag to start the race. Airfare and lodging are also included.
Additionally, a $10,000 donation on behalf of the Hero will be made to a charity of choice.
“Ordinary folks do extraordinary things, and they deserve the recognition they might not always get,” said Jimmy Rane, CEO, Great Southern Wood Preserving. “Active-duty and retired military; law enforcement; medical professionals; helpful neighbors; heroic kids—a Five-Star Hero does remarkable things just by being themselves and putting others first, and YellaWood is proud to celebrate them.”
To enter, fans can visit www.YellaWoodHero.com to upload a video or essay nomination.
About Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated
Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated, was founded in 1970 in Abbeville, Ala. Today, Great Southern Wood and its subsidiaries employ 2,000 people who operate 37 distribution locations with a coverage area that covers all or parts of 28 states and the District of Columbia, as well as much of the Caribbean and Latin America, and part of the European Union, Mediterranean region and China. The company is best known to consumers as the maker of YellaWood® brand pressure treated pine. YellaWood® brand products are easily identifiable by a distinctive yellow tag and have long been recognized by consumers, professional builders, architects and specifiers for quality and dependability. Great Southern facilities service do-it-yourself retail home centers, pro dealers and other retail building-related and industrial segments. The company has also diversified into logistics, distribution of alternative building products, remanufacturing operations, sawmill operations and the restaurant business. For more information, visit YellaWood.com.
(Graphic: Business Wire)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A surprise announcement that revealed Haiti’s new prime minister is threatening to fracture a recently installed transitional council tasked with choosing new leaders for the gang-riddled Caribbean country.
Four of seven council members with voting powers said Tuesday that they had chosen Fritz Bélizaire as prime minister, taking many Haitians aback with their declaration and unexpected political alliance.
The council members who oppose Bélizaire, who served as Haiti’s sports minister during the second presidency of René Préval from 2006 to 2011, are now weighing options including fighting the decision or resigning from the council.
A person with direct knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified because negotiations are ongoing said the council’s political accord had been violated by the unexpected move and that some council members are considering other choices as potential prime minister.
The council on Tuesday was scheduled to hold an election and choose its president. But two hours and a profuse apology later, one council member said that not only a council president had been chosen, but a prime minister as well. Murmurs rippled through the room.
The Montana Accord, a civil society group represented by a council member with voting powers, denounced in a statement late Tuesday what it called a “complot” hatched by four council members against the Haitian people “in the middle of the night.”
“The political and economic mafia forces have decided to take control of the presidential council and the government so that they can continue to control the state,” the Montana Accord said.
Haitian politics have long been characterized by secretive dealings, but many worry the country cannot afford further political instability as gangs lay siege to the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.
“People change parties (like) they’re changing their shirts,” said François Pierre-Louis, a professor of political science at Queens College in New York and former Haitian politician.
He spoke during an online webinar on Tuesday evening.
Like others, he said he believed that Jean-Charles Moïse, a powerful politician who was a former senator and presidential candidate, was behind Bélizaire’s nomination.
“Interestingly, Moïse, of all the politicians there, is the one calling the shots,” Pierre-Louis said.
Moïse, however, does not sit on the council. His party, Pitit Desalin, is represented by Emmanuel Vertilaire, who is among the four council members who support Bélizaire.
The others are Louis Gérald Gilles, Smith Augustin and Edgard Leblanc Fils, the council’s new president.
They could not be immediately reached for comment.
A document shared with The Associated Press and signed by the four council members who chose the new prime minister state they have agreed to make decisions by consensus. The document is titled, “Constitution of an Indissoluble Majority Bloc within the Presidential Council.”
The move prompted the Fanmi Lavalas party to issue a statement Wednesday calling it a “masquerade” and “conspiracy” to guarantee that PHTK “thugs and their allies retain power…and continue the tradition of corruption.”
“The Lavalas Family strongly rejects the betrayal scandal that occurred on April 30,” the party said.
Fils represents the January 30 political group, which is made up of parties including PHTK, whose members include former President Michel Martelly and slain President Jovenel Moïse. Meanwhile, Augustin represents the EDE/RED political party, founded by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, and Gilles represents the Dec. 21 agreement, which is associated with f ormer Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who recently resigned.
Henry was on an official visit to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country when gangs in Haiti launched coordinated attacks starting Feb. 29.
They have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed since early March and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The violence continues unabated in certain part of Port-au-Prince, including the area around the National Palace.
Haitians are demanding that security be a top priority for the council, which is tasked with selecting a new prime minister and Cabinet, as well as prepare for eventual general elections.
But some Haitians are wary of the council and the decisions it’s taking.
Jean Selcé, a 57-year-old electrician, noted that most of the council members are longtime politicians: “Their past is not really positive.”
“I hope their mentality can change, but I don’t believe it will,” he said. “They don’t really love the country. Who’s dying right now? It’s Haitians like me.”
Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, noted that some of the parties represented on the council are responsible for the current chaos in Haiti.
“It’s a contradiction,” he said. “Every time we seem to be in a crisis, we reappoint the same people and hope that they change their ways, but they do not.”
Raising the same criticism is Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.”
He noted in a recent essay that the council is “dominated by the same political currents who have spent the last 25 years driving Haiti over a cliff, taking advantage of impoverished young men in the slums to be used as political bludgeons before - bloated on the proceeds from kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises - these groups outgrew the necessity of their patrons.”
More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured across Haiti from January to March, according to the U.N.
In addition, more than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month given the relentless gang violence.
Street vendors move their booth after gunshots broke out near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Police patrol near the National Palace amid the sound of gunshots in the distance in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
CORRECTS DAY - People run for cover as shots ring out near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Edgard Leblanc Fils speaks after the transitional council named him president of the council in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Transitional council member Frisnel Joseph speaks during a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
IDENTIFIES TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL MEMBERS - Transitional Council members, from left to right; Fritz Alphonse Jean, Laurent Saint-Cyr, Frinel Joseph, Edgard Leblanc Fils, Regine Abraham, Emmanuel Vertilaire, Smith Augustin, Leslie Voltaire and Louis Gerald Gilles, pose for a group photo after a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Fils was chosen as the president of the panel. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Edgard Leblanc Fils, left, and Smith Augustin prepare to pose for a group photo with the transitional council after it named Fils as its president in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
