Homegoing Celebration for Arianna Danne Sikes, Sunrise November 1, 1979, Sunset May 24, 2014, Friday, May 30, 2014, 11 a.m., Grace United Methodist Church 458 Ponce de Leon Avenue, NE, Atlanta, GA 30308, Pastor Kate Hurst Floyd, Senior Pastor, Rev. Tonya N. Lawrence, Associate Pastor

Pastor Kate Hurst Floyd Officiating
Prelude.......A Medley of Hymns.... Sue Goddard, Organist

Processionai ...................................................................The Family

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Greeting ........................................................Rev. Kate Hurst Floyd

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Hymn... ..........."God Will Take Care ofYou" ............ .. ... Hymnal, #130

Psalter Reading............... Psalm 23, in unison ............... Hymnal, #13 7

Old Testament, Isaiah 40 ............. Rev. Brian Tillman, Associate Pastor John's Creek United Methodist Church

Prayer and Lord's Prayer.........Evangelist B. Patricia Webb, Calvary United Methodist Church

Male Ensemble ...................... .. ............ "God's Unchanging Hands" Calvary United Methodist Church joshua Fleming, Accompanist

New Testament, John 14 ................................Minister Rori Blakeney Young Peoples Ministries Staff
Southeastern Jurisdiction, General Board of Discipleship Hymn...................."lt Is Well With My Soui"................ Hymnal, #377

Obituary (Read Silently)

Remarks

Mike Selleck

North Georgia Conference, United Methodist Church

Jamillah Smith Owens

The ADS Group, LLC

Dr. Henry Olonge

Clark Atlanta University

Carl Thomas

Berea College

Keisha Toms

U.S. State Department

Maisha Good

Family Friend

Marshall Thomas

Atlanta City Council

Proclamations and Resolutions

Barbara B. Washington

Family Acknowledgements and Poem

Male Ensemble

"God Is a Good God" Calvary United

Methodist Church

Eulogy ................................................... .. .. ... Rev. jasmine Smothers

Associate Director of Connectional Ministries

North Georgia Confererence, United Methodist Church

Song of Response........" l'd Rather Have Jesus Than Silver and Gold"

Benediction

Kirk Franklin

Recessional ............................. ...... ...... "Sanctuary" Randy Rothwell

Interment
Westview Cemetery 1680 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., SW
Atlanta, GA 3031 0
Repast
Calvary United Methodist Church 1471 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., SW
Atlanta, GA 3031 0
Flower Bearers
United Methodist Women, Calvary United Methodist Church
Pallbeare rs
Colin Dube Desmond Moore Damond Marks
Rajik Seldon Bem Joiner Cherokee Toms Todd Jordan Khari Jackson
Honorary Pallbearers
Godfathers of Arianna Danne Sikes
Acknowledgment
On behalf of the extended W. J. White family, we would like to
express our most earnest gratitude for all the gestures of love, kindness and support during this time of bereavement. We will always remember the many kind gestures of comfort that have been offered to us in the wake of Ari's transition. We will love Ari forever.
Special Appreciation Extended to:
The Spelman College Class of 1973 The St. Paul United Methodist Church Family, Meridian, MS The Calvary United Methodist Church Family, Atlanta, GA The Grace United Methodist Church Family, Atlanta, GA The Hapeville United Methodist Church Family, Hapeville, GA Christ the King Lutheran Church (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), Tupelo, MS The Southeastern Synod (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
Funeral Arr(lngements Entrusted To:
Will ie Watkins Funeral Home in Historic West End
1680 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., SW Atlanta, GA 30310

Homegoing Celebration Fo r

Sunrise November 1, 1979

Sunset May 24, 2014

Friday, May 30, 2014
11 a.m.
Grace United Methodist Church 458 Ponce de Leon Avenue, NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
Pastor Kate Hurst Floyd Senior Pastor
Rev. Tonya N. Lawrence Associate Pastor

Arianna Danne Sikes was born in Atlanta on November 1, 1979, the younger child of Dann and Janice White Sikes, and made her tran sition on May 24, 2014. Ari, as she was known by all, got her love for the community honestly. Her parents modeled civic engagement in the home. She started her life of community service as a five-year-old picking up litter in the Historic West End, helping her mother get West End designated as a Historic District through the State of Georgia, and she worked on election campaigns with her father, including those of President Jimmy Carter, Congressman John Lewis and Councilmember Cleta Winslow. As an adult, she became an active member of the Georgia Red Clay Democrats and campaigned for months in Ohio in 2004 during John Kerry's run for the White House.
She participated in the recycling program at Oglethorpe Elementary School and led protests for student rights at Inman Middle School. She fine-tuned her activist traits as a political science major on full academic scholarship at Berea College in Kentucky (graduating in 2002 ) and capped off a vibrant life by earning a Master's degree in Public Administration in 2010 from Clark Atlanta University (CAU ). Ari was inducted into the Public Administration Honor Society, Pi Alpha Alpha, while at CAU and also earned a certification in fundraising and philanthropy from Texas A & M University, the Bush School. At the time of her passing she was applying to graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to pursue her Ph.D. in Public Administration
While at Berea, Ari worked with women living in Appalachia in homes without running water, volunteered in the EcoVillage on campus and made reports on her varied outreach projects to the college's board of trustees. She found time to play soccer and the saxophone, passions she developed while a

student at Douglass High School in Atlanta. After graduation, Ari returned to Berea as an associate on the recruitment staff.
While working on her Master's degree, Ari became active with the National Forum of Black Public Administrators and played a vital role in planning its national conferences. Ari was secretary for the local chapter and in 2011, she graduated from the NFBPA Mentor Program, which paired her with a seasoned public administrator for a year and required that she do scholarly research that was presented at her graduation ceremony. Ari was also a member of the International City/ County Management Association.
Professionally, Ari worked at City Hall as a Policy Advisor and Senior Council Aide in District 4, the community she called home. In that capacity, she supervised a staff of 10 for shortand long-term community and business-related projects; served as the primary delegate for the Councilmember at budget, administrative, and policy hearings; created policy briefs; and managed the District budget. Ari left the City to work fulltime at the ADS Group LLC, a grant-writing company that she founded to serve the public interest. Some of its clients included the City of East Point, PrimeTrme Family Reading Trme and Susan G. Komen .
Continuing a family tradition as a lifelong United Methodist, Ari was active at Calvary United Methodist Church in the United Methodist Youth Fellowship, served as a statewide officer of the Conference Committee on Youth Ministry, completed the Youth Confirmation Class and worked summers as a youth counselor at Camp Glisson in Dahlonega, Georgia. As an adult, she was active in the United Methodist Women, serving on the Women's Delegation to the United Nations in New York and working in outreach programs at Calvary, Grace United Methodist Church and Hapeville United Methodist Church.

When Ari moved to East Point, she immediately jumped into community activism in her new neighborhood, serving as chair of the City's Cultural Enrichment Commission and a member of the Choice Neighborhoods Micro-Grant Selection Committee. Recently, she was elected to the board of the East Point Historical Society. Arianna's motto for life was, "To whom much is given, much is expected."
Ari was preceded in death by her father, Dann Sikes, her grandfather, Willie James White, and her grandmother, Mrs. Carrie Sweetwine Sikes. She leaves to mourn her passing and celebrate her bountiful legacy her mother, Janice White Sikes-Rogers, Tupelo, MS; stepfather, Rev. Willie Roy Rogers, Tupelo, MS; brother, Troy Eugene Sikes, Nashville, TN; stepbrother, Roy Rogers, Jr., San Francisco, CA; stepsister, Aimmie V. Rogers, San Francisco, CA; grandmother, Mrs. W. J. (Bonnye ) White, Meridian, MS; uncles AI White, Atlanta, GA; Glenn White (Tanya), Atlanta, GA; and Paul White, Meridian, MS; aunt, Fleda Mask jackson, and uncle, Duane Jackson, Atlanta, GA; special friend, Nathaniel Gibson, Riverdale, GA; great-aunt, Marceline White Rumble, Atlanta, GA; nephew, Rajik Seldon, Decatur, GA; cousins, Shakisha Raechelle LeFlore, Jackson, MS; Gloria Letrice Scott and James Allen Scott, Greenville, SC; Christopher James White, Meera Celine White and Indira Catherine White, Atlanta, GA; a host of cousins and relatives originating from Neshoba and Kemper counties in Mississippi and Moultrie, GA; other family members and friends.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the book fund in memory of Arianna Danne Sikes at the School of Public Policy, Clark Atlanta University, 223 James P. Brawley Drive, SW, Atlanta, GA 30314, c/ o Dr. Henry Olonge or to Berea College, 101 Chestnut Street, Berea, KY 40403, c/ o Carl Thomas.