By Pam Hersh Special Writer
Everyone is talking stimulus package these days. I have been part of at least a dozen community meetings in the past few weeks whose participants are counting on Daddy Warbucks/Uncle Sam to give them some economic recovery funds to help solve their budgetary problems — including their own personal credit card bills.
But the recent cacophony about the stimulus measures and the notorious bonuses has drowned out a symphony celebrating a different type of stimulus initiative in Princeton, one focused on the joys of community inclusion and starring former Princeton Township Mayor James Floyd Sr.
I became aware of the Princeton Community Stimulus Package at the Wycliffe Gordon Jazz Concert celebrating Black History Month that was presented by the Princeton Regional Schools on Feb. 28. For me, the concert served as the Spirit Recovery Act, boosting my spirit and those of the hundreds of audience members listening to the uplifting music.
The world-renowned Wycliffe Gordon Jazz Quartet, in conjunction with the John Witherspoon Middle School seventh- and eighth- grade jazz bands, plus the national-award winning Princeton High School Studio Band, put on a remarkable performance. The concert raised $10,000 for the Carver High School in New Orleans, still struggling with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
For the first time in weeks, I heard no angsting among my friends, colleagues and myself about loss of jobs and losses in the stock market.
Jim Floyd, who co- chaired the event with community activist Shirley Satterfield and John Witherspoon Middle School Principal William Johnson, was credited for selling the tickets to fill the auditorium. No one — including Pam Hersh — who was approached by Mr. Floyd could say “no” to him. The inspiration for the program was his wife of 62 years, Fannie E. Floyd, who died in September.
The Floyds, well-known jazz music aficionados, befriended Mr. Gordon years ago. That fact, along with the help of the Floyds’ granddaughter Isabel Floyd, who used to work for jazz icon Wynton Marsalis, convinced Mr. Gordon to participate in Princeton Regional School’s special Black History Month event.
But the benefit to the attendees was more than spectacular music. It was a celebration of community, bringing together the school community with community members having no connection to the schools, and Princeton’s African-American community with other Princeton communities.
“It blended sheer musical pleasure, with education, socialization, and philanthropy — representing aspects of life that Fannie, a Princeton High School alumna, treasured,” said Mr. Floyd.
A week later came another Floyd-generated mood stimulus. At the YWCA Tribute Awards dinner, Fannie Floyd was memorialized by the inaugural Fannie Floyd Racial Justice Award. The first recipient of what will be an annual award, Ms. Floyd had been devoting a lot of time and energy to work with the YWCA on the issue of inclusion, Mr. Floyd said.
“She was helping the Y reach out to those who are not as well off as we are. Her focus was to facilitate the process of the Y making a real connection to the community.”
The theme of community connection is the essence of two other Jim Floyd projects — the Albert Hinds’ memorial in the Hinds Plaza, as well as the Paul Robeson House restoration.
The Hinds memorial is to be a gate — a permanently open gate to represent Mr. Hinds welcoming and expansive role in community life. Mr. Floyd is adamant, however, that this gate should be simple. “Nothing expensive or elaborate,” he said, “just a symbol of Albert Hinds’ connection to the community. Anything more than that would be an inaccurate representation of the way he led his life.”
Mr. Floyd would like the same philosophy to permeate the Paul Robeson House renovation project, which is being undertaken by Witherspoon Presbyterian Church, which purchased and is now rehabilitating the Paul Robeson birth home at 110 Witherspoon St.
Sounding a familiar theme, Mr. Floyd noted that the house “should be a point of community collaboration, a center for volunteerism. It should have an archival and historic purpose as well, but it has to reflect the things to which Paul Robeson so passionately committed his life.”
When I spoke with Mr. Floyd he had only a few minutes to spare, because he was racing off to a lunch for yet another community stimulus event in Trenton.
Mr. Floyd has convinced me through his example that banking on community is the best investment — a triple A rating, in fact.
A longtime resident of Princeton, Pam Hersh is vice president for government and community affairs with Princeton HealthCare System. She is a former managing editor of The Princeton Packet

