UTICA — Bernice Henderson’s many services to her community have been inspired by her devotion to her children, Cornhill activist Edward Jackson says.

Jackson nominated Henderson for the 2003 Accent on Excellence Awards and the program’s judges validated his judgment, selecting her as one of 10 young leaders to be honored this year.

“Mrs. Henderson has lived in Utica for over 20 years and has committed her time and energies to community development and empowerment issues for the past six years,” Jackson wrote in his nomination.

He also hinted that the next generation of Hendersons may be in line for similar honors down the road. “(She) is very active in the lives of her junior high children and encourages them to follow her lead in service to the community,” he said.

Jackson also ticked off a list of honors that Henderson has earned, including the Cornhill Community for Change 2000 Person of the Year Award and the Extra Mile Award form Cornell Cooperative Extension.

He said she is a founding member and current secretary of Cornhill Community for Change as well as its youth coordinator and grant writer. Henderson also is chairperson of the NAACP labor and industry committee, a board member of Abraham House and president and founder of the African American Alliance.

Henderson said she stays active because this is the community where she wants her children - Aisha, 18, Malcolm, 16, Akela, 15, and Alisha, 14 - to grow up.

“My children are definitely the motivator of whatever I do,” she said, but she praises others who have influenced her joy of working for her community.

“Six or seven years ago I was going through some personal things and my children were pre-teens and I was deeply involved in my church,” she said, “and my pastor (Suffragen Bishop Alvin J. Nelson) talked of people getting move involved in the community.”

She said Nelson inspired her to learn more about her community, and in short order, “I found out we had the NAACP and those types of organizations here that I didn’t know we had.”

Around the same time, Henderson said, “Utica Head Start and (its then-director) Mattie Brown put on a major meeting and that was the thing that made me say, ‘OK, I’m going to get involved in the black community.’”

And, of course, she added, “God has always been there for me.”

One of her first leadership roles grew from the meeting organized by Brown, she said, “And that’s how Cornhill Community for Change came about.”

Henderson said, “We created goals for the improvement of Cornhill,” many of them suggested by the central Utica neighborhood’s young people.

“My children are growing up in Cornhill,” she said, and her Steuben Street home is a magnet for their friends. While she is being recognized for her role in formal organizations, she said she relishes her informal neighborhood role.

“Everybody comes to my house,” she said. “They call me Miss Bernice, or Mom, one or the other.

“To see them mature into teenagers and young adults is awesome, and I’m glad I’m part of their development,” Henderson said.