Norwich — Business owner and former youth football coach Anthony Holland started asking questions several years ago about Norwich NAACP events and activities whenever the branch was quiet, and now he hopes to keep those marquee events going and expand the branch’s footprint in the community.

Holland, 51, of Lisbon, was sworn in Thursday evening as the Norwich NAACP branch president, succeeding Shiela Hayes. Hayes becomes the first vice president of the branch she has been active in for decades. Holland had been first vice president for the past three years. Hayes said her new responsibility will be to train younger members in leadership roles.

“I want to maintain the level we are at, and grow, fulfilling the needs of the community,” Holland said Thursday, “and continue our activist role for equality, not just for Black and brown people but for disabled people, elderly, anybody who has a need.”

The Norwich branch hosts several regular events, some of which continued in some form during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the annual Dr. Martin Luther King birthday luncheon and awards event, the Martin Luther King Day march and speaking program, the Sweet Potato Festival in February, the Juneteenth Day Festival and the annual Freedom fund Dinner.

Prior to the swearing-in ceremony Thursday, Hayes credited Holland’s work to ensure strong attendance at the Freedom Fund Dinner this year, bringing it back to “its glory days."

Along with Holland and Hayes, Norwich school board member Carline Charmelus was sworn in as second vice president, Celia Siefert as executive at large and Vouise Fonville as legal redress officer.

Holland has worked for the state Department of Transportation for the past 28 years, now as an investigator. He also owns Queen Bee’s Oil, Inc., which he founded in 2010. He is a life member of the Evans Memorial AME Zion Church in Norwich and currently is vice president of the church’s board of trustees.

He is a former coach and league president of Norwich Youth Football.

Holland said he wanted to become active in the NAACP several years ago and contacted then branch president Dianne Daniels to ask for advice and information. At the time, he said he “came around sporadically” to events and now wanted to get more involved.

On Nov. 5, 2016, he felt a change in his life.

“That’s when I turned my life over to Jesus,” he said. “I wanted more. I wanted to be better, wanted to be a positive influence in the community."

Holland credited his mother, Eva Holland for raising him and his brother right, stressing education and personal commitment. His mother stood by his side Thursday as he was sworn in as branch president by the Rev. Gregory Perry, a longtime branch member.

Hayes said the COVID-19 pandemic was a difficult time for the Norwich NAACP branch. The branch entered the pandemic with a vacancy in the president’s position for five or six months. That’s when Holland became Hayes’ first vice president.

“Anthony was new to the NAACP from an officer standpoint,” Hayes said. “His ability to learn quickly these past three years has been a blessing to me. We have done some great things. We have had some great programs, in spite of COVID. Virtual programs. We were first to all learn the virtual world.”

c.bessette@theday.com