{"id":55646,"date":"2025-05-19T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=54513"},"modified":"2025-05-19T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T10:00:00","slug":"mr-smooth-visits-gp-vanier-for-black-excellence-day-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=55646","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Smooth visits GP Vanier for Black Excellence Day event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;238&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;188&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Story by Journalism intern Paige Dillman<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>FALL RIVER: <\/strong>Georges P. Vanier Junior High in Fall River invited Mr. Smooth to celebrate Black Excellence Day, which was May 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vice Principal Damion Pollard said he invited Mr. Smooth because he believes it\u2019s important for students to recognize examples of black excellence in their backyard.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s the day of celebrating strength, resilience, growth and success, and what better way than to have a community connection that students have well identified come to the school, and show students that you can overcome anything and be successful,&#8221; said Pollard.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Smooth served hot dogs to all the classes of grades 6-8 and the GPV staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;31&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;148&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After all the food was passed out, students from the school were picked to interview Mr.Smooth owner Ron Beals and ask him questions about what it\u2019s like to be a black entrepreneur in Nova Scotia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beals said that the invites and questions mean a lot to him as a black entrepreneur.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI know some areas don\u2019t always see black excellence, so being at the school today is important to them and us.\u201d Beals said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He believes the best thing the kids can take away from the event is that they can do whatever they want if they put their mind to it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_0248-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-54582\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students are served up some food from Mr. Smooth as the Vipers mascot waves. (Dillman photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;7&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;127&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;206&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;238&#8243;] [adrotate banner=&#8221;188&#8243;] Story by Journalism intern Paige Dillman FALL RIVER: Georges P. Vanier Junior High in Fall River invited Mr. Smooth to celebrate Black Excellence Day, which was May 15.\u00a0 Vice Principal Damion Pollard said he invited Mr. Smooth because he believes it\u2019s important for students to recognize examples of black excellence in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[8366,2,8367,8289,8368],"class_list":["post-55646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-black-excellence-month","tag-fall-river","tag-food-truck","tag-georges-p-vanier-jr-high","tag-mr-smooth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}