Egremont — Sometimes people go through their entire lives without realizing they were born to lead. In the last few years, Egremont resident Ari B. Zorn reached just that conclusion.
A few years ago, he founded the Facebook page Friends of Smiley’s Pond, in which he updates friends about efforts to keep the pond’s environment healthy and its many animals free of danger. That move earned him a measure of regional recognition and the apt moniker of “Turtle Man.”
“Friends of Smiley’s Pond is what opened the door to all of this,” Zorn said in an interview: “All of a sudden, everybody reached out to me. I’m doing my best to roll with it.”
Now Zorn has turned his sights on leading the Berkshire County branch of an organization close to his heart: the NAACP. Zorn says he was approached by several people close to the organization to run for president of the branch, which has existed on and off since its founding in 1918.
Incumbent President Dennis L. Powell is running for reelection. The branch’s executive committee and its more than 800 members will vote electronically in the election Wednesday, Nov. 4, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“Growing up Black in America, I lived the experience,” Zorn said in a recent Edge interview. “I’ve just reached a point where I’ve realized that I am a leader. I’ve realized I’ve kind of found myself as a person and I want change. I no longer want to live in a world where I’m just someone sitting by who’s not doing anything.”
Zorn has a unique background. He was adopted as a child and raised by a white Jewish couple. His mother, Tama Zorn, is a civil rights attorney. His sister Megan Zorn, also an attorney, is vice president of DSZ, a government-contracted law firm.
After marrying his wife, Heidi, who is of German extraction, he eventually located and reconnected with his biological parents. Their daughter, Marley, has been active and vocal in the civil rights movement, speaking emotionally at a Great Barrington #BlackLivesMatter rally and protest against police brutality in June. Marley’s friend Calista Nelson organized the event.
“The youth is the future to this,” added Zorn, 53. “They’re smarter than we think.”
At that event, Powell, too, spoke movingly about the civil rights movement. But he also made some controversial remarks about the killing earlier this year of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, an event that sparked widespread racial unrest and strengthened the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Powell suggested that Israelis bore some responsibility for Floyd’s death because the techniques used by the Minneapolis police to subdue Floyd were the result of training by Israeli security forces, who use similar methods to subdue Palestinians. Powell’s comments prompted criticism, including letters to The Edge, and sparked a rift between the chapter and the Jewish community.
“I am a bridge between different cultures and people,” Zorn said. “My goal here is to unite people.”
The NAACP Berkshire County chapter had lain dormant since being deactivated in the 1990s, when a group of 13 residents met at the Second Congregational Church in Pittsfield — an event that eventually resulted in the reactivation of the branch in 2012 with Will Singleton as its president.
Zorn, who has been on the chapter’s executive committee for a year and half, said that, after the George Floyd killing, the chapter was flooded with new members, upping its membership from roughly 250 to 860.
“The main thing that I heard from several people was they said, ‘Okay, what can I do?’ And we had nothing for them,” Zorn observed. “The big question is what can I do, because people want to do something and I feel if it doesn’t happen soon, they’ll just fade right back and life goes on as usual.”
Zorn laid out his platform in a news release sent out this week. He wants to change the way power is shared by the chapter’s executive committee and rank-and-file membership, fully implement the strategic plan that was adopted in June, involve more chapter members in decision making and “empower women to have their fair share of power and in decision making” as well as strengthen the branch’s youth efforts. The series of goals also has timelines.
“The current way power is structured in the branch makes it impossible for these tasks to be handled equitably, fairly or efficiently,” Zorn said.
Zorn’s background is in culinary arts. He was for many years the chef-owner of the former Dos Amigos Mexican restaurant in Great Barrington and currently owns and operates Zorn Core Fitness in South Egremont. Zorn and his wife, Heidi, have also received a provisional license from the state Cannabis Control Commission to open a new cannabis business in South Egremont.
As stated on the provisional license, the Zorns’ goal for hiring staff is to “recruit 50% women, 25% minorities, 20% LGBTQ+, and 15% each of veterans, people with disabilities and economically-disadvantaged individuals.” The Zorns’ new crowd-funded company, Devine, also vowed to “recruit individuals from Pittsfield for its hiring initiative.”
“We are the role model of what the CCC was hoping for,” Zorn said.
Zorn declined to name names but said several people in the branch approached him about running for the presidency.
“People came to me and pledged their support to me. They said I was the one that had to do this,” said Zorn. “I’m an emotional guy and I’m really passionate, but I truly can’t believe that I’m in this moment.”
Zorn’s campaign can be reached at zorn4president@gmail.com. His Facebook page can be found here.
