JABA is honored to have two long-standing members of our Advisory Committee: Elva Key and Waltine Eubanks. Both Ms. Key and Ms. Eubanks provide wonderful role models of service and commitment to their communities. And we are glad to celebrate them! - Marta M. Keane, JABA CEO
Paul H. Cale Jr. (left) speaks with Waltine Eubanks before a meeting at the Albemarle County Office Building. Credit: Billy Jean Louis/Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Waltine Eubanks
Ms. Eubanks is a product of the Esmont community. She built her life on community service, as exemplified by her great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents. She has always lived in Esmont because she felt there was no other place more outstanding than her home town in Albemarle County.
Education was an important keystone for success in her family. She followed in the footsteps of her grandmother and aunt, graduating from Virginia State College. Ms. Eubanks taught elementary school in Nelson County while going to classes after work, on Saturdays, and summers at UVa to obtain her M.Ed. in elementary education. She taught for 22 years in Albemarle County.
Ms. Eubanks served on the Albemarle County Parks and Recreation Committee, and advocated for a community park in Esmont. She was president of the Southern Albemarle Community Health Advisory Council, which established a community health center in Esmont. As the patient load grew, she helped apply for a federal grant to relocate the center to a larger facility. Since her retirement in 2000, she has volunteered on the JABA Advisory Council for the betterment of “seasoned citizens” (her words).
She continues to serve her community through service hours at Esmont Community Senior Center, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, New Hope Baptist Church, the Community Advisory Council for Southern Albemarle County, and the Slave Descendants of President James Monroe’s Highlands Advisory Council.
Elva Key
Ms. Key is a lifelong native of Fluvanna County and has served from childhood as an active member of Evergreen Baptist Church. Together with her husband, Herman, Ms. Key supported and delivered Meals on Wheels. They also had a vested interest in the Charlottesville Cardinals Wheelchair Basketball Team, providing support at the local games and transportation to games.
She is proud to have worked as a secretary at Central Elementary School during the segregated and integrated school years. During those years, she feels she was able to effectively make a positive impact on children from all races and backgrounds in Fluvanna County. She diligently supported the Toy Drive at the school. Ms. Key, along with the past principal of Central, the late Paul Spraggs, Sr., was honored in 2019 with the naming of the Central Elementary School Auditorium as the Spraggs-Key Auditorium. This is great recognition of the impact she had at the school.
Her influence spread through her church community, teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir and serving as trustee. She has served on local committees and boards to influence changes within Fluvanna County, where her goal has always been to make it a better community for all people. Through her work with the JABA Advisory Council, she has influenced other members in her community to participate in the community senior center. She single-handedly built the attendance at the Kent Store program, often by offering friends rides. She was determined that her part of the county needed services that were closer to home and she made it happen.